degree impatient for your return, who at all times fhould have been fo (though never so much as fince I knew you in beft health here), but you have wrought feveral miracles upon our family; you ⚫ have made old people fond of a young and gay perfon, and inveterate papifts of a clergyman of the Church of England; even Nurfe herself is in danger of being in love in her old age, and (for all I know) would even marry Dennis for your fake, because he is your man, and loves his mafter. In 6 fhort, come down forthwith, or give me good reafons for delaying, though but for a day or two, by the next poft. If I find them juft, I will come up to you, though you know how precious my time is at prefent; my hours were never worth fo much money before; but perhaps you are not fenfible of this, who give away your own works. You are a generous author; I a hackney fcribbler; you a Grecian, and bred at a University; I a poor Eng'lifhman, of my own educating; you a reverend parfon, I a wag; in fhort, you are Dr. Parnelle (with an e at the end of your name) and I

6

Your most obliged and

'Affectionate friend and
• Faithful fervant,

'A. POPE.

My hearty fervice to the Dean, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Ford, and the true genuine fhepherd, J. Gay, ' of Devon. I expect him down with you.'

We may eafily perceive by this, that Parnell was not a little neceffary to Pope in conducting his tranflation; however, he has worded it fo ambiguoufly, that it is impoffible to bring the charge directly against him. But he is much more explicit, when he

mentions

mentions his friend Gay's obligations in another letter, which he takes no pains to conceal.

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' DEAR SIR,

'I WRITE to you with the fame warmth, the fame • zeal of good-will and friendship with which I used to converse with you two years ago, and can't think • myself abfent, when I feel you fo much at my heart; the picture of you, which Jervas brought me over, is infinitely lefs lively a representation than that I carry about with me, and which rifes to my mind • whenever I think of you. I have many an agreeable reverie through those woods and downs where ⚫ we once rambled together; my head is fometimes at the Bath, and fometimes at Letcomb, where the ⚫ Dean makes a great part of my imaginary entertainment, this being the cheapest way of treating me; I hope he will not be difpleafed at this manner of paying my refpects to him, inftead of following my friend Jervas's example, which to fay the truth, I have as much inclination to do as I want ability. 'I have been ever fince December last in greater variety of bufinefs than any fuch men as you (that is, divines and philofophers) can poffibly imagine a ⚫ reasonable creature capable of. Gay's play, among the reft, has coft much time and long fuffering, to ftem a tide of malice and party, that certain au⚫thors have raised againft it; the beft revenge upon 'fuch fellows is now in my hands, I mean your Zoilus, which really tranfcends the expectation I had conceived of it. I have put it into the prefs, beginning with the poem Batrachom: for you seem, by the first paragraph of the dedication to it, to defign to prefix the name of fome particular perfon. I beg therefore to know for whom you intend it, that the publication may not be delayed on this ac6. count,

* count, and this as foon as is poffible. Inform me ⚫ alfo upon what terms I am to deal with the bookfeller, and whether you defign the copy-money for Gay, as you formerly talked, what number of books you would have yourself, &c. I scarce fee any thing to be altered in this whole piece; in the poems you fent I will take the liberty you allow me the ftory of Pandora, and the Eclogue upon Health, are two of the most beautiful things I ever read. 'I do not say this to the prejudice of the reft, but as I have read thefe oftner. Let me know how farmy ⚫ commiffion is to extend, and be confident of my 'punctual performance of whatever you enjoin. I muft add a paragraph on this occafion in regard to Mr. Ward, whofe verfes have been a great pleasure to me; I will contrive they shall be fo to the world, whenever I can find a proper opportunity of pub'lishing them.

'I fhall very foon print an entire collection of my own madrigals, which I look upon as making my laft will and teftament, fince in it I fhall give all I ever intend to give, (which I'll beg your's and the 'Dean's acceptance of). You must look on me no more a poet, but a plain commoner, who lives upon his own, and fears and flatters no man. I hope be'fore I die to discharge the debt I owe to Homer, ' and get upon the whole juft fame enough to ferve for an annuity for my own time, though I leave nothing to pofterity.

I beg our correfpondence may be more frequent than it has been of late. I am fure my efteem and 'love for you never more deserved it from you, or more prompted it from you. I defired our friend Jervas (in the greatest hurry of my business) to fay a great deal in my name, both to yourself and the Dean, and muft once more repeat the af'furances

6

furances to you both, of an unchanging friend'fhip and unalterable efteem.

I am, dear Sir, moft entirely,
Your affectionate, faithful,
Obliged friend and fervant,
'A. POPE.'

From these letters to Parnell, we may conclude, as far as their teftimony can go, that he was an agreeable, a generous, and a fincere man. Indeed, he took care that his friends fhould always fee him to the best advantage; for, when he found his fits of spleen and uneafinefs, which fometimes lafted for weeks together, returning, he returned with all expedition to the remote parts of Ireland, and there made out a gloomy kind of fatisfaction, in giving hideous defcriptions of the folitude to which he retired. It is faid of a famous painter, that, being confined in prifon for debt, his whole delight confifted in drawing the faces of his creditors in caricatura. It was just fo with Parnell. From many of his unpublifhed pieces which I have feen, and from others that have appeared, it would feem, that scarcely a bog in his neighbourhood was left without reproach, and scarcely a mountain reared its head unfung. I can eafily,' fays Pope, in one of his letters, in anfwer to a dreary defcription of Parnell's, I can eafily image to my thoughts the folitary hours of your eremitical life in the mountains, from fome parallel to it in my own ' retirement at Binfield :' and in another place, We ' are both miferably enough fituated, God knows; 'but of the two evils, I think the folitudes of the South are to be preferred to the deferts of the West.' In this manner Pope answered him in the tone of his own complaints; and thefe defcriptions of the imagined diftrefs of his fituation ferved to give him á temporary

temporary relief: they threw off the blame from himself, and laid upon fortune and accident a wretchedness of his own creating.

But though this method of quarrelling in his poems with his fituation ferved to relieve himfelf, yet it was not eafily endured by the gentlemen of the neighbourhood, who did not care to confefs themselves his fellow-fufferers. He received many mortifications upon that account among them; for, being naturally fond of company, he could not endure to be without even theirs, which however, among his English friends, he pretended to defpife. In fact, his conduct, in this particular, was rather fplenetic than wife; he had either loft the art to engage, or did not employ his fkill in fecuring thofe more permanent, though more humble connexions, and facrificed for month or two in England, a whole year's happiness by his country fire-fide at home.

However, what he permitted the world to fee of his life was elegant and fplendid; his fortune (for a poet) was very confiderable, and it may eafily be fuppofed he lived to the very extent of it. The fact is, his expences were greater than his income, and his fucceffor found the eftate fomewhat impaired at his deceafe. As foon as ever he had collected in his annual revenues, he immediately fet out for England, to enjoy the company of his dearest friends, and laugh at the more prudent world that were minding business and gaining money. The friends to whom, during the latter part of his life, he was chiefly attached, were Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Jervas, and Gay. Among these he was particularly happy, his mind was entirely at eafe, and gave a loofe to every harmless folly that came uppermoft. Indeed, it was a fociety, in which, of all others, a wife man might be most foolish without incurring any danger or contempt. Perhaps the reader will be pleased to fee a letter to him from a part