and desired that his friend should use his genius to nobler ends. The great subject was already on the stocks. Bolingbroke had given the material for the didactic philosophical poem which was afterwards to be known as "The Essay on Man." In a letter to Swift dated November 9, Bolingbroke says that he has never quitted the design of collecting, revising, improving, and extending the historical materials which are still in his hands. Many important papers are lost, but he hopes to convey several great truths to posterity so clearly and authentically that the Burnets and Oldmixons of another day may rail, but not be able to deceive. "I have taken up more of this paper than belongs to me," he concludes, "since Pope is to write to you. No matter, for, upon recollection, the rules of proportion are not broken; he will say as much to you in one page as I have said in three. Bid him talk to you of the work he is about, I hope in good earnest. It is a fine one, and will be, in his hands, an original. His sole complaint is that he finds it too easy in the execution. This flatters his laziness. It flatters my judgment, who always thought that, universal as his talents are, this is eminently and peculiarly his, above all the writers I know, living or dead; I do not except Horace." 1 This is a joint letter, the first half being written by Bolingbroke, the second by Pope. VOL. II 3 CHAPTER XXXVIII 1730 "The Grub Street Journal"-The "One Epistle" -Hugh Bethel-Accident to Mrs. PopePope's Retired Life A SEVERE epidemic of influenza raged in the winter of 1729-30, and the mortality in London alone was stated to be at the rate of a thousand a week. Pope suffered from two attacks, which must have further weakened his frail constitution. Yet, with spirit undaunted, he continued his almost single-handed fight against the enemies that his own satire had conjured up. To aid him in his campaign, he started a new weekly, which was to be run almost entirely in his own interests. This was The Grub Street Journal, the first number of which appeared on January 8, 1730. The literary department of the new journal was supposed to be conducted by a society of critics, called "Knights of the Bathos." The secretary was "Mr. Bavius"; political articles were dealt with by "Mr. Quidnunc," poetry by " Mr. Poppy," and the historiographer was "Giles Blunderbuss." The ostensible editors of the journal were Dr. John Martyn, a Professor of Botany,' and Dr. Richard Russell, who was formerly identified with a well-known physician of that name. Recent researches, however, tend to prove that Russell was in reality one Russel, a non-juring clergyman, who lived in Smith Square, Westminster. There is little doubt that Savage also took a considerable share in the management of the paper. A part of the contents consisted of ordinary news, but the distinguishing feature of the journal was the large number of personal attacks, by means of letters, epigrams, and advertisements, that were levelled at the detractors of Pope." The fact of the poet's connection with The Grub Street Journal soon became an open secret, though his friends may have pretended to accept his disclaimers. Eustace Budgell, in his paper, The Bee, was frequently at loggerheads with his Grub Street contemporary, and openly names Pope-" that little envious animal "--as the author of the stinging epigrams and the inspirer of the libellous satires that appeared in the new weekly.3 1 He was Cambridge Professor of Botany. He published several botanical works, and also translations of Virgil's "Georgics" and "Bucolics." 2 Welsted, Moore-Smythe, and Dennis are those who received the chief share of attention, but in the earlier volumes of the journal there are many adverse criticisms of Fielding's farces. Fielding does not appear to have been the aggressor, but Pope disapproved of him partly on account of the indecency of his plays, and partly because he had attacked priests in The Old Debauchees 3 In the "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" the following couplet appears: Let Budgell charge low Grub Street on his quill, And write whate'er he please, except his will. In the course of the spring Moore-Smythe and Welsted published their satire, the "One Epistle,” which was a counterblast to the "Two Epistles," a poem in defence of Pope and all his works, published by Dr. Young. In their Preface Welsted and Moore-Smythe contradict Pope's statement that he never attacked any person who had not first attacked him. Several of the gentlemen satirised in the "Bathos" had never written a word against Pope, while those who only ventured to criticise his poetry had their moral characters traduced by him. In the versified "One Epistle" Pope is described as a bard who had explored each century's rubbish, and plundered every dunce that had written before Catching half-lines till the tuned verse went round, Having alienated his friends, cheated his collaborators," betrayed his patrons, and lampooned his God," there was only one course left open to the poet : When minor dunces cease at length their strife, By tricks sustained, in poet craft complete, Retire triumphant to thy T'wicknam seat; That seat, the work of half-paid, drudging Br-me, Pope tried to persuade Broome to defend him publicly against the accusation that the work done. on the "Odyssey" had been underpaid. "I was moved at nothing the scribblers said of you," he writes on May 2, "further than to a just desire of having it known that I had not engaged your pains for nothing, than which you are sensible there could not be any part more disreputable to me." After the lies trumped up against him by James Moore and other scoundrels in the "One Epistle," he feels that it would be but honourable in any fairminded man to contradict the charges publicly. For his own part, he knows himself to be an honest, high-principled man, but he will not stoop to answer the accusations, or to appear as his own defendant. The compliant Broome wrote some kind of acknowledgment that he was satisfied with the treatment he had received; but this probably did not go far enough for Pope, who in his next letter declares that his enemies are unworthy of a reply. "I take yours very kindly, and would make use of it against so lying a slander, did not my contempt of the liars prevail infinitely above my regard of what such fellows can say. Pope found himself compelled to write his own defence to the accusations brought against him in the "One Epistle." Two articles in The Grub Street Journal (May 14 and 21) deal with these charges, and were undoubtedly dictated by himself. He 1 The conductors of the journal invite any person of credit and character to stand forth and attest certain of the accusations brought forward in the "One Epistle." For example: "That Mr. P. ever writ or spoke complimentary or over-civilly of or to Chartres? "Would flatter Chartres or would libel Young. "That Mr. Fenton and he were ever at distance or variance with each other? "By Fenton left, by reverend linguists hated, Now learns to read the Greek he once translated. "That Mr. Addison, or any other but Mr. P., writ or altered one line of the Prologue to Cato: "Who Cato's muse with faithless sneers belied, |