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 'talk'd, what number of books you would have yourself, &c. I fcarce 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 don't fay this to the prejudice of the reft, but as I have read these oftner. Let me know how far my commiffion is to extend, and be confident of my 'punctual performance of whatever you enjoin. I must 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 op portunity of publishing 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 thall give all I ever intend to give, (which I'll beg yours and the Dean's acceptance of) you muft look on me no more a poet, but a plain commoner, who lives upon his own, and fears and flatters no man. I hope before 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 2

thân

* than it has been of late. I am fure my esteem and love for you never more deserved it from you, έ or more prompted it from you. I defired our friend Jervas, (in the greatest hurry of my bufinefs) to fay a great deal in my name, both to yourself and the Dean, and must once more repeat the affưrances to you both, of an unchanging friendship * and unalterable esteem. I am, dear Sir, most entirely

• Your affectionate,

• Faithful, obliged friend and fervant,

A. POPE.

From thefe 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 fpleen 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 satisfaction, in giving hideous defcriptions of the folitude to which he retired. It is faid of a famous painter, that being confined in prison for debt, his whole delight confifted in drawing the faces of his creditors in caricatura. It was juft fo with Parnell. From many of his unpublished pieces which I have seen, and from others that have appeared, it would feem, that fcarce a

bog

&

bog in his neighbourhood, was left without reproach, and fcarce a mountain reared its head unfung. "I can eafily," fays Pope, in one of his letters, in answer to a dreary description of Parnell's. " I

can easily image to my thoughts the folitary hours of your eremitical life in the mountains, "from fomething parallel to it in my own retirement at Binfield ;" and in another place; "We

are both miserably enough fituated, God knows ; "but of the two evils, I think the folitudes of the "South are to be preferred to the defarts of the "Weft." In this manner Pope answered him in the tone of his own complaints; and these descriptions of the imagined diftreffes of his fituation, ferved to give him a 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 himself, yet it was not fo 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 Englifh friends, he pretended to despise. In fact, his conduct, in this particular, was rather fplendid than wife; he had either loft the art to engage, or did not employ his skill, in fecuring

thofe

thofe more permanent, tho' more humble connexions, and facrificed for a 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 estate fomewhat impaired at his decease. As foon as ever he had collected in his annual revenues, he immediately set out for England, to enjoy the company of his dearest, friends, and laugh at the more prudent world that were minding bufinefs and gaining money. The friends, to whom, during the latter part of his life, to was chiefly attached, were Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Jervas, and Gay. Among these he was particularly happy, his mind was entirely at ease, and gave a loose to every harmless folly that came uppermoft. Indeed it was a fociety, in which of all others, a wife man might be moft foolish without incurring any danger of contempt. Perhaps the reader will be pleased to see a letter to him from a part of this junto, as there is fomething ftriking even in the levities of genius. It comes from Gay, Jervas, Arbuthnot, and Pope, affembled at a chophouse near the Exchange, and is as follows:

My dear SIR,

I

Was last fummer in Devonshire, and am this winter at Mrs. Bonyer's. In the fummer I ' wrote a poem, and in the winter I have publifhed it; which I have fent to you by Dr. Elwood. In the fummer I eat two dishes of toad-ftools of my own gathering, inftead of mushrooms; and in the winter I have been fick with wine, as I am at this time, bleffed be God for it, as I muft blefs God for all things. In the fummer I spoke truth to damfels; in the winter I told yes to ladies: Now you know where I have been, and what I have done. I fhall tell you what I intend to do the enfuing fummer; I propofe to do the fame thing I did laft, which was to meet you in any part of England, you would appoint; don't let me have two difappointments. I have longed to hear from you, and to that intent teazed you with three or four letters, but having no anfwer, I feared both yours and my letters might have mifcarried. I hope my performance will please the Dean, whom I often with for, and to whom I would have often wrote; but for the

fame reafons I neglected writing to you. I hope I need not tell you how I love you, and how glad I • fhall