APPENDIX II. LETTERS FROM POPE TO SARAH, DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. REPRINTED FROM THE EIGHTH REPORT OF THE I HAVE arranged these letters, which are inserted in the Report of the Commission without any particular order, according to such internal evidence of date as they contain. Wherever Hooke's name is mentioned the date of the letter must lie between January, 1741, and February, 1742, as the Duchess did not make his acquaintance till after the former date, and quarrelled with him before the latter. Again it is evident that the letter dated "January 18th, London" (number 14) must have been written in a later year than that dated "January 19, Twitnam" (number 11), since both must have been written after 1741; and No. 11 obviously refers to the flutter among the Opposition caused by the approaching downfall of Walpole heralded by his loss of the Westminster Election in December, 1741, and by the decision of the House of Commons against the Court in the Berwick Election on January 19 (the date of Pope's letter), 1742. Assuming that the letters have been arranged with approximate correctness, we see that in 1741 Pope was actively and zealously engaged in endeavouring to procure for the Duchess the help of Hooke for the publication of her apology which the latter eventually prepared for her under the title of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough.' In 1742 the Duchess, who was evidently grateful for Pope's assistance, is seen to be warmly pressing upon him some pecuniary present, which he at first is equally steadfast in declining (Letter No. 13, dated Saturday Twitnam'), but which by January 18, 1743, he has been prevailed upon to accept. The correspondence continues through 1743 and perhaps into 1744, and the whole tenor of it makes it incredible that Pope should have intended to publish the character of Atossa as a satire upon the Duchess of Marlborough. It must therefore be accepted as an indirect demonstration that it was his intention, when the verses appeared, to proclaim them to be the portrait of Katherine, Duchess of Buckingham, with whom he had quarrelled, and who was already dead. 1. POPE TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. Aug. 13th, 1741. I DESIRE to address your Grace with all simplicity of heart like a poor Indian, and prefer my petition to you with an offering of my best fruits (all I am worth, for gold and silver I have none tho' the Indians had). Accept, therefore, of these pine-apples, and be so good as to let me follow them to Wimbledon next Sunday (for the day after I am to entertain some lawyers upon venison, if I can get it). I will trouble your Grace's coach no further than to fetch me at whatever hour that morning you like, and if you please I will bring with me a friend of my Lord Marchmont's and therefore of yours and mine. I have provided myself of some horses for my own chariot to bring me back. I could not postpone any longer this pleasure, since you gave me some hopes it was to lead to an honour I've so often been disappointed of, the seeing your Grace a few hours at Twickenham in my grotto. 2. POPE TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. Saturday. [1741.] YOUR letter is too good for one to answer, but not to acknowledge. I confine myself to one particular of it. I don't wonder some say you are mad, you act so contrary to the rest of the world, and it was the madman's argument for his own being sober, that the majority had prevailed and had locked up the few that were so. Horace (the first of the name, who was no fool') has settled this matter, and writ a whole discourse A stroke at Horace Walpole, brother of Sir Robert. to show that all folks are mad (even poets and kings not excepted), he only begs one favour, that the greater madmen would spare the lesser. the lesser. Would those whom your Grace has cause to complain of, and those whom we have all cause to complain of, but do so, not only you, and I, but the whole nation might be saved. Your present of a buck is indeed a proper one for an Indian, one of the true species of Indians (who seeks not for gold and silver but only for necessaries). But I must add, to my shame, I am one of that sort who at his heart loves bawbles better, and throws away his gold and silver for shells and glittering stones, as you will find when you see (for you must see) my Grotto. What then does your Grace think of bringing me back in your coach about five, and supping there, now the moonlight favours your return, by which means you will be tired of what you are now pleased to call good company, and I happy for six or seven hours together? In short I will put myself into your power to bring, send, or expel me back as you please. P.S.—The friend of Lord Marchmont is yours already, and cleared of all prepossessions, so that you can make no fresh conquests of him as you have of me.' 3. POPE TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. [1741.] I CAN say nothing to your Grace that is pretty or in the way of a wit, which I thank God was never the character of me in my writing. But I honestly thank you; you are directly kind to me, and I shall love you. This is very ill bred, but it is true and I cannot help it. The papers you favoured me with shew so much goodness, and so much frankness of nature, that I should be sorry you ever thought of writing them better, or of suffering any other to do so. In a word your conquest will be complete over me, but you conquer a cripple that would follow you, but cannot. You are the last person that shall ever see him sleep, tho' he has been, some years, Hooke is probably the friend referred to. fast asleep to all other great people. If your Grace dares to try next Saturday how long he can talk, at least in his own chair, pray come at any hour and see. I am to be from home till then, and then indeed Mr. Hooke and his daughter are to be here; so that if your Grace likes me best alone, I will wait for this pleasure any other day after Sunday, and will then return into your hand the very obliging deposit you intrusted me with, and which I esteem as I ought, a particular mark of the friendship your Grace honours me with. P.S.-It is so late, and my eyes so bad towards night, that I beg you to excuse what is hardly legible to my own. I hope in God it is more legible to yours, even at your age. 4. POPE TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. [1741.] YOUR Grace will excuse this short note. I was in town from Saturday last, and must be there again, (I fear) for two or three days more about a troublesome business of a relation of mine. I am not certain what day I shall be sent for, which makes me unwilling to name one, but I think I can come from Wimbledon to London some day next week, of which I will advertise your Grace. I will not go to Bath while you stay there, that I may have the more opportunitie of seeing you. I send the green book with many thanks by the bearer, which I have read over three times. I wish every body you love may love you, and am very sorry for every one that does not. 5. POPE TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. LONDON, Sept. 5 [1741]. I HAVE found it out of my power to get to your Grace from hence; therefore if you please to send for me to Twitnam on Tuesday evening, or to come thither any time that day I will be wholly in your disposal. Your Grace will find me upon further acquaintance really not worth all this trouble, but a little common honesty and common gratitude, for both which I have been often hated and often hurt. But if I preserve or obtain the good opinion of a few, and if your own in particular is added to that of those few, I shall be enough rewarded and enough satisfied. 6. POPE TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. Thursday night. [1741.] YOUR Grace's remembrance is doubly kind. I am still at Twitnam, but my friend comes whom I expected yesterday, and we set out next day I believe. I shall leave this place with true regret, but as you said you liked it so well as to call here in my absence, I have deputed one to be ready to receive you, whose company you own you like, and who I know likes yours to such a degree that I doubt whether he can be impartial enough to be your historian. Mr. Hook and his daughter (I hope) will use my house while your Grace is at Wimbledon. You see what artifices I use to be remembered by you. 7. POPE TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. BATH, Oct. 13th [1741]. I CAN tell your Grace nothing of myself so well worth your notice, or so much to my advantage, as that which the inclosed paper will shew you; that I am as mindful of your commands, absent or present, and as much your faithful servant at Bath as at Windsor. The inscription is the very best I can do in this sort of writing, which requires to be so short and so plain. If it can be mended, it must be by Mr. Hooke; but I will venture to say any wit would spoil it. And a writer of plain sense and judgment is as rare to be met with as a woman of plain sense and judgment. I hope you are as well as I left you. I am not, because I have left you, and I will add no compliments because I am truly yours, |