to industry and friends, and distinction here, than pass your days in that odious country, and among that odious people. You can live in a thrifty moderate way, and thrift is decent here; and you cannot but distinguish yourself. You have the advantage to be a native of London; here you will be a freeman, and in Ireland a slave. Here your competitors will be strangers; there every rascal, your contemporary, will get over your head by the merit of party. Farewell again; though my head is now disturbed, yet I have had these thoughts about you long ago. FROM LORD BOLINGBROKE TO THE THREE YAHOOS* OF TWICKENHAM. JONATHAN, ALEXANDER, JOHN, † MOST EXCELLENT TRIUMVIRS OF PARNASSUS. THOUGH you are probably very indifferent where I am, or what I am doing, yet I resolve to believe the contrary. I persuade myself, that you have sent at least fifteen times within this fortnight to From this address to the three poets, then residing together, under the name of Yahoos, it is plain that Swift's manuscript of Gulliver's Travels had been canvassed by the brotherhood; and that Gay's ignorance with respect to the author, as expressed in his letter of 17th November 1726, was entirely affected. Yet Mr Sheridan, in his Life of Swift, seems to have thought that Gay and Pope were really under some doubt concerning the author of Gulliver's Travels upon the first appearance of that singular production. + John Gay.-H. Dawley farm, and that you are extremely mortified at my long silence. To relieve you therefore from this great anxiety of mind, I can do no less than write a few lines to you; and I please myself beforehand with the vast pleasure which this epistle must needs give you. That I may add to this pleasure, and give you further proofs of my beneficent temper, I will likewise inform you, that I shall be in your neighbourhood again by the end of next week; by which time I hope that Jonathan's imagination of business, will be succeeded by some imagination more becoming a professor of that divine science, la bagatelle. Adieu, Jonathan, Alexander, John! Mirth be with you. From the Banks of the Severn, TO DR SHERIDAN. July 27, 1726.+ I HAVE yours just now of the 19th, and the account you give me, is nothing but what I have some time expected with the utmost agonies; and there is one aggravation of constraint, that where I am I *The country residence of Lord Bolingbroke, near Cranford in Middlesex.-H. + This was written from Mr Pope's at Twickenham. But Swift's agony of mind, so forcibly expressed in the following letter, rendered him unable to bear the constraint which even Pope's society imposed on him, and shortly before his departure for Ireland, he left Twickenham and went into lodgings in Lon don. am forced to put on an easy countenance. It was at this time the best office your friendship could do, not to deceive me. I was violently bent all last year, as I believe you remember, that she should go to Montpellier, or Bath, or Tunbridge. I entreated, if there was no amendment, they might both come to London. But there was a fatality, although I indeed think her stamina could not last much longer, when I saw she could take no nourishment. I look upon this to be the greatest event that can ever happen to me; but all my preparations will not suffice to make me bear it like a philosopher, nor altogether like a Christian. There hath been the most intimate friendship between us from our childhood, and the greatest merit on her side, that ever was in one human creature toward another. Nay, if I were now near her, I would not see her; I could not behave myself tolerably, and should redouble her sorrow. Judge in what a temper of mind I write this. The very time I am writing, I conclude the fairest soul in the world hath left its body. Confusion! that I am this moment called down to a visitor, when I am in the country, and not in my power to deny myself. I have passed a very constrained hour, and now return to say I know not what. I have been long weary of the world, and shall for my small remainder of years be weary of life, having for ever lost that conversation, which could only make it tolerable. I fear while you are reading this, you will be shedding tears at her funeral : she loved you well, and a great share of the little merit I have with you, is owing to her solicitations. I writ to you about a week ago.* * *Soon after the date of this letter the Dean went back to Ire land; but Mrs Johnson recovering a moderate state of health, he returned again to England the beginning of the year 1727.-.-H. TO MR POPE. London, August 4, 1726. I HAD rather live in forty Irelands than under the frequent disquiets of hearing you are out of order. I always apprehend it most after a great dinner; for the least transgression of yours, if it be only two bits and one sup more than your stint, is a great debauch; for which you certainly pay more than those sots who are carried dead drunk to bed. My Lord Peterborow spoiled every body's dinner, but especially mine, with telling us that you were detained by sickness. Pray let me have three lines under any hand or pothook that will give me a better account of your health which concerns me more than others, because I love and esteem you for reasons that most others have little to do with, and would be the same although you had never touched a pen, further than with writing to me. I am gathering up my luggage, and preparing for my journey; I will endeavour to think of you as little as I can, and when I write to you, I will strive not to think of you: this I intend in return to your kindness; and further, I know nobody has dealt with me so cruelly as you, the consequences of which usage I fear will last as long as my life, for so long shall I be (in spite of my heart) Entirely yours, JON, SWIFT. TO MR WORRALL. London, August 6, 1726. Ar the same time that I had your letter, with the bill, (for which I thank you) I received another from Dr Sheridan, both full of the melancholy account of our friend. The doctor advises me to go over at the time I intended, which I now design to do, and to set out on Monday the fifteenth from hence. However, if any accident should happen to me, that you do not find me come over on the first of September, I would have you renew my license of absence from the second of September, which will be the day that my half year will be out: and since it is not likely that you can answer this, so as to reach me before I leave London, I desire you will write to me, directed to Mrs Kenah, in Chester, where I design to set up, and shall hardly be there in less than a fortnight from this time; and if I should then hear our friend was no more, I might probably be absent a month or two in some parts of Derbyshire or Wales. However, you need not renew the license till the first of September; and, if I come not, I will write to you from Chester. This unhappy affair is the greatest trial I ever had; and I think you are unhappy in having conversed so much with that person under such circumstances. Tell Dr Sheridan I had his letter, but care not to answer it. I wish you would give me your opinion, at Chester, whether I shall come over or not. I shall be there, God willing, on Thursday, the eighteenth instant. This is enough to say, in my present situation. I am, &c. JON. SWIFT. |