I know not whether he had not, in her turn, fome reason for complaint. A Letter was fent her, not fo much entreating as requiring her patronage of Mrs. Barber, an ingenious Irishwoman, who was then begging fubfcriptions for her Poems. To this Letter was subscribed the name of Swift, and it has all the appearances of his diction and fentiments; but it was not written in his hand, and had fome little improprieties. When he was charged with this Letter, he laid hold of the inaccuracies, and urged the improbability of the accufation; but never denied it: he fhuffles between cowardice and veracity, and talks big when he fays nothing.

He feemed defirous enough of recommencing courtier, and endeavoured to gain the kindness of Mrs. Howard, remembering what Mrs. Masham had performed in former times; but his flatteries were, like thofe of the other wits, unfuccefsful; the Lady either wanted power, or had no ambition of poetical immortality.

He was feized not long afterwards by a fit of giddiness, and again heard of the sickness

and

and danger of Mrs. Johnfon. He then left the house of Pope, as it feems, with very: little ceremony, finding that two fick friends cannot live together; and did not write to him till he found himself at Chester,

He returned to a home of forrow: poor Stella was finking into the grave, and, after a languishing delay of about two months, died in her forty-fourth year, on January 28, 1728. How much he wished her life, his papers tell us; nor can it be doubted that he dreaded the death of her whom he loved most, aggravated by the confcioufnefs that himself had haftened it,

Beauty and the power of pleafing, the greatest external advantages that woman can defire or poffefs, were fatal to the unfortunate Stella. The man whom she had the misfortune to love was, as Delany obferves, fond of fingularity, and defirous to make a mode of happiness for himself, out of the general course of things and order of Providence. From the time of her arrival in Ireland he feems refolved to keep her in his power, and therefore hindered a match fufficiently advan

E e 4

tageous,

tageous, by accumulating unreasonable demands, and prescribing conditions that could not be performed. While fhe was at her own difpofal he did not consider his poffeffion as fecure; refentment, ambition, or caprice, might feparate them; he was therefore refolved to make affurance double fure, and to appropriate her by a private marriage, to which he had annexed the expectation of all the pleasures of perfect friendship, without the uneasiness of conjugal restraint. But with this ftate poor Stella was not fatisfied; fhe never was treated as a wife, and to the world fhe had the appearance of a mistress. She lived fullenly on, in hope that in time he would own and receive her; but the time did not come till the change of his manners and depravation of his mind made her tell him, when he offered to acknowledge her, that it was too late. She then gave up herself to forrowful refentment, and died by the tyranny of him, by whom she was in the higheft degree loved and honoured.

What were her claims to this excentrick tenderness, by which the laws of Nature were violated to retain her, curiofity will enquire;

but

but how shall it be gratified? Swift was a lover; his teftimony may be fufpected. Delany and the Irish faw with Swift's eyes, and therefore add little confirmation. That fhe was virtuous, beautiful, and elegant, in a very high degree, fuch admiration from fuch a lover makes it very probable; but the had not much literature, for she could not fpell her own language; and of her wit, fo loudly vaunted, the fmart fayings which Swift has collected afford no fplendid fpecimen.

The reader of Swift's Letter to a Lady on her Marriage, may be allowed to doubt whether his opinion of female excellence ought implicitly to be admitted; for if his general thoughts on women were fuch as he exhibits, a very little sense in a Lady would enrapture, and a very little virtue would astonish him. Stella's fupremacy, therefore, was perhaps only local; she was great, because her affociates were little.

In fome Remarks lately published on the Life of Swift, this marriage is mentioned as fabulous, or doubtful; but, alas! poor Stella,

as

as Dr. Madden told me, related her melancholy ftory to Dr. Sheridan, when he attended her as a clergyman to prepare her for death; and Delany tells it not with doubt, but only with regret. Swift never mentioned her without a figh.

The rest of his life was spent in Ireland, in a country to which not even power almoft defpotick, nor flattery almoft idolatrous, could reconcile him. He fometimes wifhed to vifit England, but always found fome reafon of delay. He tells Pope, in the decline of life, that he hopes once more to fee him; but if not, fays he, we must part, as all human beings have parted.

After the death of Stella, his benevolence was contracted, and his severity exasperated; he drove his acquaintance from his table, and wondered why he was deferted. But he continued his attention to the publick, and wrote from time to time fuch directions, admonitions, or cenfures, as the various exigency of affairs, in his opinion, made proper; and nothing fell from his pen in vain.