the days. Friends rarely stretch their kindness so far as ten miles. My Lord Bolingbroke and Mr. Bethel have not forgotten to visit me: the rest (except Mrs. Blount once) were contented to send messages. I never passed so melancholy a time, and now Mr. Congreve's death touches me nearly. It was twenty years and more that I have known him: Every year carries away something dear with it, till we outlive all tenderness, and become wretched individuals again as we begun. Adieu! This is my birth-day, and this is my reflection upon it. With added days if life give nothing new, Your, &c. Our Author's great regard for Congrete appears from his having dedicated to him, in preference to any great Patron, his translation of the Iliad. One of the most singular circumstances in the life of Congreve is, his having been able to write such a comedy as the Old Bachelor, at the age of nineteen. Dr. Johnson accounts for this extraordinary phenomenon in the history of Literature, by saying it might be done by a mind vigorous and acute, and furnished with comic characters by the perusal of other poets, without much actual commerce with mankind. And then he afterward adds, in direct and palpable contradiction of this assertion, "that he is an original writer, who borrowed neither the models of his plots, nor the manner of his dialogue." The inexhausted and improper superabundance of his wit, on all subjects and occasions, and in all characters (for Jeremy is as witty as his Master, Valentine), has been too often observed to be here mentioned. The Mourning Bride has been magnified, beyond its merits, by Lord Kaimes; and Dr. Johnson has strained an encomium on a speech of Almeria, in this tragedy, so high, as to say, that a more poetical paragraph cannot be selected from the whole mass of English Poetry. One passage in this speech must be noticed for LETTER XIV. TO THE HONOURABLE MRS. June 20. WE cannot omit taking this occasion to congratulate you upon the encrease of your family, for your cow is this morning very happily delivered of the better sort, I mean a female calf; she is as like her mother as she can stare. All Knights Errants' Palfreys were distinguished by lofty names; we see no reason why a Pastoral Lady's sheep and calves should want names of the softer sounds: we have therefore given her the name of Cæsar's wife, Calfurnia: imagining, that as Romulus and Remus were suckled by a wolf, this Roman Lady was suckled by a cow, from whence she took that name. In order to celebrate this birth-day, we had a cold dinner at Marble-hill". Mrs. Susan offered us wine upon the occasion, and upon such an occasion we could not refuse it. Our entertainment consisted of flesh and fish, and the lettuce of a Greek island called Cos. We have some thoughts of dining there to-morrow, to celebrate the day after the birth-day, and on Friday to celebrate the day after that, where we intend to entertain Dean Swift; because we think your hall the most delight its affectation: She says, "The Temple in which the scene lies, is so solemn and awful, that it looks tranquillity." How different in style and manner, are the brilliant sallies in Congreve's comedies, from the purity, justness, and truth, of Terence, and the Drummer! 7 Mrs. Howard's house. W. ful room in the world, except that where you are. If it was not for you, we would forswear all Courts; and really it is the most mortifying thing in nature, that we can neither get into the Court to live with you, nor you get into the country to live with us; so we will take up with what we can get that bebelongs to you, and make ourselves as happy as we can in your house. I hope we shall be brought into no worse company, when you all come to Richmond; for whatever our friend Gay may wish as to getting into Court, I disclaim it, and desire to see nothing of the Court but yourself, being wholly and solely LETTER XV. Your, etc. July 21. You have the same share in my memory that good things generally have; I always know (whenever I reflect) that you should be in my mind; only I reflect too seldom. However, you ought to allow me the indulgence I allow all my friends (and if I did not, they would take it) in consideration that they have other avocations, which may prevent the proofs of their remembering me, though they preserve for me all the friendship and good-will which I deserve from them. In like manner I expect from you, that my past life of twenty years may be set against the omission of (perhaps) one month; and if you complain of this to any other, 'tis you are in the spleen, and not I in the wrong. If you think this letter splenetic, consider I have just received the news of the death of a friend, whom I esteemed almost as many years as you; poor Fenton. He died at Easthamstead, "On occasion of his death, our Author wrote the following Letter to Mr. Broome, at Pulham, Norfolk, which is here inserted, because it contains some curious particulars : "DEAR SIR, "I intended to write to you on this melancholy subject, the death of Mr. Fenton, before y's came; but stay'd to have informed myself & you of ye circumstances of it. All I hear is, that he felt a Gradual Decay, though so early in Life, & was declining for 5 or 6 months. It was not, as I apprehended, the Gout in his Stomach, but I believe rather a Complication first of Gross Humors, as he was naturally corpulent, not discharging themselves, as he used no sort of Exercise. No man better bore ye approaches of his Dissolution (as I am told) or with less ostentation yielded up his Being. The great Modesty wch you know was natural to him, and ye great Contempt he had for all Sorts of Vanity & Parade, never appear'd more than in his last moments: He had a conscious Satisfaction (no doubt) in acting right, in feeling himself honest, true, & unpretending to more Ithan was his own. So he dyed, as he lived, with that secret, yet sufficient, Contentment. "As to any Papers left behind him, I dare say they can be but few; for this reason, He never wrote out of Vanity, or thought much of the Applause of Men. I know an Instance where he did his utmost to conceal his own merit that way; and if we join to this his natural Love of Ease, I fancy we must expect little of this sort at least I hear of none except some few further remarks on Waller, (wch his cautious integrity made him leave an order to be given to Mr. Tonson,) and perhaps, tho' 'tis many years since I saw it, a Translation of ye first Book of Oppian. He had begun a Tragedy of Dion, but made small progress in it. "As to his other affairs, he died poor, but honest, leaving no debts, or legacies; except of a few pds to Mr. Trumbull and my Lady, in token of respect, gratefulness, & mutual esteem. "I shall with pleasure take upon me to draw this amiable, quiet, deserving, unpretending, Christian and Philosophical character, in His Epitaph. There Truth may be spoken in a few of indolence and inactivity; let it not be your fate, but use exercise. I hope the Dutchess will take care of you in this respect, and either make you gallop after her, or teize you enough at home to serve instead of exercise abroad. Mrs. Howard is so concerned about you, and so angry at me for not writing to you, and at Mrs. Blount for not doing the same, that I am piqued with jealousy and envy at you, and hate you as much as if you had a great place at court; which you will confess a proper cause of envy and hatred, in any Poet militant or unpensioned. But to set matters even, I own I love you; and own, I am, as I ever was, and just as I ever shall be, Your, etc. words: as for Flourish, & Oratory, & Poetry, I leave them to younger and more lively Writers, such as love writing for writing sake, & wd rather show their own fine Parts, y" Report the va luable ones of any other man. So the Elegy I renounce. "I condole with you from my heart, on the loss of so worthy a man, and a Friend to us both. Now he is gone, I must tell you he has done you many a good office, & set your character in ye fairest light, to some who either mistook you, or knew you not. I doubt not he has done the same for me. "Adieu: Let us love his Memory, and profit by his example. I am very sincerely, dear Sir, "Your affectionate " & real Servant, Aug. 29th 1730. "A. POPE." • Of Queensberry. W. |