EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE, FROM LADY BETTY GERMAIN. : MAY 1, 1733. I SHOULD have answered yours of the 22d of March long ago, but that I have had some troubles and frights and the uneasiness I was under made me neglect what, at another time, would have been agreeable to myself; Mrs. Chamber's younger sister having had the small pox; but now perfectly well, though she has hitherto been a very puny sickly girl. Mrs. Floyd too has been excessively bad with her winter cough and disspiritedness; but country air, I think, has a little revived her. His grace of Dorset bids me present his humble service to you, and says, the rectory of Churchtown is at Mr. Stafford Lightburne's service. As to the Countess of Suffolk's affair in dispute, I cannot possibly (according to your own just rule) be angry, because I am in the right. It is you ought to be angry, and never forgive her, because you have been so much in the wrong, as to condemn her without the show of justice; and I wish with all my heart, as a judgment upon you, that you had seen her, as I did, when the news of your friend's VOL. XIII. B friend's death came; for though you are a proud parson, yet (give you, devil, your due) you are a sincere, good natured, honest one. I am extremely Mrs. Kelly's humble servant; but I will never believe she is more valued for her beauty and good qualities in Ireland, than she was in England. The excise you mention has caused great changes here. Some that I am sorry for; though I will not enter into the merits of the cause, because of my aversion to politicks. But if you did dislike it, why did you bestow such a costly funeral upon it, as to burn its bones on a sumptuous pile like a Roman emperor? Adieu, my ever honoured old friend; and do not let me see any more respects or ladyships from you. TO MR. POPE. DUBLIN, MAY 1, 1733. I ANSWER your letter the sooner because I have a particular reason for doing so. Some weeks ago came over a poem called, "The Life and Character "of Dr. Swift, written by himself." It was reprinted here, and is dedicated to you. It is grounded upon a maxim in Rochefoucault, and the dedication after a formal story says, that my manstory.says, ner of writing is to be found in every line. I believe I have told you, that I writ a year or two * Mr. Gay, N. ago ago near five hundred lines upon the same maxim in Rochefoucault, and was a long time about it, as that impostor says in his dedication, with many circumstances, all pure invention. I desire you to believe, and to tell my friends, that in this spurious piece there is not a single line, or bit of a line, or thought, any way resembling the genuine copy, any more than it does Virgil's Æneis, for I never gave a copy of mine, nor lent it out of my sight. And although I showed it to all common acquaintance indifferently, and some of them (especially one or two females) had got many lines by heart, here and there, and repeated them often; yet it happens that not one single line or thought is contained in this imposture, although it appears that they who counterfeited me, had heard of the true one. But even this trick shall not provoke me to print the true one, which indeed is not proper to be seen till I can be seen no more: I therefore desire you will undeceive my friends, and I will order an advertisement to be printed here, and transmit it to England, that every body may know the delusion, and acquit me, as I amn sure you must have done yourself, if you have read any part of it, which is mean and trivial, and full of that cant that I most despise: I would sink to be a vicar in Norfolk rather than be charged withi such a performance. Now I come to your letter. When I was of your age, I thought every day of death, but now every minute; and a continual giddy disorder more or less is a greater addition than that of my years. I cannot affirm that I pity our friend Gay, but I pity his friends, I pity you, and would at least equally pity myself, if I lived among you; because B 2 |