LETTER XXXVIII. FROM MR. HILL. January 26, 1738-9. My letter, dear sir, had but the fate of its writer, when it laboured and longed to approach you, yet was kept distant by mistake and ill fortune. Yours has warmed me with the spirit of gratitude for a concern it expresses so kindly. But I will give up all pursuit of my Cæsar, since Mr. Mallet and Mr. Thomson, with the aid of such powerful assistants, found it a difficulty to engage the manager into the resolution that must have been due to their tragedies. The first of the gentlemen just named has obliged me, with uncommon delicacy, by an offer so generously made me, when his own play was finished and ready. This was an act of friendship, which I could not have deserved, if, as soon as I knew it, I had not from that moment declined any purpose of pressing the man of the stage about mine. Indeed, I should hate all the little I have of the poet, if I could not receive as much pleasure from another writer's success, as from my own; even were that other an enemy (of merit). But, since he is my friend, his success is my own, and as such I sincerely consider it. There is only one thought that disturbs me. The respect I would publicly pay to a great name, so known and so dear to you, is held back by this inaccessible retrenchment that the devil of dulness has thrown up round our theatres; for I would not trespass so far against custom, as to dedicate to so chosen a patron, a tragedy that had never been acted. I will therefore address to the same loved name some different subject, after having examined which of three or four I have long had in hand, may be found least unworthy his notice. Meanwhile, let my lord know, and let Mr. Pope know, that I look upon the kind things they have thought and expressed of my Cæsar, as more fame than a twenty nights' run at the playhouses. And so, wishing Mr. Mallet and Mr. Thomson the success which they are sure to deserve, I bid a hearty farewell to the stage, and only wish to be known, as, Dear Sir, Your most obliged servant, A. HILL. DEAR SIR, LETTER XXXIX. TO MR. HILL. London, Feb. 12, 1738-9. I HAVE felt an uneasiness of mind, occasioned by a conscious sense, how unequally I have expressed my anger and contempt at the treatment of your Cæsar by the man of the stage, ever since I last wrote to you; and a hundred interruptions from day to day (for I have lived in the world, and a busy and idle world both, it is) have ever since hindered me from enjoying one hour of collected thought. Yet I am the less concerned, since, by my delay, I can now tell you I have last night seen Mr. Mallet's play, the fifth act of which I had not before read, through those interruptions I have mentioned. It succeeded (hitherto at least, for yesterday was the first day) as well as I could expect; but so vilely acted in the women's parts and the men's (except two) that I wonder it could succeed. Mr. Thomson, after many shameful tricks from the manager, is determined to act his play at the other theatre, where the advantage lies as to the women, and the success of his will depend upon them. I heartily wish you would follow his example, that we might not be deprived of Cæsar. I have yet seen but three acts of Mr. Thomson's, but I am told, and believe by what I have seen, that it excels in the pathetic. The dignity of sentiment and grandeur of character will still be Cæsar's, as in his history, so in your poetry, superior to any. The person to whom you intended so great a compliment as to address that piece to his name, is very sensible of your delicate manner of thinking. He bids me assure you, his own knowledge of your intention is sufficient pleasure to him, and desires you would not think of doing him either favour or justice, till the world knows better how to do itself the former, in doing you the latter. He is still detained here by the perverseness of his affairs 3; and wishes, as I most heartily do also, that fortune did not treat you so much alike. The stage is as ungrateful to you, as his country to him: you are both sure of posterity, and may say in the mean time with Scipio, Ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem habeas! Believe me most truly, Sir, Your, &c. DEAR SIR, LETTER XL. FROM MR. HILL. Feb. 21, 1738-9. I AM obliged, both by your letter, and the good news it brought, of Mr. Mallet's success on the theatre. It is what I was sure he deserved; and, if I had, now and then, a moment's fear he might miss it, it was when I reflected how warmly I wished it him. If Mr. Thomson's new tragedy is to depend on his women performers, he has certainly judged well in his choice of the Covent Garden Theatre. There, or any where, may his best expectations be answered! I shall, 3 Bolingbroke meditated, at this time, a return to France. Pope estimated the opinion of posterity equally falsely in regard to Bolingbroke's politics and Hill's poetry.-Bowles. myself, have the less to complain of, when such justice is done where I reverence it. As for Cæsar, it was his fate to be ill understood; and it was his custom to forgive his detractors: only once when he fell into such freebooters' hands as have thought fit to restrain him at present, he broke a rule for the sake of mankind, and got them hanged for the good of the public. I am glad I have none of his power, since I am afraid I should use it profusely. It is a ridiculous world that we live in; yet, in spite of contempt one grows serious, when a fool that expects to be flattered is in a situation to insult his despisers. I will not disguise my own weakness; I am nettled at the treatment I have met with concerning this tragedy; but at the same time I confess that I ought not to be so: for you have been so good, as to declare yourself touched in my cause; and in that I have more than a recompense. I did not recollect, until you told it me, that the Gazetteers were printed by Mr. R: I am acquainted with none of their authors; not so much as with any one of their names; and, as to Mr. Rhimself, (among whose virtues I place it, that he knows and considers you rightly,) there should be nothing imputed to the printer, which is imposed for, not by him, on his papers, but was never impressed on his mind. I am very much mistaken in his character, or he is a plain-hearted, sensible, and good-natured, honest man. I believe, when there is any thing put into his presses, with a view to such infamous slander as that which you so justly despise, he himself is the only man wounded; for I think there is an openness in his spirit, that would even repel the profits of his business, when they were to be the consequence of making war upon excellence. In the mean time, give me leave to be glad you are slandered a little. Crimes deserve to be heartily pardoned, when they are the cause of producing great virtues; and, I am sure, one such generous example of charity, as that which you show in your letter, will, by the contagious effect of its beauty, carry influence enough to deface all the triumphs of a thousand heavy patterns of malice. Methinks I gather from a hint you but drop in your letter, that my silence would be the most acceptable compliment to a person I will not here mention. Be it so where we wish but to please, we are pleased even with the prohibition of our measures of pleasing. His worth cannot want such a witness as I am; and the respect I would pay it is too due to depend on his thoughts of, Dear Sir, Your faithful and obedient servant, A. HILL 1. 4 Hill takes a hint not to dedicate his Tragedy to Lord Bolingbroke. This seems also to have terminated the correspondence between him and Pope, without having left, on the mind of either of them, any very favourable impression towards the other. As far, at least, as respects Hill, this sufficiently appears from the following note, which concludes the correspondence between Pope and Hill, as given in the last edition by Mr. Bowles. 66 6 Notwithstanding the propriety, and even excellence of many of A. Hill's remarks in these letters, what we find in the late publication of Richardson's Letters,' decidedly proves that he was as insincere and gross in his flatteries, as any of the sentimental canting letter-writers of his own or any age. In a letter to Mr. Richardson immediately after Pope's death, he asserts that Pope's popularity arose, originally, from meditated, little, personal assiduities, and a certain bladdery swell of management. He did not blush to have the cunning to blow himself up by help of dull, unconscious instruments, whenever he would seem to sail as if his own wind moved him.'-'But rest his memory in peace! It will very rarely be disturbed by that time he himself is in ashes.' More of the same kind may be seen in that farrago of affectation, that monument erected to the dotage of Samuel Richardson; who appears to have agreed with Hill in his opinion of Pope, and with equal judgment consigned to oblivion the works of Fielding." |