have represented to her, that an inscription in the ancient way, plain, pompous, yet modest, will be the most uncommon, and therefore the most distinguishing manner of doing it. And so, I hope, she will be satisfied, the Duke's honour be preserved, and my integrity also: which is too sacred a thing to be forfeited, in consideration of any little (or what people of quality may call great) honour or distinction whatever, which those of their rank can bestow on one of mine; and which indeed they are apt to over-rate, but never so much, as when they imagine us under any obligation to say one untrue word in their favour. I can only thank you, my lord, for the kind transition you make from common business, to that which is the only real business of every reasonable creature. Indeed I think more of it than you imagine, though not so much as I ought. I am pleased with those Latin verses extremely, which are so very good that I thought them yours, till you called them an Horatian Cento, and then I recollected the disjecta membra poetæ. I will not pretend I am so totally in those sentiments which you compliment me with, as I yet hope to be: you tell me I have them, as the civilest method to put me in mind how much it fits me to have them. I ought, first, to prepare my mind by a better knowledge even of good profane writers, especially the moralists, &c. before I can be worthy of tasting that supreme of books, and sublime of all writings; in which, as in all the intermediate ones, you may (if your friendship and charity toward me continue so far) be the best guide to Your, &c.* LETTER XX. FROM THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. July 30, 1722. HAVE written to the duchess just as you desired, and referred her to our meeting in town for a further account of it. I have done it the rather because your opinion in the case is sincerely mine; and if it had not been so, you yourself should not have induced me to give it. Whether, and how far she will acquiesce in it, I cannot say, espe For some remarks on the subject alluded to in the latter part of this letter, the reader may refer to the Life of Pope, prefixed to this edition, chap. iv. and v. The Duchess of Buckingham. Warburton. Of this lady the late Lord Orford has left a very amusing character, in his Reminiscences. The following anecdote relates to the subject of her correspondence with Atterbury and Pope. She made a funeral for her husband, as splendid as that of the great Marlborough. She renewed that pageant for her only son, a weak lad, who died under age, and for herself; and prepared and decorated waxen dolls of him, and of herself, to be exhibited in glass-cases in Westminster Abbey. It was for the procession at her son's burial, that she wrote to old Sarah of Marlborough, to borrow the triumphal car that had transported the corpse of the duke. "It carried my Lord Marlborough," replied the other, "and shall never be used for any body else." "I have consulted the undertaker," replied the Duchess of Buckingham, "and he tells me I may have a finer for twenty pounds." Orford's Works, vol. iv. p. 317. C. Bowles. cially in a case where she thinks the duke's honour concerned; but should she seem to persist a little at present, her good sense (which I depend upon) will afterwards satisfy her that we are in the right. I go to-morrow to the deanery, and, I believe, I shall stay there, till I have said dust to dust, and shut up that last scene* of pompous vanity.† * This was the funeral of the Duke of Marlborough, at which the Bishop officiated as Dean of Westminster, in Aug. 1722. Pope. + His portrait has been elegantly drawn by Lord Chesterfield. "Of all the men I ever knew in my life (and I knew him extremely well,) the late Duke of Marlborough possessed the graces in the highest degree, not to say engrossed them and indeed he got the most by them; for I will venture (contrary to the custom of profound historians, who always assign deep causes for great events) to ascribe the better half of the Duke of Marlborough's greatness and riches to those graces. He was eminently illiterate; wrote bad English, and spelled it still worse. He had no share of what is commonly called parts; that is, he had no brightness, nothing shining in his genius. He had, most undoubtedly, an excellent good plain understanding, with sound judgment. But these alone would probably have raised him but something higher than they found him, which was page to King James II.'s Queen. There the graces protected and promoted him; for while he was ensign of the Guards, the Duchess of Cleveland, then favourite mistress to king Charles II. struck by those very graces, gave him five thousand pounds; with which he immediately bought an annuity for his life, of five hundred pounds a-year, of my grandfather, Halifax; which was the foundation of his subsequent fortunes. His figure was beautiful; but his manner was irresistible by either man or woman. It was by this engaging, graceful manner, that he was enabled, during all his wars, to connect the various and jarring powers of the Grand Alliance, and to carry them on to the main object of the war, notwithstanding their private and separate views, jealousies, and wrong-headednesses. Whatever court he went to, (and he was often obliged to go him It is a great while for me to stay there at this time of year and I know I shall often say to myself, while I am expecting the funeral : O Rus, quando ego te aspiciam! quandoque licebit In that case I shall fancy I hear the ghost of the dead, thus entreating me : At tu sacratæ ne parce malignus arenæ Ossibus et capiti inhumato Particulam dare Quanquam festinas, non est mora longa; licebit, There is an answer for me somewhere in Hamlet to this request, which you remember, though I do not. Poor ghost! thou shalt be satisfied!or something like it. However that be, take care self to some resty and refractory ones,) he as constantly prevailed, and brought them into his measures." Warton. * This Letter, as indeed are many of them, is crowded, even to affectation, with very trite quotations from Horace and Virgil. The Bishop appears to have been rather a polite than profound scholar. One of his best compositions is a Preface to Waller's Poems, written 1690; in which is a rational and powerful defence of blank verse, and one of the earliest encomiums on the Paradise Lost; which HE, and not Lord Somers, had the great merit of procuring to be printed in folio by subscription. He wrote a large part of Boyle's Dissertation on Phalaris, against Bentley; but complained afterwards of the coldness and ingratitude with which his labours, on this occasion, were treated by Mr. Boyle. Never was there a more complete victory than was gained over him by Bp. Hoadly, for his perverse and groundless interpretation of the text, "If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable." Hoadly also powerfully attacked him on the doctrine of Passive Obedience: a doctrine so singularly absurd, as scarce indeed to merit a serious refutation. Warton. that you do not fail in your appointment, that the company of the living may make me some amends for my attendance on the dead. I know you will be glad to hear that I am well: I should always, could I always be here Sed me Imperiosa trahit Proserpina: vive, valeque. You are the first man I sent to this morning, and the last man I desire to converse with this evening, though at twenty miles distance from you: Te, veniente die, te, decedente, requiro. LETTER XXI. FROM THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. DEAR SIR, The Tower, April 10, 1723. I THANK you for all the instances of your friendship, both before, and since my misfortunes. A little time will complete them, and separate you and me for ever. But in what part of the world soever I am, I will live mindful of your sincere kindness to me; and will please myself with the thought, that I still live in your esteem and affection, as much as ever I did; and that no accident of life, no distance of time, or place, will alter you in that respect. It never can me; who have loved and valued you, ever since I knew you, and shall not fail to do it when I am not allowed to tell you so; as the case will soon be. Give my faithful services to Dr. Arbuthnot, and thanks for what he |