into Protection, ftill upheld him, yet he could not bear this (to him) fo very great a Difappointment, and on this Subject, not long after, he writes to Mr. Pope, who was fo deeply concern'd at it, that he (being ill before) was made fo much worfe as to keep. his Chamber many Weeks. Mr. Gay's Letter was thus: Dear Mr. Pope, MY me. Y Melancholy, increafes, and every Hour threatens me with fome Return of my Diftemper; nay, I think I may rather fay I have it on Not the divine Looks, the kind Favours and. Expreffions of the divine Dutchefs, who hereafter fhall be in Place of a Queen to me, (nay, fhe shall be my Queen) nor the inexpreffible Goodnefs of the Duke, can in the leaft chear me. The DrawingRoom no more receives Light from those two Stars. There is now what Milton fays is in Hell, Darkness vifible.- O that I had never known what a Court was! Dear Pope, what a barren Soil (to me fo) have I been striving to produce fomething out of! Why did I not take your Advice before my writing Fables for the Duke, not to write them? Or rather, to write them for fome young Nobleman? It is my very hard Fate, I must get nothing, write for them or against them. I find myself in fuch a strange Confufion and Depreffion of Spirits, that I have not Strength even to make my Will; though I perceive, by many Warnings, I have no continuing City here. I begin to look upon myself as one already dead ; and defire, my dear Mr. Pope, (whom I love as my; own Soul) if you furvive me, (as you certainly will) that you will, if a Stone fhould mark the Place of ay Grave, fee these Words put on it; of his Neighbour, and called to one another through+ out the Field: No Answer being return'd to those who call'd to our Lovers, they stept to the Place where they lay; they perceiv'd the Barley all in a Flame, and then spy'd this faithful Pair: John with one Arm about Sarah's Neck, and the other held over her, as to skreen her from the Lightning. They were ftruck dead, and ftiffen'd in this tender Pofture. Sarah's left Eye-brow was fing'd, and there appear'd a black Spot on her Breaft: Her Lover was all over black, but not the leaft Signs of Life were found in either. Attended by their melancholy Companions, they were convey'd to the Town, and the next Day were interr'd in Stanton-Harcourt Church-yard. My Lord Harcourt, at Mr. Pope's and my Requeft, has caufed a Stone to be plac'd over them, upon Condition that we furnish'd the Epitaph, which is as fol lows; When Eastern Lovers feed the Funeral Fire, But my Lord is apprehenfive the Country People will not understand this, and Mr. Pope fays he'll make one with fomething of Scripture in it, and with as little of Poetry as Hopkins and Sternhold. Your, &c. Whenever Mr. Gay had any Time upon his Hands, or was free from the Great, who us'd to be giving him continual Invitations to their Seats, Mr. Pope was ftill harping upon the old String of their living together, which only now depended upon the Death Death of his Mother; this is evident in a Letter of his to Mr. Gay, just after he was recover'd from a Fit of Illness, and while Mr. Pope's Mother was in fuch declining Health, as well as Age, that he daily expected fhe would be call'd hence. Thus he writes to Mr. Gay: you, Faithfully affure in the Midft of that Melancholy with which I have been fo long encompass'd, in an hourly Expectation almost of my Mother's Death; there was no Circumftance that render'd it more infupportable to me, than that I could not leave her to fee you. Your own prefent Escape from fo imminent Danger, I pray God may prove lefs precarious than my poor Mother's can be; whose Life at best can be but a fhort Reprieve, or a longer dying. But I fear, even that is more than God will please to grant me; for, thefe two Days paft, her moft dangerous Symptoms are return'd upon her and unless there be a fudden Change, I muft in a few Days, if not in a few Hours, be depriv'd of her. In the afflicting Profpect before me, I know nothing that can fo much alleviate it as the View now given me (Heaven grant it may encrease) of your Recovery. In the Sincerity of my Heart, I am exceffively concern'd, not to be able to pay you, dear Gay, any Part of the Debt I very gratefully remember I owe you on a like fad Occafion, when you was here comforting mein her last great Illness. May your Health augment as faft as I fear her's muft decline: I believe that would be faft very may the Life that is added to you be paft in good Fortune and Tranquility, rather of your own giving to yourself, than from any Expectations or Truft in others. May you and I live together, without wifhing more Felicity or Acquifitions than Friendship can give and re Life is a Jeft, and all Things fhow it; I thought so once, but now I know it. With what more you may think proper. If any Body should afk, how I could communicate this after Death? Let it be known, it is not meant fo, but my present Sentiment in Life. What the Bearer brings befides this Letter, fhould I die without a Will, (which I am the likelier to do, as the Law will fettle my fmall Estate much as I fhould myself) let it remain with you, as it has long done with me, a Remembrance of a dead Friend: But there is none like you, living or dead. I am, dear Mr. Pope, Your's, &c. JOHN GAY. When all his Expectations from the Court were thus reduced to nothing, Mr. Pope, before this last Letter, wrote him one in a Boldnefs of Spirit, and with Freedom; fit to be seen and read by him, but never meant to be the Object of the publick Eye, It was dated Oct. 6, 1727, I Dear Sir, HAVE many Years ago magnify'd in my own Mind, and repeated to you, a ninth Beatitude, added to the eighth in the Scripture; "Bleffed is he "who expects nothing, for he fhall never be difap"pointed." I could find in my Heart to congratulate you on this happy Difmiffion from all Court-Dependance: I dare fay, I fhall find you the better and the honefter Man for it many Years hence; very probably the healthfuller, and the chearfuller into the Bargain. You are happily rid of many curfed Ceremonies, as well as of many ill and vicious Habits, of which few or no Men escape the Infection, who are hack hackney'd and tramelled in the Ways of a Court. Princes indeed, and Peers, (the Lackies of Princes) and Ladies (the Fools of Peers) will smile on you the lefs; but Men of Worth and real Friends will look on you the better. There is a Thing, the only Thing which Kings and Queens cannot give you, (for they have it not to give) Liberty, and which is worth all they have; which, as yet I thank God, Englishmen need not ask from their Hands. You will enjoy that, and your own Integrity, and the fatisfactory Consciousness of having not merited fuch Gra ces from Courts as are beftow'd only on the mean, fervile, flattering, interested, and undeferving. The only Steps to the Favour of the Great are fuch Complacencies, fuch Compliances, fuch distant Decorums, as delude them in their Vanities, or engage them in their Paffions. He is their greatest Favou→ rite, who is the falfeft; and when a Man, by fuch vile Gradations, arrives at the Height of Grandeur and Power, he is then at best but in a Circumstance to be hated, and in a Condition to be hanged, for ferving their Ends: So many a Minifter has found it! I believe you did not want Advice, in the Letter you fent by my Lord Grantham; I prefume you writ it not without; and you could not have better, if I guess right at the Perfon who agreed to your doing it, in Refpect to any Decency you ought to obferve; for I take that Perfon to be a perfect Judge of Decencies and Forms. I am not without Fears even on that Perfon's Account: I think it a bad Omen; but what have I to do with Court-Omens?-Dear Gay, adieu. I can only add a plain, uncourtly Speech : While you are no Body's Servant, you may be any. one's Friend; and as fuch I embrace you, in all Conditions of Life. While I have a Shilling, vou I 4 hall |