serious, that I almost take it ill Dr. Evans* should

if

tell you of it, or you mention it. I tell you fairly, you and a few more such people were to leave the world, I would not give sixpence to stay in it.

I am not so much concerned as to the point whether you are to live fat or lean: most men of wit or honesty are usually decreed to live very lean: so I am inclined to the opinion that it is decreed you shall; however, be comforted, and reflect, that you will make the better busto for it. It is something particular in you, not to be satisfied with sending me your own books, but to make your acquaintance continue the frolic. Mr. Wartont forced me to take Gorboduc, which has

* Dr. Evans, the well-known epigrammatist, was of St. John's College, Oxford. I think it probable that Pope's acquaintance with this gentleman, and also Mr. Digby, commenced on his journey to Oxford, from Lord Harcourt's, to consult the libraries for Notes to his Homer. It appears from the letters in the British Museum, that Evans was much in the confidence of Pope; as indeed so were all who looked up to him. The epigram made on Evans, on cutting down the trees before his College, when he was Bursar, is well known; the two last lines of which are:

"The rogue, the gallows, as his fate, foresees,

And bears the like antipathy to trees."

This was made by Dr. Tadlow, a person remarkable for corpulency; upon which Evans wrote what has been so often quoted: "When Tadlow treads the streets, the paviors cry, 'God bless you, Sir!' and lay their rammers by." Such were the nuga scholastica in those days at Oxford.

Bowles.

†The person here mentioned was my father, a fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, and afterwards professor of poetry; who was an intimate friend of Mr. Digby, of whose piety and goodness of heart he used to relate many instances. Gorboduc

since done me great credit with several people, as it has done Dryden and Oldham some diskindness, in shewing there is as much difference between their Gorboduc and this, as between Queen Anne and King George. It is truly a scandal, that men should write with contempt of a piece which they never once saw, as those two poets did, who were ignorant even of the sex, as well as sense, of Gorboduc.*

Adieu! I am going to forget you: this minute you took up all my mind; the next I shall think of nothing but the reconciliation with Agamemnon, and the recovery of Briseïs. I shall be Achilles's humble servant these two months (with the good

was the first drama in our language that was like a regular tragedy. It was first exhibited in the hall of the Temple, and afterwards before Q. Elizabeth, 1561. It was written by Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst; the original contriver of the Mirror of Magistrates. He was assisted in it by Thomas, a translator of some of the Psalms. Mr. Spence, who succeeded my father as Professor of Poetry at Oxford, printed an edition of Gorboduc, from this very copy of Pope, 1736, with a dedication to his friend Lord Middlesex; a man of taste, and descendant of Lord Buckhurst. From this letter of Pope it appears how little at that time was known of our ancient poets. For a full account of Gorboduc, see the History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 536, by Mr. Thomas Warton. Warton.

* I have been informed by Lord Macartney, that he had seen a letter from this Lord Treasurer Buckhurst to Queen Elizabeth, representing the great inconvenience and distance of his house at Buckhurst, forty miles from London, through strange, uncouth ways, and requesting a grant of Knowle, as being nearer town, and consequently more convenient to him for the duty of his office. So little communication was there, from place to place, at that time. Warton.

leave of all my friends). I have no ambition so strong at present, as that noble one of Sir Salathiel Lovel, recorder of London, to furnish out a decent and plentiful execution of Greeks and Trojans. It is not to be expressed how heartily I wish the death of all Homer's heroes, one after another. The Lord preserve me in the day of battle, which is just approaching! Join in your prayers for me, and know me to be always

Your, &c.

LETTER II.

TO MR. DIGBY.

London, March 31, 1718.

To convince you how little pain I give myself in corresponding with men of good nature and good understanding, you see I omit to answer your letters till a time, when another man would be ashamed to own he had received them. If therefore you are ever moved on my account by that spirit which I take to be as familiar to you as a quotidian ague, I mean the spirit of goodness, pray never stint it, in any fear of obliging me to a civility beyond my natural inclination. I dare trust you, Sir, not only with my folly when I write, but

* This allusion, whether in jest or earnest, is obscure. Sir Salathiel Lovel was made Recorder in 1692, and held that office until 1708, when he was promoted to be a Baron of the Exchequer. During his time, the laws against the Papists were frequently enforced. C. Bowles.

with my negligence when I do not; and expect equally your pardon for either.

If I knew how to entertain you through the rest of this paper, it should be spotted and diversified with conceits all over: you should be put out of breath with laughter at each sentence, and pause at each period, to look back over how much wit you have passed. But I have found by experience that people now-a-days regard writing as little as they do preaching: the most we can hope is to be heard just with decency and patience, once a week, by folks in the country. Here in town we hum over a piece of fine writing, and we whistle at a sermon. The stage is the only place we seem alive at. There indeed we stare, and roar, and clap hands for K. George and the government. As for all other virtues but this loyalty, they are an obsolete train, so ill-dressed, that men, women, and children, hiss them out of all good company. Humility knocks so sneakingly at the door that every footman out-raps it, and makes it give way to the free entrance of pride, prodigality, and vainglory.

My Lady Scudamore,* from having rusticated. in your company too long, really behaves herself

Lady Scudamore was connected with the Digbys by marriage. Frances, only daughter of Simon, fourth Lord Digby, married Sir James Scudamore, Viscount Sligo, and died 1729, leaving an only daughter, who was married first to the Duke of Beaufort, 1729, and afterwards to Charles Fitzroy Scudamore. The Lady first mentioned is the Lady Scudamore meant by Pope. Bowles.

scandalously among us: she pretends to open her eyes for the sake of seeing the sun, and to sleep because it is night; drinks tea at nine in the morning, and is thought to have said her prayers before; talks, without any manner of shame, of good books, and has not seen Cibber's play of the Nonjuror.* I rejoiced the other day to see a libel on her toilet, which gives me some hope that you have, at least, a taste of scandal left you, in defect of all other vices.

Upon the whole matter, I heartily wish you well; but as I cannot entirely desire the ruin of all the joys of this city, so all that remains is to wish you would keep your happiness to yourselves, that the happiest here may not die with envy at a bliss which they cannot attain to.

I am, &c.

LETTER III.

FROM MR. DIGBY.

Coleshill, April 17, 1718.

I

HAVE read

your

letter over and over with delight. By your description of the town, I imagine it to lie under some great enchantment, and am very much concerned for you and all

my friends in

*Cibber always insisted, that this comedy, founded on the admirable Turtuffe of Moliere, was the chief cause of our author's resentment against him. It met with great success on the stage.

Warton.