is, as it always was, or as yours is. But whatever ravages a merciless distemper may commit, I dare promise her boldly, what few (if any) of her makers of visits and compliments dare to do: she shall have one man as much her admirer as ever. you have me so more than As for your part, Madam, ever, since I have been a witness to the generous tenderness you have shown upon this occasion *. Your, &c. LETTER XLIII. DR. SWIFT TO MRS. MARTHA BLOUNT. MADAM PATT, Twitenham Garret5. Thursday Morn. at Nine. (1726.) You are commanded by Mr. Pope to read that part of the inclosed which relates to Mr. Gay and yourself, and to send a direct answer to your humble servant by my humble servant the bearer. Being at an end of all my shoes and stockings, I am not able to wait on you to-day, after so rainy a night and so suspicious a morning. Mrs. Pope is yours; but I, with the greatest respect, Madam, Your most obedient and devoted servant, Pray do not give a copy of this letter to Curll the bookseller. The following lines in the original, which conclude the letter, seem to allude to a correspondence of which we have no other information: "I beg Mrs. Blount and Mr. Blount to believe me very faithfully their servant, and that your good mother will accept of a thousand thanks for the favour of her Maids'* Letters, and oblige me with the continuance of them every post." C. 5 Written when Swift was on a visit to Pope at Twickenham. * Quare, whether Pope does not mean her daughters ?—Bowles. LETTER XLIV. DR. SWIFT TO MRS. MARTHA BLOUNT. DEAR PATTY, Dublin, Feb. 29, 1727-8. I AM told you have a mind to receive a letter from me, which is a very undecent declaration in a young lady, and almost a confession that you have a mind to write to me; for as to the fancy of looking on me as a man sans consequence, it is what I will never understand. I am told likewise you grow every day younger, and more a fool, which is directly contrary to me, who grow wiser and older, and at this rate we shall never agree. I long to see you a London lady, where you are forced to wear whole clothes, and visit in a chair, for which you must starve next summer at Petersham, with a mantua out at the sides; and spunge once a week at our house, without ever inviting us in a whole season to a cow-heel at home. I wish you would bring Mr. Pope over with you when you come, but we will leave Mr. Gay to his Beggars and his Operas till he is able to pay his club. How will you pass this summer, for want of a squire to Ham-Common and Walpole's Lodge; for as to Richmond Lodge and Marble-hill, they are abandoned as much as Sir Spencer Compton and Mr. Schabe's coach, that used to give you so many a set-down, is wheeled off to St. James's. You must be forced to get a horse, and gallop with Mrs. Jansen and Miss Bedier. Your greatest happiness is, that you are out of the chiding of Mrs. Howard and the Dean; but I suppose Mr. Pope is so just as to pay our arrears, and that you edify as much by him as by us, unless you are so happy that he now looks upon you as reprobate and a cast-away, of which I think he hath given me some hints. However, I would advise you to pass this summer at Kensington, where you will be near the court, and out of his jurisdiction, where you will be teased with no lectures of gravity and morality, and where you will have no other trouble than to get into the mercer's books, and take up a hundred pounds of your principal for quadrille. Monstrous, indeed, that a fine lady, in the prime of life and gaiety, must take up with an antiquated Dean, an old gentlewoman of four-score, and a sickly poet. I will stand by my dear Patty against the world, if Teresa beats you for your good, and I will buy her a fine whip for the purpose. Tell me, have you been confined to your lodging this winter for want of chair-hire? [Do you know that this unlucky Dr. Delany came last night to the Deanery, and being denied, without my knowledge, is gone to England this morning, and so I must send this by the post. I bought your Opera to-day for sixpence, so small printed, that it will spoil my eyes. I ordered you to send me your edition, but now you may keep it till you get an opportunity.] Patty, I will tell you a blunder: I am writing to Mr. Gay, and had almost finished the letter; but by mistake I took up this instead of it, and so the six lines in a hook are all to him, and therefore you must read them to him, for I will not be at the trouble to write them over again. My greatest concern in the matter is, that I am afraid I continue in love with you, which is hard after near six months' absence. I hope you have done with your rash and other little disorders, and that I shall see you a fine young, healthy, plump lady; and if Mr. Pope chides you, threaten him that you will turn heretic. Adieu, dear Patty, and believe me to be one of your truest friends and humblest servants; and that, since I can never live in England, my greatest happiness would be to have you and Mr. Pope condemned, during my life, to live in Ireland, he at the Deanery, and you, for reputation's sake, just at next door, and I will give you eight dinners a week, and a whole half dozen of pint bottles of good French wine, at your lodgings, a thing you could never expect to arrive at, and every year a suit of fourteen-penny stuff, that should not be worn out at the right side; and a chair costs but sixpence a job; and you shall have catholicity as much as you please, and the Catholic Dean of St. Patrick's, as old again as I, for your confessor. Adieu, again, dear Patty. SIR, LETTER XLV. MRS. MARTHA BLOUNT TO DR. SWIFT. May 7, 1728. I AM very much pleased with your letter: but I should have thought myself much more obliged, had you been less sincere, and not told me I did not owe the favour entirely to your inclination, but to an information that I had a mind to hear from you; and I mistrust you think even that as much as I deserve. If so, you really are not deserving of my repeated inquiries after you, and my constant good wishes and concern for your welfare; which merit some remembrance, without the help of another. I cannot say I have a great inclination to write to you; for I have no great vanity that way, at least not enough to support me above the fear of writing ill: but I would fain have you know how truly well I wish you. I am sorry to hear no good account of your health: mine has been, since Christmas (at which time I had my fever and rash) neither well nor ill enough to be taken notice of: but within these three weeks I have 6 We have but few specimens of Miss Blount's letters. This is here reprinted as one of the most favourable: it was first published by Dean Swift, Esq. in 1775. C.-Bowles. been sick in form, and kept my bed for a week, and my chamber to this day. This confinement, together with the mourning, has enabled me to be very easy in my chair-hire: for a dyed black gown and a scoured white one have done my business very well; and they are now just fit for Petersham, where we talk of going in three weeks: and I am not without hopes I shall have the same squire that I had last year. I am very unwilling to change: and, moreover, I begin to fear I have no great prospect of getting any new danglers; and therefore, in order to make a tolerable figure, I shall endeavour to behave myself well, that I may keep my old ones. As a proof that I continue to be well received at Court, I will tell you where the Royal Family design. to pass their summer: two months at Richmond Lodge, the same time at Hampton-Court, and six weeks at Windsor. Mrs. Howard is well, and happier than ever you saw her; for her whole affair with her husband is ended to her satisfaction 8. Dr. Arbuthnot I am very angry with: he neglects me for those he thinks finer ladies. Mr. Gay's fame continues, but his riches are in a fair way of diminishing: he is gone to the Bath. I wish you were ordered there; for I believe that would carry Mr. Pope, who is always inclined to do more for his friends than himself. He is much out of order, and is told nothing is so likely to do him good. My illness has prevented my writing to you sooner. 7 General mourning for the death of George I. C.-Bowles. 8 This shameful intrigue is minutely detailed by Lord Orford, in his "Reminiscences ;" and the event alluded to in this Letter is that " during the summer a negotiation was commenced with the obstreperous husband, and he sold his own noisy honour, and the possession of his wife, for a pension of twelve hundred a year." C.-Bowles. |