DEAR SIR,

LETTER III.

MR. ROWE TO MR. POPE.

*

Thursday, May 20, 1713.

I Do not know that I have a long time received a billet with greater pleasure than yours. Depend upon it, nothing could have been more agreeable but yourself. To do something then that is perfectly kind, come and eat a bit of mutton with me to-morrow at Stockwell. Bring whom you will along with you, though I can give you nothing "but the aforesaid mutton and a cup of ale." It is but a little mile from Fox-hall; and you do not know how much you will oblige

Your, &c.

LETTER IV.

MR. POPE TO MR. GAY.

August 23, 1713. Just as I received yours, I was set down to write to you, with some shame that I had so long deferred it. But I can hardly repent my neglect,

* It has been said on the authority of Spence, that Addison and Pope concurred in the opinion, that "Rowe maintained a decent character, but had no heart;" an imputation which cannot be admitted without throwing some share of disgrace on all the parties; but which cannot be true, as has already been sufficiently shewn in the Life of Pope, prefixed to the present edition, chap. v.

when it gives me the knowledge how little you insist upon ceremony, and how much a greater share in your memory I have, than I deserve. I have been near a week in London, where I am like to remain, till I become, by Mr. Jervas's help, Elegans Formarum Spectator. I begin to discover beauties that were till now imperceptible to me. Every corner of an eye, or turn of a nose or ear, the smallest degree of light or shade on a cheek, or in a dimple, have charms to distract me. I no longer look upon Lord Plausible as ridiculous, for admiring a lady's fine tip of an ear and pretty elbow, (as the Plain Dealer has it,) but am in some danger even from the ugly and disagreeable, since they may have their retired beauties, in one trait or other about them. You may guess in how uneasy a state I am, when every day the performances of others appear more beautiful and excellent, and my own more despicable. I have thrown away three Dr. Swifts, each of which was once my vanity, two Lady Bridgwaters, a Duchess of Montague, besides half a dozen Earls, and one Knight of the Garter. I have crucified Christ over again in effigy, and made a Madonna as old as her mother St. Anne. Nay, what is yet more miraculous, I have rivalled St. Luke himself in painting, and as it is said an angel came and finished his piece, so you would swear a devil put the last hand to mine, it is so begrimed and smutted. However I comfort myself with a christian reflection, that I have not broken the commandment,

for my pictures are not the likeness of any thing in heaven above, or in earth below, or in the water under the earth. Neither will any body adore or worship them, except the Indians should have a sight of them, who they tell us, worship certain idols purely for their ugliness.

I am very much recreated and refreshed with the news of the advancement of the fan, which I doubt not will delight the eye and sense of the fair, as long as that agreeable machine shall play in the hands of posterity. I am glad your fan is mounted so soon, but I would have you varnish and glaze it at your leisure, and polish the sticks as much as you can. You may then cause it to be borne in the hands of both sexes, no less in Britain, than it is in China; where it is ordinary for a mandarin to fan himself cool after a debate, and a statesman to hide his face with it when he tells a grave lie. I am, &c.

SIR,

LETTER V.

MR. POPE TO DR. SWIFT.*

Binfield, Dec. 8, 1713.

Nor to trouble you at present with a recital of all my obligations to you, I shall only

* This is the opening of the correspondence between these celebrated men, which began in favours on Swift's part, and gratitude on that of Pope, and ended in the most strict friendship on

mention two things, which I take particularly kind of you your desire that I should write to you, and your proposal of giving me twenty guineas to change my religion; which last you must give me leave to make the subject of this letter.

Sure no clergyman ever offered so much out of his own purse for the sake of any religion. It is almost as many pieces of gold as an Apostle could get of silver, from the priests of old, on a much more valuable consideration. I believe it will be better worth my while to propose a change of my faith by subscription, than a translation of Homer. And, to convince you how well disposed I am to the reformation, I shall be content, if you can prevail with my lord-treasurer and the ministry to rise to the same sum each of them, on this pious account, as my Lord Halifax has done on the profane one. I am afraid there is no being at once a poet and a good Christian; and I am very much straitened between the two, while the whigs seem willing to contribute as much to continue me the one, as you would to make me the other. But, if you can move every man in the government who has above ten thousand pounds a year, to subscribe as much as yourself, I shall become a convert, as most men do, when the Lord turns it to my interest. I

both. From the memorandum extracted from Bishop Kennet's Diary, the interest which Swift took in the subscription to Homer is fully proved; and one would almost think Pope's ludicrous proposal to change his religion was calculated to meet Kennet's sagacious innuendo upon that subject. Sir W. Scott.

know they have the truth of religion so much at heart, that they would certainly give more to have one good subject translated from popery to the church of England, than twenty heathenish authors out of any known tongue into ours. I therefore commission you, Mr. Dean, with full authority, to transact this affair in my name, and to propose as follows. First, that as to the head of our church, the pope, I may engage to renounce his power, whensoever I shall receive any particular indulgences from the head of your church, the queen.

As to communion in one kind, I shall also promise to change it for communion in both, as soon as the ministry will allow me.

For invocations to saints, mine shall be turned to dedications to sinners, when I shall find the great ones of this world as willing to do me any good, as I believe those of the other are.

You see I shall not be obstinate in the main points; but there is one article I must reserve, and which you seemed not unwilling to allow me, prayer for the dead. There are people to whose souls I wish as well as to my own; and I must crave leave, humbly to lay before them, that, though the subscriptions above-mentioned will suffice for myself, there are necessary perquisites and additions, which I must demand on the score of this charitable article. It is also to be considered, that the greater part of those, whose souls I am most concerned for, were unfortunately heretics,