1731
CORRESPONDENCE
DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY.
Dublin, April 13th, 1731.
"Your situation is an odd one. The Duchess is your treasurer, and Mr.
Pope tells me you are the Duke's. And I had gone a good way in some
verses on that occasion, prescribing lessons to direct your conduct, in
a negative way, not to do so and so, etc., like other treasurers; how to
deal with servants, tenants, or neighbouring squires, which I take to be
courtiers, parliaments, and princes in alliance, and so the parallel
goes on, but grew too long to please me."[1]
JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT.
April 21st, 1731.
"Since I have got over the impediment to a writer, of water drinking, if
I can persuade myself that I have any wit, and find I have inclination,
I intend to write; though, as yet, I have another impediment: for I have
not provided myself with a scheme. Ten to one but I shall have a
propensity to write against vice, and who can tell how far that may
offend? But an author should consult his genius, rather than his
interest, if he cannot reconcile them."[2]
JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT.
Amesbury, April 27th, 1731.
"When I was in town (after a bashful fit, for having writ something like
a love-letter, and in two years making one visit), I writ to Mrs.
Drelincourt, to apologise for my behaviour, and received a civil answer,
but had not time to see her. They are naturally very civil: so that I am
not so sanguine as to interpret this as any encouragement. I find by
Mrs. Barber that she interests herself very much in her affair; and,
indeed, from everybody who knows her, she answers the character you
first gave me....
"You used to blame me for over-solicitude about myself. I am now grown
so rich, that I do not think myself worth thinking on."[3]
DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY.
Dublin, June 29th, 1731.
"You are the silliest lover in Christendom. If you like Mrs.
[Drelincourt], why do you not command her to take you? If she does not,
she is not worth pursuing; you do her too much honour; she has neither
sense nor taste, if she dares to refuse you, though she had ten thousand
pounds.
"I cannot allow you rich enough till you are worth £7,000, which will
bring you £300 per annum, and this will maintain you, with the
perquisite of spunging, while you are young, and when you are old will
afford you a pint of port at night, two servants, and an old maid, a
little garden, and pen and ink--provided you live in the country. And
what are you doing towards increasing your fame and your fortune? Have
you no scheme, either in verse or prose? The Duchess should keep you at
hard meat, and by that means force you to write."[4]
THE COUNTESS OF SUFFOLK TO JOHN GAY.
Hampton Court, June 29th, 1731.
"To prevent all further quarrels and disputes, I shall let you know that
I have kissed hands for the place of Mistress of the Robes. Her Majesty
did me the honour to give me the choice of Lady of the Bedchamber, or
that, which I find so much more agreeable to me, that I did not take one
moment to consider of it. The Duchess of Dorset resigned it for me; and
everything as yet promises more happiness for the latter part of my life
than I have yet had a prospect of. Seven nights' quiet sleep, and seven
easy days have almost worked a miracle upon me; for if I cannot say I am
perfectly well, yet it is certain even my pain is more supportable than
it was. I shall now often visit Marble Hill; my time is become very much
my own, and I shall see it without the dread of being obliged to sell it
to answer the engagement I had put myself under to avoid a greater evil.
Mr. H[oward] took possession of body and goods, and was not prevailed
upon till yesterday to resign the former for burial. Poor Lord Suffolk
took so much care in the will he made, that the best lawyers say it must
stand good. I am persuaded it will be tried to the uttermost.
"I have at this time a great deal of business upon my hands, but not
from my Court employment. You must take as a particular favour. The
Duchess of Queensberry shall hear from me soon: she has a most
extraordinary way of making her peace; but she does tell truth, and I
told a lie when I said I hated her; for nothing is more true than that I
love her most sincerely. However, I put it into your hands to tell her
what you think proper; and if she can but feel half for me that I should
for her under the same circumstances, it will be punishment sufficient
for what I have suffered from her neglect of me. I shall certainly see
Highclere this summer, and shall expect some people to meet me there. I
hope the chairs will be done, for I do not know whether I ought to
expect to be preferred before them. If you find her inclined to think me
wrong in any particular, desire her to suspend her judgment till then;
and if not to please me, to satisfy her own curiosity, she may come. I
have taken care of what you desired me. I have done my best; I hope, for
my sake, it will succeed well, for I shall be more concerned, I dare
say, if it should not than you would be."
JOHN GAY TO THE COUNTESS OF SUFFOLK.
July 8th, 1731.
"Your letter was not ill-bestowed, for I found in it such an air of
satisfaction that I have a pleasure every time I think of it. I fancy
(though by her silence she seems to approve of your Ladyship's conduct)
the Duchess will meet you at Highclere; for those that have a real
friendship cannot be satisfied with real relations; they want to inquire
into the minutest circumstances of life, that they may be sure things
are as happy as they appear to be, and that is a curiosity that is
excusable.
"I do not like lawsuits; I wish you could have your right without them,
for I fancy there never was one since the world began, that, besides the
cost, was not attended with anxiety and vexation. But as you descended
from lawyers,[5] what might be my plague, perhaps may be only your
amusement. Nobody but yourself hath let us know anything about you.
Judge, then, how welcome your ladyship's letter was to me. I find this
change of life of yours is a subject that I cannot so well write upon;
it is a thing that one cannot so well judge of in general. But as for
your Ladyship's conduct in this juncture, my approbation goes for
nothing, for all the world knows that I am partial.
"When you have a mind to make me happy, write to me, for of late I have
had but very little chance, and only chance, of seeing you. If ever you
thought well of me, if ever you believed I wished you well, and wished
to be of service to you, think the same of me, for I am the same, and
shall always be so.
"Mr. Pope, I fear, is determined never to write to me. I hope he is
well. If you see Miss Blount or Mr. Pope, I beg them to accept my
compliments."
JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT.
July 18th, 1731.
"Your friend Mrs. Howard is now Countess of Suffolk. I am still so much
a dupe, that I think you mistake her. Come to Amesbury, and you and I
will dispute this matter, and the Duchess shall be judge. But I fancy
you will object against her; for I will be so fair to you, as to own
that I think she is of my side; but, in short, you shall choose any
impartial referee you please. I have heard from her; Mr. Pope has seen
her; I beg that you would suspend your judgment till we talk over this
affair together; for, I fancy, by your letter, you have neither heard
from her, nor seen her; so that you cannot at present be as good a judge
as we are. I will be a dupe for you at any time; therefore I beg it of
you, that you would let me be a dupe in quiet.
"As to my being manager for the Duke, you have been misinformed. Upon
the discharge of an unjust steward, he took the administration into his
own hands. I own I was called in to his assistance, when the state of
affairs was in the greatest confusion. Like an ancient Roman I came, put
my helping hand to set affairs right, and as soon as it was done, I am
retired again as a private man."[6]
THE COUNTESS OF SUFFOLK TO JOHN GAY.
Kensington, September 5th, 1731.
"I was never more peevish in my life than I have been about this journey
of Bridgeman's. I am sure I took true pains that it should have been
just as the Duchess wished. I find upon enquiry that he did not go as
soon as I expected. He told me of the first letter which he wrote to
you.
"I wish he had told me of Mr. Bloodworth's conversation, for that would
have prevented all mistakes. It is not in my power to do anything more,
for Bridgeman has been absent a week from hence; but if his servants
tell truth, there is no occasion, for they say he is gone to the Duke of
Queensberry's.
"I shall be very uneasy till I hear how this matter has ended. A letter
from you was not necessary to make me remember you, but a letter was
absolutely necessary to make me think you deserved one. The Duchess did
not tell me why I did not see you at Highclere, but I do believe it was
a good one; because she knows bringing of you there would have pleased
us both. As I never knew what liberty was, I cannot tell you how much I
was delighted with this summer's expeditions. I never see Mr. Pope nor
Mrs. Blount, though I never go to Marble Hill without sending to them.
She has been ill, but was well last time I sent; but you know she has a
peculiar pleasure in refusing her friends.
"Let me hear often from you. I am glad you think of coming to
Twickenham. I hope we shall meet at Marble Hill; but do not fail of
letting me know as soon as possible whether the Duchess is convinced I
was in no wise in fault, and that she does me the justice in believing I
can never willingly be so to me. If you do not leave off _ladyship_, I
shall complain to the Duchess, who shall make you go supperless to bed.
Exercise agrees so well with me, that I cannot advise you not to use it;
but if her Grace feeds you moderately, I should think your exercise
ought to be so. God bless you."
DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY.
December 1st, 1731.
"If your ramble was on horse back, I am glad of it on account of your
health; but I know your arts of patching up a journey between
stage-coaches and friends' coaches: for you are as arrant a cockney as
any hosier in Cheapside, and one clean shirt with two cravats, and as
many handkerchiefs, make up your equipage; and as for a nightgown, it is
clear from Homer that Agamemnon rose without one.
"I have often had it in my head to put it into yours, that you ought to
have some great work in scheme, that may take up seven years to finish,
besides two or three under-ones, that may add another thousand pounds to
your stock; and then I shall be in less pain about you.
"I know you can find dinners, but you love twelvepenny coaches too well,
without considering that the interest of a whole thousand pounds brings
you but half-a-crown a day."
JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT.
December 1st, 1731
"You used to complain that Mr. Pope and I would not let you speak: you
may now be even with me, and take it out in writing. If you do not send
to me now and then, the post-office will think me of no consequence, for
I have no correspondent but you. You may keep as far from us as you
please; you cannot be forgotten by those who ever knew you, and
therefore please me by sometimes showing I am not forgot by you. I have
nothing to take me off from my friendship to you: I seek no new
acquaintance, and court no favour; I spend no shillings in coaches or
chairs to levées or great visits, and, as I do not want the assistance
of some that I formerly conversed with, I will not so much as seem to
seek to be a dependant.
"As to my studies, I have not been entirely idle, though I cannot say
that I have yet perfected anything. What I have done is something in the
way of those Fables I have already published.
"All the money I get is saving, so that by habit there may be some hopes
(if I grow richer) of my becoming a miser. All misers have their
excuses. The motive to my parsimony is independence."[7]
[Footnote 1: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 358]
[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 342.]
[Footnote 3: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 370.]
[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 382.]
[Footnote 5: Lady Suffolk's great-great-great-grandfather was Sir Henry
Hobart, Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas.]
[Footnote 6: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 385.]
[Footnote 7: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 436.]