ceive without Obligations to Greatnefs. God keep you, and three or four more of those I have known as long, that I may have something worth surviving my Mother. Adieu dear Gay, and believe me (while you live and while I live.). Your, &c. As I told you in my laft Letter, I repeat it in this: Do not think of writing to me. The Doctor, Mrs. Howard, and Mrs. Blount, give me daily Accounts of you. Nay, fo earneft was Mr. Pope for the Recovery of Mr. Gay's Health, that he at last resolves to run the Rifque of all Fatigue, and Change of Climate, and go with him where it might be thought the Climate might afford the best Air for him; this was when Mr. Gay met with his Difappointment at Court. O N Words can tell you the great Concern I feel for you; I affure you it was not, and is not leffen'd, by the immediate Apprehenfion I have now every Day lain under of lofing my Mother. Be af fur'd, no Duty-less than that should have kept me one Day from attending your Condition: I would come and take a Room by you at Hampstead, to be with you daily, were fhe not ftill in Danger of Death. I have conftantly had particular Accounts of you from the Doctor, which have not ceas'd to alarm me yet. God preferve your Life, and reftore your Health. I really beg it for my own Sake, for I feel I love you more than I thought in Health, though I always lov'd you a great deal. If I am fo unfortunate as to bury my poor Mother, and yet have the good Fortune to have my Prayers heard for you, I hope we may live moft of our remaining Days together. gether. If, as I believe, the Air of a better Clime, as the fouthern Part of France, may be thought useful for your Recovery, thither I would go with you infallibly; and it is very probable we might get the Dean with us, who is in that abandoned State already which I shall shortly be, as to other Cares and Duties. Dear Gay be as chearful as your Suff'rings will 'permit: God is a better Friend than a Court: Even any honest Man is better. I promife you my entire Friendship in all Events, heartily praying for your Recovery. Your, &c. P. S. Do not write, if you are ever so able: The Doctor tells me all. This was not an unexpected Turn to Mr. Pope, who knew the Uncertainty, Inftability, and strange quick Turns of Courts, neither fhould Mr. Gay have taken it fo much to Heart, feeing he had been promised and disappointed fo many Times. When he was in France, a young Prince was born here, and Mr. Pope thereon writes to him, Nov. 8, 1718. The Poftcript is a Proof of our Affertion. Have no Story to tell you worth your Hearing; you know I am no Man of Intrigue; but the Dutchefs of Hamilton has one which the fays is worth my Hearing, that relates to Mr. Pulteney and yourfelf; and which fhe promises, if you won't tell me, fhe will. Her Grace has won in a Raffle a very fine Tweezer-cafe; at the Sight of which, my Tweezercafe, and all other Tweezer-cafes on the Globe hide their diminish'd Heads. That Dutchefs, Lord Warwick, Lord Stanhope, Mrs. Bellenden, Mrs. Lepell, and I can't tell who elfe, had your Letters: Dr. Arbuthnot and I expec .. VOL. II. I to to be treated like Friends. I would fend my Service to Mr. Pulteney, but that he is out of Favour at Court, and make some Compliment to Mrs. Pubteney, if the is a Whig. My Lord Burlington tells me fhe has as much outfhin'd all the French Ladies, as fhe did the English before: I am forry for it, because it will be detrimental to our holy Religion, if heretical Women fhould eclipse those Nuns and orthodox Beauties, in whofe Eyes alone lie all the Hopes we can have, of gaining fuch fine Gentlemen as you to our Church. Your, &c. P. S. I wish you Joy of the Birth of the young Prince, because he is the only Prince we have, from whom you have had no Expectations and no Difappointments. In this Letter, we obferve Mrs. P-l--t-n-y mentioned with Respect and Esteem, but the altering her Carriage, and becoming fuperfelious as fhe grew great, and prodigious haughty, though only a Glafs-man's Daughter, was left to her own dear Vanity and Ambition, by Mr. Gay and Mr. Pope too, though not without a Memorandum : With fcornful Mien, and various Tofs of Air, Fantastick, vain, and infolently fair; Grandeur intoxicates her giddy Brain, Wherein Wherein the might her haughty Errors trace, Now we must speak no more of Mr. Gay at Court, nor in Favour with any that ow'd any Dependance to it: Yet was he not left without Friends ; the Duke and Dutchefs of Queensberry took him to their kind and noble Protection, and he was encourag'd as well by the great Reputation, as well as Profit he had receiv'd from the Beggars Opera, to write a Sequel to it. The Beggars Opera had indeed met with incredible Succefs, much of which was owing to the Squibs that were thrown at the Court, and many of which, of right appertain'd to Mr. Pope. The Song of Peeachum, the Thief-catcher, was offer'd to the Publick, as follows: HRO' all the Employments of Life TH Each Neighbour abuses his Brother, Whore and Rogue they call Husband and Wife, This, before it was alter'd by Mr. Pope, was not f sharp, the two last Lines only faying: And there's many arrive to be Great, And the Song of Mackeath after his being taken, SIN as me, INCE Laws were made for every Degree, Was wholly added by Mr. Pope, after Mr. Gay had given it the finishing Hand, as was most of the fatirical Part upon the Court, and the Courtiers, which makes a very confiderable Part of the Opera. Mr. Pope encourag'd Mr. Gay to write the Sequel, and to write it ftill more fevere against the Court, which Counsel, though not the best, he took, and being patroniz'd as he was, feem'd to be alfo without Fear or Apprehenfion of meeting with a Repulfe from Power. The Sequel was finish'd, and nam'd after the favourite Character in the Beggars Opera, POLLY; in which Opera, we are fully perfuaded, are as many Lines of Mr. Pope's as Mr. Gay's: 'It was given into the Hands of Mr. Rich, who had conceiv'd Hopes of great Gain from it, which muft unavoidably have enfued; but Mr. Gay, to his no fmall Surprize, receiv'd Notice from my Lord Chamberlain, to bring to him the Opera, for his Perufal, which was accordingly done, and when, after fome Time, he was waited on for it to be return'd to the House, he told Mr. Gay, that for several Reasons, he did not think proper for it to be acted, and accordingly prohibited it: Nothing was left now but to publish it, and first, to foften here and there an Expreffion, to cause the less Reafon to appear for its being fupprefs'd. It wanted the natural Turn of the Beggars Opera, and feems upon the Whole, to mean little more than a fresh Satire, levell'd at the fame Place as the Beggars Opera was. Those who had taken Mr. Gay |