to be treated like Friends. I would fend my Service to Mr. Pulteney, but that he is out of Favour at Court, and make fome Compliment to Mrs. Pulteney, if the is a Whig. My Lord Burlington tells me the 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 eclipfe thofe 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 Refpect and Efteem, 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, She looks Ambition, and fhe moves Difdain. Far other Carriage grac'd her Virgin Life, But charming Gumley's loft in P-lty's Wife: Not greater Arrogance in him we find, And this Conjunction fwells at laft her Mind. O could the Sire, renown'd in Glass, produce One faithful Mirrour for his Daughter's Ufe,

Wherein

Wherein she might her haughty Errors trace,
And by Reflection learn to mend her Face;
The wonted Sweetnefs to her Form reftore,
Be what the was, and charm Mankind once more.

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
Each Neighbour abuses his Brother,

Whore and Rogue they call Husband and Wife,
All Profeffions be-rogue one another.
The Prieft calls the Lawyer a Cheat,

The Lawyer be-knaves the Divine,

And the Statesman because he's so great,
Thinks his Trade as honeft as mine.

This, before it was alter'd by Mr. Pope, was not se fharp, the two last Lines only saying :

And there's many arrive to be Great,
By a Trade not more honeft than mine.

And the Song of Mackeath after his being taken,

SINCE Laws were made for every Degree,

To curb Vice in others as well as me,

I wonder we han't better Company

Upon Tyburn Tree, &c.

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 finifh'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 Houfe, 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 publifh it, and first, to föften here and there an Expreffion, to caufe the lefs 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

into Protection, ftill upheld him, yet he could not bear this (to him) fo very great a Difappointment, and on this Subject, not long after, he writes to Mr. Pope, who was fo deeply concern'd at it, that he (being ill before) was made fo much worse as to keep his Chamber many Weeks. Mr. Gay's Letter was thus:

Dear Mr. Pope,

MY

me.

Y Melancholy increafes, and every Hour threatens me with fome Return of my Diftemper; nay, I think I may rather fay I have it on Not the divine Looks, the kind Favours and Expreffions of the divine Dutchefs, who hereafter shall be in Place of a Queen to me, (nay, fhe fhall be my Queen) nor the inexpreffible Goodness of the Duke, can in the leaft chear me. The DrawingRoom no more receives Light from those two Stars. There is now what Milton fays is in Hell, Darkness vifible. -O that I had never known what a Court was! Dear Pope, what a barren Soil (to me fo) have I been striving to produce fomething out of! Why did I not take your Advice before my writing Fables for the Duke, not to write them? Or rather, to write them for fome young Nobleman? It is my very hard Fate, I must get nothing, write for them or against them. I find myfelf in fuch aftrange Confufion and Depreffion of Spirits, that I have not Strength even to make my Will; though I perceive, by many Warnings, I have no continuing City here. I begin to look upon myself as one already dead and defire, my dear Mr. Pope, (whom I love as my own Soul) if you furvive me, (as you certainly will). that you will, if a Stone fhould mark the Place of my Grave, fee thefe Words put on it:

Life is a Jeft, and all Things show it; I thought fo once, but now I know it. With what more you may think proper.

If any Body fhould afk, how I could communicate this after Death? Let it be known, it is not meant fo, but my present Sentiment in Life. What the Bearer brings befides this Letter, fhould I die without a Will, (which I am the likelier to do, as the Law will fettle my small Eftate much as I fhould myself) let it remain with you, as it has long done with me, Remembrance of a dead Friend: But there is none like you, living or dead.

I am, dear Mr. Pope,

Your's, &c. JOHN GAY.

When all his Expectations from the Court were thus reduced to nothing, Mr. Pope, before this last Letter, wrote him one in a Boldnefs of Spirit, and with Freedom; fit to be feen and read by him, but never meant to be the Object of the publick Eye, It was dated Oct. 6, 1727.

Dear Sir,

HAVE many Years ago magnify'd in my own Mind, and repeated to you, a ninth Beatitude, added to the eighth in the Scripture; "Bleffed is he "who expects nothing, for he fhall never be disap"pointed." I could find in my Heart to congratu late you on this happy Difmiffion from all Court-Dependance: I dare fay, I fhall find you the better and the honefter Man for it many Years hence; very probably the healthfuller, and the chearfuller into the Bargain. You are happily rid of many curfed Ceremonies, as well as of many ill and vicious Habits, of which few or no Men escape the Infection, who are

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