come to my hands till two days after sir William Fownes's death; who, having been long afflicted with the stone and other disorders, besides great old age, died about nine days ago. If he had recovered, I should have certainly waited on him with your poem *, and recommended it and the author very heartily to his favour. I have seen fewer good panegyricks than any other sort of writing, especially in verse, and therefore I much approve the method you have taken; I mean, that of describing a person who possesseth every virtue, and rather waving that sir William Fownes was in your thoughts, than that your picture was like in every part. He had indeed a very good natural understanding, nor wanted a talent for poetry; but his education denied him. learning, for he knew no other language except his own; yet he was a man of taste and humour, as well as a wise and useful citizen, as appeared by some little treatise for regulating the government of this city; and I often wished his advice had been taken. I read your poem several times, and showed it to three or four judicious friends, who all approved it, but agreed with me, that it wanted some corrections. Upon which I took a number of lines, which are in pears rather to be conjecture than a well established fact. It is certain he was at times grievously afflicted with a very terrible disorder in his head, to which his friends ascribed his melancholy catastrophe. On the 17th of May, 1737, soon after the publication of his poem, he cut his throat with such shocking resolution, that it was reported his head was almost severed from his body. * The poem which Mr. Beach sent was that he afterward published under the title of Eugenio; and, from a perusal of it, we find he adopted every one of the dean's hints and corrections. Even the triplet is discarded, and the poem now consists of three hundred lines. all 299, the odd number being occasioned by what they call a triplet, which was a vicious way of rhyming, wherewith Dryden abounded, and was imitated by all the bad versifiers in Charles the Second's reign. Dryden, though my near relation, is one I have often blamed as well as pitied. He was poor, and in great haste to finish his plays, because by them he chiefly supported his family, and this made him so very uncorrect; he likewise brought in the Alexandrine verse at the end of his triplets. I was so angry at these corruptions, that about twenty-four years ago I banished them all by one triplet, with the Alexandrine, upon a very ridiculous subject *. I absolutely did prevail with Mr. Pope, and Gay, and Dr. Young, and one or two more, to reject them. Mr. Pope never used them till he translated Homer, which was too long a work to be so very exact in; and I think in one or two of his last poems he has, out of laziness, done the same thing, though very seldom. I now proceed to what I would have corrected in your poem. Line 6, for han't, read want; I abhor those han'ts and won'ts, &c. they are detestable in verse as well as prose. L. 46, for whilst, put while. L. 83, derives, I doubt, there is no verb deponent, but always active. L. 106, "If Noll usurps, or James;" Noll is too much a cant word for a grave poem; and as to James, he was a weak bigotted papist, desirous, like all kings, of absolute power, but not properly a tyrant. P. 109. And midst harsh and rough, the elision unluckily placed. L. 115, 116. I cannot suffer an ill rhyme, such as seen and scene; (I forgot the triplet in L. 108, which I wish * See the concluding lines of the Description of a City Shower, were were clipped of one of its three wings;) and L. 110, to Glory, I wish it were in Glory. L. 118. Does. This word should be avoided, as a mere expletive. L. 155. Does. The same fault. L. 161. The Ingrate. This verse is not right measure, but sounds very ill. L. 201. Cheerful, &c. This verse wants. a verb, as are, or some other. 204. Does. L. 217, for pervade it should be pervades. L. 218, and grows, Quere, is not or more proper? L. 278, Cuzzoni fam'd. This is an expletive, not a proper epithet. L. 289, That dares. The word that, as it is placed, spoils the whole line, and is not proper, for the right word should be who. L. 294, Reascend. I know not the reason for this word. Why not rather ascend? I slipped, L. 290, Than, I suppose you only meant then. You will do right to read over your poem carefully, and observe where there be any more oversights of the same kind with those I have noted, and to be corrected; which you can do better than any other person. A friend can only see what is amiss, but the writer can mend it more easily. All you desire in relation to sir W. F. is at an end by his death; otherwise I should gladly have performed it in the best and most effectual manner I was able. As to the publishing it here, I utterly differ from you. No printer in this beggarly town, and enslaved starving kingdom, would print it without being paid his full charge of his labour, nor would be able to sell two dozen unless he could afford it for a penny.' I would rather advise you to have it published in London by Motte or Lintot, or any other bookseller there who deals in poetry. It would bear a shilling price; but, as I presume you are not much known as N 4 a poet a poet in that great city, you should get some person of consequence to recommend it. As to what things are printed here on supposition they were mine, the thing was done directly against my inclinations, out of the disdain I had of their being published in so obscure and wretched a country. But I would have been well enough satisfied if the booksellers in London could have agreed among themselves to print them there; and I believe they now repent they did not, because every printer there hath a property in their copy; and what things are supposed to be mine belonged to several booksellers, who might have shared equally, according to what copies they held. I have been called away till evening however, my paper could afford me but little more room if I had staid. I am, with true esteem, sir, Your most humble servant, JONATHAN SWIFT. FROM ALDERMAN BARBER. DEAR SIR, QUEEN SQUARE, APRIL 22, 1735. It T was with great pleasure I had the favour of your most obliging letter by the hands of Mr. Richardson, agent to the Irish society; for as I am always proud to receive your commands, he may depend upon any service I can do him that is in my power: when I say this, I make you no great compliment; for as that gentleman's gentlenian's merit has raised him to the post he now enjoys under the society, it is hardly to be doubted but that his integrity, and good conduct for the future, will easily preserve his interest in that body. I am very sorry to hear that your old complaints. from your head continue; and the more so, because they have deprived your friends here of the great pleasure and satisfaction of seeing you among them, which is a sensible mortification to them indeed; but I am very much pleased with the account you give of your way of living, because I am a living instance, how the economy you are under must necessarily preserve your life many years. I have the gout sometimes, the asthma very much, and of late frequent pains in my bowels; and yet, by keeping in a constant regular way, I battle them all, and am in much better health than I was twelve years ago, when four top physicians pronounced me a dead man, and sent me abroad to die. I ride when I can, but not in winter; for the fogs and mists, and cold weather, murder me. I drink a pint of claret at dinner (none at night) and have a good stomach, with a bad digestion but I have good spirits, and am cheerful, I thank God. I beg pardon for entertaining you so long with my infirmities, which I would humbly apply, That if my being regular, with so many distempers, preserves me to almost a miracle, what must the same method produce in you? About ten days ago I saw Mr. Pope, who is very well so is the lord of Dawley *. It is a melancholy reflection you make, how many * Bolingbroke. friends |