Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges Part 71

"MATTHEW PRIOR, ESQ., Commissioner of Trade.

"On the Queen's accession to the throne, he was continued in his office; is very well at Court with the ministry, and is an entire creature of my Lord Jersey's, whom he supports by his advice; is one of the best poets in England, but very facetious in conversation. A thin, hollow-looked man, turned of 40 years old. _This is near the truth._"

Yet counting as far as to fifty his years, His virtues and vices were as other men's are, High hopes he conceived and he smothered great fears, In a life party-coloured-half pleasure, half care.

Not to business a drudge, nor to faction a slave, He strove to make interest and freedom agree, In public employments industrious and grave, And alone with his friends, Lord, how merry was he!

Now in equipage stately, now humbly on foot, Both fortunes he tried, but to neither would trust; And whirled in the round as the wheel turned about, He found riches had wings, and knew man was but dust.

PRIOR'S _Poems_. ["For my own monument."]

109 "They joined to produce a parody, ent.i.tled _The Town and Country Mouse_, part of which Mr. Bayes is supposed to gratify his old friends Smart and Johnson, by repeating to them. The piece is therefore founded upon the twice-told jest of the _Rehearsal_....

There is nothing new or original in the idea.... In this piece, Prior, though the younger man, seems to have had by far the largest share."-SCOTT'S _Dryden_, vol. i, p. 330.

110 "He was to have been in the same commission with the Duke of Shrewsbury, but that that n.o.bleman," says Johnson, "refused to be a.s.sociated with one so meanly born. Prior therefore continued to act without a t.i.tle till the duke's return next year to England, and then he a.s.sumed the style and dignity of amba.s.sador."

He had been thinking of slights of this sort when he wrote his Epitaph:-

n.o.bles and heralds by your leave, Here lies what once was Matthew Prior, The son of Adam and of Eve; Can Bourbon or Na.s.sau claim higher?

But, in this case, the old prejudice got the better of the old joke.

111 His epigrams have the genuine sparkle:

THE REMEDY WORSE THAN THE DISEASE.

I sent for Radcliff; was so ill, That other doctors gave me over: He felt my pulse, prescribed a pill, And I was likely to recover.

But when the wit began to wheeze, And wine had warmed the politician, Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician.

Yes, every poet is a fool; By demonstration Ned can show it; Happy could Ned's inverted rule Prove every fool to be a poet.

On his death-bed poor Lubin lies, His spouse is in despair; With frequent sobs and mutual sighs, They both express their care.

A different cause, says Parson Sly, The same effect may give; Poor Lubin fears that he shall die, His wife that he may live.

112 PRIOR TO SIR THOMAS HANMER.

"Aug. 4, 1709.

"DEAR SIR,

"Friends.h.i.+p may live, I grant you, without being fed and cherished by correspondence; but with that additional benefit I am of opinion it will look more cheerful and thrive better: for in this case, as in love, though a man is sure of his own constancy, yet his happiness depends a good deal upon the sentiments of another, and while you and Chloe are alive, 'tis not enough that I love you both, except I am sure you both love me again; and as one of her scrawls fortifies my mind more against affliction than all Epictetus, with Simplicius's comments into the bargain, so your single letter gave me more real pleasure than all the works of Plato.... I must return my answer to your very kind question concerning my health. The Bath waters have done a good deal towards the recovery of it, and the great specific, _Cape Caballum_, will, I think, confirm it. Upon this head I must tell you that my mare Betty grows blind, and may one day, by breaking my neck, perfect my cure: if at Rixham fair any pretty nagg that is between thirteen and fourteen hands presented himself, and you would be pleased to purchase him for me, one of your servants might ride him to Euston, and I might receive him there. This, sir, is just as such a thing happens. If you hear, too, of a Welch widow, with a good jointure, that has her _goings_ and is not very skittish, pray, be pleased to cast your eye on her for me, too. You see, sir, the great trust I repose in your skill and honour, when I dare put two such commissions in your hand...."-_The Hanmer Correspondence_, p. 120.

FROM MR. PRIOR.

"Paris, 1st-12th May, 1714.

"MY DEAR LORD AND FRIEND,

"Matthew never had so great occasion to write a word to Henry as now: it is noised here that I am soon to return. The question that I wish I could answer to the many that ask, and to our friend Colbert de Torcy (to whom I made your compliments in the manner you commanded) is, What is done for me: and to what I am recalled? It may look like a bagatelle, what is to become of a philosopher like me? but it is not such: what is to become of a person who had the honour to be chosen, and sent hither as intrusted, in the midst of a war, with what the Queen designed should make the peace; returning with the Lord Bolingbroke, one of the greatest men in England, and one of the finest heads in Europe (as they say here, if true or not, _n'importe_); having been left by him in the greatest character (that of Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary), exercising that power conjointly with the Duke of Shrewsbury, and solely after his departure; having here received more distinguished honour than any minister, except an Amba.s.sador, ever did, and some which were never given to any, but who had that character; having had all the success that could be expected, having (G.o.d be thanked!) spared no pains, at a time when at home the peace is voted safe and honourable-at a time when the Earl of Oxford is Lord Treasurer and Lord Bolingbroke First Secretary of State? This unfortunate person, I say, neglected, forgot, unnamed to anything that may speak the Queen satisfied with his services, or his friends concerned as to his fortune.

"Mr. de Torcy put me quite out of countenance, the other day, by a pity that wounded me deeper than ever did the cruelty of the late Lord G.o.dolphin. He said he would write to Robin and Harry about me.

G.o.d forbid, my lord, that I should need any foreign intercession, or owe the least to any Frenchman living, besides the decency of behaviour and the returns of common civility: some say I am to go to Baden, others that I am to be added to the Commissioners for settling the commerce. In all cases I am ready, but in the meantime, _dic aliquid de tribus capellis_. Neither of these two are, I presume, honours or rewards, neither of them (let me say to my dear Lord Bolingbroke, and let him not be angry with me), are what Drift may aspire to, and what Mr. Whitworth, who was his fellow clerk, has or may possess. I am far from desiring to lessen the great merit of the gentleman I named, for I heartily esteem and love him; but in this trade of ours, my lord, in which you are the general, as in that of the soldiery, there is a certain right acquired by time and long service. You would do anything for your Queen's service, but you would not be contented to descend, and be degraded to a charge, no way proportioned to that of Secretary of State, any more than Mr.

Ross, though he would charge a party with a halbard in his hand, would be content all his life after to be Serjeant. Was my Lord Dartmouth, from Secretary, returned again to be Commissioner of Trade, or from Secretary of War, would Frank Gwyn think himself kindly used to be returned again to be Commissioner? In short, my lord, you have put me above myself, and if I am to return to myself, I shall return to something very discontented and uneasy. I am sure, my lord, you will make the best use you can of this hint for my good. If I am to have anything, it will certainly be for her Majesty's service, and the credit of my friends in the Ministry, that it be done before I am recalled from home, lest the world may think either that I have merited to be disgraced, or that ye dare not stand by me. If nothing is to be done, _fiat voluntas Dei_. I have writ to Lord Treasurer upon this subject, and having implored your kind intercession, I promise you it is the last remonstrance of this kind that I will ever make. Adieu, my lord; all honour, health, and pleasure to you.

"Yours ever,

"MATT."

"PS.-Lady Jersey is just gone from me. We drank your healths together in usquebaugh after our tea: we are the greatest friends alive. Once more adieu. There is no such thing as the _Book of Travels_ you mentioned; if there be, let friend Tilson send us more particular account of them, for neither I nor Jacob Tonson can find them. Pray send Barton back to me, I hope with some comfortable tidings."-_Bolingbroke's Letters._

113 "I asked whether Prior's poems were to be printed entire; Johnson said they were. I mentioned Lord Hales's censure of Prior in his preface to a collection of sacred poems, by various hands, published by him at Edinburgh a great many years ago, where he mentions 'these impure tales, which will be the eternal opprobium of their ingenious author'. JOHNSON: 'Sir, Lord Hales has forgot. There is nothing in Prior that will excite to lewdness. If Lord Hales thinks there is, he must be more combustible than other people.' I instanced the tale of _Paulo Purganti and his Wife_. JOHNSON: 'Sir, there is nothing there but that his wife wanted to be kissed, when poor Paulo was out of pocket. No, sir, Prior is a lady's book. No lady is ashamed to have it standing in her library.' "-BOSWELL'S _Life of Johnson_.

114 Gay was of an old Devons.h.i.+re family, but his pecuniary prospects not being great, was placed in his youth in the house of a silk-mercer in London. He was born in 1688-Pope's year, and in 1712 the d.u.c.h.ess of Monmouth made him her secretary. Next year he published his _Rural Sports_, which he dedicated to Pope, and so made an acquaintance, which became a memorable friends.h.i.+p.

"Gay," says Pope, "was quite a natural man,-wholly without art or design, and spoke just what he thought and as he thought it. He dangled for twenty years about a Court, and at last was offered to be made usher to the young princess. Secretary Craggs made Gay a present of stock in the South-Sea year; and he was once worth 20,000_l._, but lost it all again. He got about 500_l._ by the first _Beggar's Opera_, and 1,100_l._ or 1,200_l._ by the second. He was negligent and a bad manager. Latterly, the Duke of Queensberry took his money into his keeping, and let him only have what was necessary out of it, and, as he lived with them, he could not have occasion for much. He died worth upwards of 3,000_l._"-POPE (_Spence's Anecdotes_).

115 "Mr. Gay is, in all regards, as honest and sincere a man as ever I knew."-SWIFT, _to Lady Betty Germaine_, Jan. 1733.

116 Of manners gentle, of affections mild; In wit a man; simplicity, a child; With native humour temp'ring virtuous rage, Form'd to delight at once and lash the age; Above temptation in a low estate, And uncorrupted e'en among the great: A safe companion, and an easy friend, Unblamed through life, lamented in the end.

These are thy honours; not that here thy bust Is mix'd with heroes, or with kings thy dust; But that the worthy and the good shall say, Striking their pensive bosoms, "_Here_ lies Gay."

POPE'S _Epitaph on Gay_.

A hare who, in a civil way, Complied with everything, like Gay.

_Fables_, "The Hare and Many Friends."

117 "I can give you no account of Gay," says Pope, curiously, "since he was raffled for, and won back by his d.u.c.h.ess."-_Works_, Roscoe's ed., vol. ix, p. 392.

Here is the letter Pope wrote to him when the death of Queen Anne brought back Lord Clarendon from Hanover, and lost him the secretarys.h.i.+p of that n.o.bleman, of which he had had but a short tenure.

Gay's Court prospects were never happy from this time.-His dedication of the _Shepherd's Week_ to Bolingbroke, Swift used to call the "original sin", which had hurt him with the house of Hanover.

"Sept. 23, 1714.

"DEAR MR. GAY,

"Welcome to your native soil! welcome to your friends! thrice welcome to me! whether returned in glory, blest with Court interest, the love and familiarity of the great, and filled with agreeable hopes; or melancholy with dejection, contemplative of the changes of fortune, and doubtful for the future; whether returned a triumphant Whig or a depending Tory, equally all hail! equally beloved and welcome to me! If happy, I am to partake of your elevation; if unhappy, you have still a warm corner in my heart, and a retreat at Benfield in the worst of times at your service. If you are a Tory, or thought so by any man, I know it can proceed from nothing but your grat.i.tude to a few people who endeavoured to serve you, and whose politics were never your concern. If you are a Whig, as I rather hope, and as I think your principles and mine (as brother poets) had ever a bias to the side of liberty, I know you will be an honest man and an inoffensive one. Upon the whole, I know you are incapable of being so much of either party as to be good for nothing. Therefore, once more, whatever you are or in whatever state you are, all hail!

"One or two of your own friends complained they had nothing from you since the Queen's death; I told them no man living loved Mr. Gay better than I, yet I had not once written to him in all his voyage.

This I thought a convincing proof, but truly one may be a friend to another without telling him so every month. But they had reasons, too, themselves to allege in your excuse, as men who really value one another will never want such as make their friends and themselves easy. The late universal concern in public affairs threw us all into a hurry of spirits: even I, who am more a philosopher than to expect anything from any reign, was borne away with the current, and full of the expectation of the successor. During your journeys, I knew not whither to aim a letter after you; that was a sort of shooting flying: add to this the demand Homer had upon me, to write fifty verses a day, besides learned notes, all of which are at a conclusion for this year. Rejoice with me, O my friend! that my labour is over; come and make merry with me in much feasting. We will feed among the lilies (by the lilies I mean the ladies). Are not the Rosalindas of Britain as charming as the Blousalindas of the Hague? or have the two great Pastoral poets of our own nation renounced love at the same time? for Philips, unnatural Philips, hath deserted it, yea, and in a rustic manner kicked his Rosalind.

Dr. Parnell and I have been inseparable ever since you went. We are now at the Bath, where (if you are not, as I heartily hope, better engaged) your company would be the greatest pleasure to us in the world. Talk not of expenses: Homer shall support his children. I beg a line from you, directed to the Post-house in Bath. Poor Parnell is in an ill state of health.