Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges Part 63

33 It was his constant practice to keep his birthday as a day of mourning.

34 "These devils of Grub Street rogues, that write the _Flying Post_ and _Medley_ in one paper, will not be quiet. They are always mauling Lord Treasurer, Lord Bolingbroke, and me. We have the dog under prosecution, but Bolingbroke is not active enough; but I hope to swinge him. He is a Scotch rogue, one Ridpath. They get out upon bail, and write on. We take them again, and get fresh bail; so it goes round."-_Journal to Stella._

35 Swift was by no means inclined to forget such considerations; and his English birth makes its mark, strikingly enough, every now and then in his writings. Thus in a letter to Pope (SCOTT'S _Swift_, vol. xix, p. 97), he says:-

"We have had your volume of letters.... Some of those who highly value you, and a few who knew you personally, are grieved to find you make no distinction between the English gentry of this kingdom, and the savage old Irish (who are only the vulgar, and some gentlemen who live in the Irish parts of the kingdom); but the English colonies, who are three parts in four, are much more civilized than many counties in England, and speak better English, and are much better bred."

And again, in the fourth Drapier's Letter, we have the following:-

"A short paper, printed at Bristol, and reprinted here, reports Mr.

Wood to say 'that he wonders at the impudence and insolence of the Irish, in refusing his coin.' When, by the way, it is the true English people of Ireland who refuse it, although we take it for granted that the Irish will do so too whenever they are asked."-SCOTT'S _Swift_, vol. iv, p. 143.

He goes further, in a good-humoured satirical paper, _On Barbarous Denominations in Ireland_, where (after abusing, as he was wont, the Scotch cadence, as well as expression), he advances to the "_Irish brogue_", and speaking of the "censure" which it brings down, says:-

"And what is yet worse, it is too well known that the bad consequence of this opinion affects those among us who are not the least liable to such reproaches farther than the misfortune of being born in Ireland, although of English parents, and whose education has been chiefly in that kingdom."-Ibid. vol. vii, p. 149.

But, indeed, if we are to make _anything_ of Race at all, we must call that man an Englishman whose father comes from an old Yorks.h.i.+re family, and his mother from an old Leicesters.h.i.+re one!

36 "The style of his conversation was very much of a piece with that of his writings, concise and clear and strong. Being one day at a sheriff's feast, who amongst other toasts called out to him, 'Mr.

Dean. The trade of Ireland!' he answered quick: 'Sir, I drink no memories!'

"Happening to be in company with a petulant young man who prided himself on saying pert things ... and who cried out, 'You must know, Mr. Dean, that I set up for a wit?' 'Do you so?' says the Dean.

'Take my advice, and sit down again!'

"At another time, being in company, where a lady whisking her long train [long trains were then in fas.h.i.+on] swept down a fine fiddle and broke it; Swift cried out-

Mantua vae miserae nimium vicina Cremonae!"

-DR. DELANY, _Observations upon Lord Orrery's __"__Remarks, &c. of Swift__"_. London, 1754.

37 "Don't you remember how I used to be in pain when Sir William Temple would look cold and out of humour for three or four days, and I used to suspect a hundred reasons? I have plucked up my spirits since then, faith; he spoiled a fine gentleman."-_Journal to Stella._

38 "The Epicureans were more intelligible in their notion, and fortunate in their expression, when they placed a man's happiness in the tranquillity of his mind and indolence of body; for while we are composed of both, I doubt both must have a share in the good or ill we feel. As men of several languages say the same things in very different words, so in several ages, countries, const.i.tutions of laws and religion, the same thing seems to be meant by very different expressions; what is called by the Stoics apathy, or dispa.s.sion; by the sceptics, indisturbance; by the Molinists, quietism; by common men, peace of conscience,-seems all to mean but great tranquillity of mind.... For this reason Epicurus pa.s.sed his life wholly in his garden: there he studied, there he exercised, there he taught his philosophy; and, indeed, no other sort of abode seems to contribute so much to both the tranquillity of mind and indolence of body, which he made his chief ends. The sweetness of the air, the pleasantness of smell, the verdure of plants, the cleanness and lightness of food, the exercise of working or walking, but, above all, the exemption from cares and solicitude, seem equally to favour and improve both contemplation and health, the enjoyment of sense and imagination, and thereby the quiet and ease both of the body and mind.... Where Paradise was has been much debated, and little agreed; but what sort of place is meant by it may perhaps easier be conjectured. It seems to have been a Persian word, since Xenophon and other Greek authors mention it as what was much in use and delight among the kings of those eastern countries.

Strabo describing Jericho: 'Ibi est palmetum, cui immixtae sunt etiam ahae stirpes hortenses, locus ferax palmis abundans, spatio stadiorum centum, totus irriguus: ibi est Regis Balsami paradisus.' "-_Essay on Gardens._

In the same famous essay Temple speaks of a friend, whose conduct and prudence he characteristically admires.

"I thought it very prudent in a gentleman of my friends in Staffords.h.i.+re, who is a great lover of his garden, to pretend no higher, though his soil be good enough, than to the perfection of plums; and in these (by bestowing south walls upon them) he has very well succeeded, which he could never have done in attempts upon peaches and grapes; and _a good plum is certainly better than an ill peach_."

39 SWIFT'S THOUGHTS ON HANGING.

(_Directions to Servants._)

"To grow old in the office of a footman is the highest of all indignities; therefore, when you find years coming on without hopes of place at Court, a command in the army, a succession to the stewards.h.i.+p, an employment in the revenue (which two last you cannot obtain without reading and writing), or running away with your master's niece or daughter, I directly advise you to go upon the road, which is the only post of honour left you: there you will meet many of your old comrades, and live a short life and a merry one, and making a figure at your exit, wherein I will give you some instructions.

"The last advice I give you relates to your behaviour when you are going to be hanged; which, either for robbing your master, for housebreaking, or going upon the highway, or in a drunken quarrel by killing the first man you meet, may very probably be your lot, and is owing to one of these three qualities: either a love of good fellows.h.i.+p, a generosity of mind, or too much vivacity of spirits.

Your good behaviour on this article will concern your whole community; deny the fact with all solemnity of imprecations: a hundred of your brethren, if they can be admitted, will attend about the bar, and be ready upon demand to give you a character before the Court; let nothing prevail on you to confess, but the promise of a pardon for discovering your comrades: but I suppose all this to be in vain; for if you escape now, your fate will be the same another day. Get a speech to be written by the best author of Newgate: some of your kind wenches will provide you with a holland s.h.i.+rt and white cap, crowned with a crimson or black ribbon: take leave cheerfully of all your friends in Newgate: mount the cart with courage; fall on your knees; lift up your eyes; hold a book in your hands, although you cannot read a word; deny the fact at the gallows; kiss and forgive the hangman; and so farewell; you shall be buried in pomp at the charge of the fraternity: the surgeon shall not touch a limb of you; and your fame shall continue until a successor of equal renown succeeds in your place...."

40 "He continued in Sir William Temple's house till the death of that great man."-_Anecdotes of the Family of Swift_, by the DEAN.

"It has since pleased G.o.d to take this great and good person to himself."-Preface to _Temple's Works_.

On all _public_ occasions, Swift speaks of Sir William in the same tone. But the reader will better understand how acutely he remembered the indignities he suffered in his household, from the subjoined extracts from the _Journal to Stella_:-

"I called at Mr. Secretary the other day, to see what the d-- ailed him on Sunday: I made him a very proper speech; told him I observed he was much out of temper, that I did not expect he would tell me the cause, but would be glad to see he was in better; and one thing I warned him of-never to appear cold to me, for I would not be treated like a schoolboy; that I had felt too much of that in my life already" [_meaning Sir William Temple_] &c. &c.-_Journal to Stella._

"I am thinking what a veneration we used to have for Sir William Temple because he might have been Secretary of State at fifty; and here is a young fellow hardly thirty in that employment."-_Ibid._

"The Secretary is as easy with me as Mr. Addison was. I have often thought what a splutter Sir William Temple makes about being Secretary of State."-_Ibid._

"Lord Treasurer has had an ugly fit of the rheumatism, but is now quite well. I was playing at _one-and-thirty_ with him and his family the other night. He gave us all twelvepence a piece to begin with; it put me in mind of Sir William Temple."-_Ibid._

"I thought I saw Jack Temple [_nephew to Sir William_] and his wife pa.s.s by me to-day in their coach; but I took no notice of them. I am glad I have wholly shaken off that family."-_S. to S. Sept., 1710._

41 "Swift must be allowed," says Dr. Johnson, "for a time, to have dictated the political opinions of the English nation."

A conversation on the Dean's pamphlets excited one of the Doctor's liveliest sallies. "One, in particular, praised his _Conduct of the Allies_.-Johnson: 'Sir, his _Conduct of the Allies_ is a performance of very little ability.... Why, sir, Tom Davies might have written the _Conduct of the Allies_!' "-BOSWELL'S _Life of Johnson_.

42 "Whenever he fell into the company of any person for the first time, it was his custom to try their tempers and disposition by some abrupt question that bore the appearance of rudeness. If this were well taken, and answered with good humour, he afterwards made amends by his civilities. But if he saw any marks of resentment, from alarmed pride, vanity, or conceit, he dropped all further intercourse with the party. This will be ill.u.s.trated by an anecdote of that sort related by Mrs. Pilkington. After supper, the Dean having decanted a bottle of wine, poured what remained into a gla.s.s, and seeing it was muddy, presented it to Mr. Pilkington to drink it.

'For,' said he, 'I always keep some poor parson to drink the foul wine for me.' Mr. Pilkington, entering into his humour, thanked him, and told him 'he did not know the difference, but was glad to get a gla.s.s at any rate.' 'Why then,' said the Dean, 'you shan't, for I'll drink it myself. Why, -- take you, you are wiser than a paltry curate whom I asked to dine with me a few days ago; for upon my making the same speech to him, he said, he did not understand such usage, and so walked off without his dinner. By the same token, I told the gentleman who recommended him to me, that the fellow was a blockhead, and I had done with him.' "-SHERIDAN'S _Life of Swift_.

43 FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF CASh.e.l.l.

"Cash.e.l.l, May 31st, 1735

"DEAR SIR,-

"I have been so unfortunate in all my contests of late, that I am resolved to have no more, especially where I am likely to be overmatched; and as I have some reason to hope what is past will be forgotten, I confess I did endeavour in my last to put the best colour I could think of upon a very bad cause. My friends judge right of my idleness; but, in reality, it has. .h.i.therto proceeded from a hurry and confusion, arising from a thousand unlucky unforeseen accidents rather than mere sloth. I have but one troublesome affair now upon my hands, which, by the help of the prime serjeant, I hope soon to get rid of; and then you shall see me a true Irish bishop. Sir James Ware has made a very useful collection of the memorable actions of my predecessors. He tells me, they were born in such a town of England or Ireland; were consecrated such a year; and, if not translated, were buried in the Cathedral church, either on the north or south side. Whence I conclude, that a good bishop has nothing more to do than to eat, drink, grow fat, rich, and die; which laudable example I propose for the remainder of my life to follow; for to tell you the truth, I have for these four or five years past met with so much treachery, baseness, and ingrat.i.tude among mankind, that I can hardly think it inc.u.mbent on any man to endeavour to do good to so perverse a generation.

"I am truly concerned at the account you give me of your health.

Without doubt a southern ramble will prove the best remedy you can take to recover your flesh; and I do not know, except in one stage, where you can choose a road so suited to your circ.u.mstances, as from Dublin hither. You have to Kilkenny a turnpike and good inns, at every ten or twelve miles' end. From Kilkenny hither is twenty long miles, bad road, and no inns at all: but I have an expedient for you. At the foot of a very high hill, just midway, there lives in a neat thatched cabin, a parson, who is not poor; his wife is allowed to be the best little woman in the world. Her chickens are the fattest, and her ale the best in all the country. Besides, the parson has a little cellar of his own, of which he keeps the key, where he always has a hogshead of the best wine that can be got, in bottles well corked, upon their side; and he cleans, and pulls out the cork better, I think, than Robin. Here I design to meet you with a coach; if you be tired, you shall stay all night; if not, after dinner we will set out about four, and be at Cash.e.l.l by nine; and by going through fields and by-ways, which the parson will show us, we shall escape all the rocky and stony roads that lie between this place and that, which are certainly very bad. I hope you will be so kind as to let me know a post or two before you set out, the very day you will be at Kilkenny, that I may have all things prepared for you. It may be, if you ask him, Cope will come: he will do nothing for me. Therefore, depending upon your positive promise, I shall add no more arguments to persuade you, and am, with the greatest truth, your most faithful and obedient servant,

"THEO. CASh.e.l.l."

44 "Mr. Swift lived with him [Sir William Temple] some time, but resolving to settle himself in some way of living, was inclined to take orders. However, although his fortune was very small, he had a scruple of entering into the Church merely for support."-_Anecdotes of the Family of Swift_, by the DEAN.

45 "Dr. Swift had a natural severity of face, which even his smiles could never soften, or his utmost gaiety render placid and serene; but when that sternness of visage was increased by rage, it is scarce possible to imagine looks or features that carried in them more terror and austerity."-ORRERY.

46 "London, April 10th, 1713.

"Lady Masham's eldest boy is very ill: I doubt he will not live; and she stays at Kensington to nurse him, which vexes us all. She is so excessively fond, it makes me mad. She should never leave the queen, but leave everything, to stick to what is so much the interest of the public, as well as her own...."-_Journal._

47 "My health is somewhat mended, but at best I have an ill head and an aching heart."-_In May, 1719._

48 Perhaps the most melancholy satire in the whole of the dreadful book, is the description of the very old people in the Voyage to Laputa. At Lugnag, Gulliver hears of some persons who never die, called the Struldbrugs, and expressing a wish to become acquainted with men who must have so much learning and experience, his colloquist describes the Struldbrugs to him.

"He said, They commonly acted like mortals, till about thirty years old, after which, by degrees, they grew melancholy and dejected, increasing in both till they came to fourscore. This he learned from their own confession: for otherwise there not being above two or three of that species born in an age, they were too few to form a general observation by. When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more, which arose from the prospect of never dying. They were not only opinionative, peevish, covetous, morose, vain, talkative, but incapable of friends.h.i.+p, and dead to all natural affection, which never descended below their grandchildren. Envy and impotent desires are their prevailing pa.s.sions. But those objects against which their envy seems princ.i.p.ally directed, are the vices of the younger sort and the deaths of the old. By reflecting on the former, they find themselves cut off from all possibility of pleasure; and whenever they see a funeral, they lament, and repent that others are gone to a harbour of rest, to which they themselves never can hope to arrive. They have no remembrance of anything but what they learned and observed in their youth and middle age, and even that is very imperfect. And for the truth or particulars of any fact, it is safer to depend on common tradition than upon their best recollections.

The least miserable among them appear to be those who turn to dotage, and entirely lose their memories; these meet with more pity and a.s.sistance, because they want many bad qualities which abound in others.