* Since Harley bid me first attend, As "What's o'clock?" And, "How's the wind?" "Whose chariot's that we left behind ?" Invidiæ. -Subjectior in diem et horam Frigidus á rostris manat per compita rumor; *The rise and progress of Swift's intimacy with lord Oxford is minutely detailed in his very interesting Journal to Stella. And the reasons why a man, that served a ministry so effectually, was so tardily, and so difficultly, and so poorly rewarded, are well explained in Sheridan's Life of Swift, and arose principally from the insuperable aversion the queen had conceived to the author of a Tale of a Tub as a profane book; which aversion was kept alive and increased by the duchess of Somerset, against whom Swift had written a severe lampoon. It appears from this life, that lords Oxford and Bolingbroke always kept concealed from Swift their inability to serve him. One of the most common artifices of ministers and great men is to retain in their service those whom they cannot reward, and " spe pascere inani ;"-for year after year.With whatever secrets Swift might have been trusted, it does not appear he knew any thing of a design to bring in the pretender.Swift was a true whig. His political principles are amply unfolded in an excellent letter written to Pope, January 20, 1721 indeed they had been sufficiently displayed, many years before, in The Sentiments of a Church of England Man; a treatise replete with strong sense, sound principles, and clear reasoning. WAR ΤΟΝ. and The real cause of Swift's disappointment in his hopes of preferment is explained in Coxe's Memoirs of Walpole. Both Gay and Swift conceived every thing was to be gained by the interest of Mrs Howard, to whom they paid incessant court. BOWLES. Or gravely try to read the lines My lord and me as far as Staines, What! they admire him for his jokes?-- Jurantem me scire nihil, miratur, ut unum * Another of their amusements in these excursions consisted in lord Oxford and Swift's counting the poultry on the road, and which ever reckoned thirty-one first, or saw a cat, or an old woman, won the game. Bolingbroke, overtaking them one day in their road to Windsor, got into lord Oxford's coach, and began some political conversation; lord Oxford said, "Swift, I am up; there is a cat." Bolingbroke was disgusted with this levity, and went again into his own carriage. This was Nugari et discincti ludere" with a witness. WARTON. I'm stopp'd by all the fools I meet, I know no more than my lord mayor, Thus in a sea of folly tost, Those cares that haunt the court and town.* Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno, et inertibus horis, O quando faba Pythagoræ cognata, simulque *Thus far was translated by Dr Swift in 1714. The remaining part of the ode was afterward added by Mr Pope; in whose works the whole is printed. See Dr Warton's edition, vol. vi. p. 13. HORACE, BOOK II. ODE I. PARA- ADDRESSED TO RICHARD STEELE, ESQ. "En qui promittit, cives, urbem sibi curæ, HOR. 1 SAT. vi. 34. DICK, thou'rt resolved, as I am told, Which thou (such Burnet's shrewd advice is) * This and the next poem were first added to the Dean's Works, by Mr Nichols, from copies in the Lambeth Library, K. 1, 2, 29, 30. For the immediate subject of the satire the reader may take the trouble to turn to vol. v. p. 359. 393. 4to. + Samuel Buckley, publisher of the Crisis. great, The bucket-play 'twixt whigs and tories, For which no heads have yet atoned! Thou must no longer deal in farce, By which wise conduct they grow friends * This is said to be a plot of a comedy with which Mr Steele has long threatened the town.-SWIFT. |