degrees of stiffness before-hand; and when our ladies chins have been tickled a-while with ftarched muflin and wire, they may poffibly bear the brush of a German beard and whisker.

I could tell you a delightful story of Dr. P. but want room to display it in all its fhining circumftances. He had heard it was an excellent cure for love, to kifs the Aunt of the perfon beloved, who is generally of years and experience enough to damp the fiercest flame; he try'd this course in his paffion, and kissed Mrs. E at Mr. D-'s, but, he fays, it will not do, and that he loves you as much as ever.

Your, etc.

We have already remarked, that when thefe Letters came to be published, Pope left out paffages that might be thought offenfive, and corrected others. It appears alfo, on an infpection of the originals of fome of them, which are now before us, that he not only omitted paffages, but tranfpofed the order of his paragraphs, for reasons which it is not now eafy to guefs. That the reader, however, may have one fpecimen of his first thoughts and his laft corrections, we fhall here exhibit an exact transcript of the preceding LETTER VII.

"To Mrs. Terefa Blount, at Mapledurham, near Redding. “Madam,

C.

Bath, Sept.

"I write to you for two reasons: one is because you com manded it, which will be always a reafon to me in any thing; the other, because I fit at home to take phyfick, and they tell me I muft do nothing that cofts me great application or great pains, therefore I can neither fay my prayers nor write verfes. I am ordered to think but flightly of any thing, and I am practifing if I can think fe of you, which, if I can bring about, I shall be

above regarding any thing in nature for the future: I may then think of the world as a hazle nut, the fun as a fpangle, and the king's coronation as a puppet-show. When my phyfick makes me remember those I love, may it not be faid to work kindly? (Hide I beseech you this pun from Miss Patty, who hates them in compliance to the taste of a noble earl, whofe modefty makes him deteft double-meanings.)

66

Pray tell that Lady, all the good qualities and virtuous inclinations she has, never gave me so much pleasure in her conversation, as that one vice of her obftinacy will give me mortification this month. Ratcliffe commands her to the Bath, and she refuses ! Indeed, if I were in Berkshire, I should honour her for this obftinacy, and magnify her no less for disobedience than we do the Barce lonians*: I fhould be charmed with this glorious rebel to Ratcliffe, whom all the great and the fair obey as a Tyrant, and from the fame fervile principle, the fear of death. But people change with the change of places (as we fee of late), and virtues become vices when they ceafe to be for one's intereft, with me as with other folks.

"Yet let me tell her, she will never look fo finely while she is upon earth, as fhe would in the water. It is not here as in moft other inftances, but thofe Ladies that would please extremely must go out of their own element. She does not make half so good a figure on horseback as Christina Queen of Sweden; but were she once feen in the Bath, no man would part with her for the best mermaid in Chriftendom. Ladies, I have feen you often, I perfectly know how you look in black and white, I have experienced the utmost you can do in any colours; but all your movements, all your graceful fteps, all your attitudes and poftures, defervè not half the glory you might here attain, of a moving and easy behaviour in buckram: fomething betwixt swimming and walking, free enough, yet more modeftly-half-naked than you appear any where elfe. You have conquered enough already by land; show your ambition, and vanquish also by water. We have no pretty admirals on these feas, but muft ftrike fail to your white flags were they once hoisted up. The buckram I mention is a dress particularly useful at this time, when the princefs is bringing over the fashion of German ruffs: you ought to use yourselves to fome degrees of ftiffness before-hand; and when our ladies chins have been tickled a-while

An allufion to the obttinate efiftance of the Barcelonians, when befieged by the Duke of Berwick in 1714. C.

a-while with ftarched muflin and wires, they may possibly bear the brush of a German beard and whifker.

Having told you that I am here, I will acquaint you how I got hither: Dr. Parnelle detained me at Binfield fome days longer than I proposed when I left Mapledurham, though he came to the country on the day of his appointment. We gave the flip to every body, as you may imagine, when we could pass by your house within two miles of it. The gay Archdeacon had violent yearnings towards you. Thrice he flopped his fteed, and thrice he spurred him away; love and inclination pushed him on, but defpair withheld: not to add, that the very hairs of his beard ftood an end with fear of your eyes; that is to fay, he was not fhaved. Had he given the parting falute, it had been the most masculine one you ever received. As for me I had the like palpitation of heart towards your fifter, for it happened on a day when I defied you and all your works.

"You are to understand, Madam, that my violent paffion for your fair felf and your fifter has been divided with the most wonderful regularity in the world. Even from my infancy 1 have been in love with one after the other of you, week by week; and my journey to Bath fell out in the three hundred seventyfixth week of the reign of my fovereign Lady Martha. At the prefent writing hereof, it is the three hundred eighty-ninth week of the reign of your moft ferene majefty, in whofe fervice I was lifted fome weeks before I beheld her. This information will account for my writing to either of you hereafter, as the fhall happen to be Queen Regent at that time.

"I could tell you a most delightful story of Dr. Parnelle, but want room to display it in all its fhining circumftances. He had heard it was an excellent cure for love, to kifs the Aunt of the perfon beloved, who is generally of years and experience enough to damp the fierceft flame; he tried this courfe in his paffion for you, and kiffed Mrs. Englefyld at Mrs. Dancafter's. This recipe he hath left written, in the ftyle of a divine, as follows: "Whofo loveth Mifs Blount fhall kifs her Aunt and be healed. For he kiffeth her not as her husband, who kiffeth and is enflaved for ever, as one of the foolish ones but as a passenger who paffeth away and forgetteth the kifs of her mouth; even as the wind faluteth a flower in his paffage, and knoweth not the odour thereof *.

"When this letter is printed for the wit of it, pray take care that what is underlined be printed in a different character."

* This foolish ribaldry was probably Pope's. Parnelle had been lome years married to a Lady whofe death almost broke his heart.

C.

LETTER VIII.

TO THE SAME.

IF you afk how the waters agree with me, I must tell you, fo very well, that I queftion how you and I fhould agree if we were in a room by ourfelves. Mrs.

-* has honestly affured me, that but for fome whims which fhe can't entirely conquer, fhe would go and fee the world with me in man's cloaths. Even you, Madam, I fancy, (if you would not partake in our adventures,) would wait our coming in at the evening with fome impatience, and be well enough pleased to hear them by the fire-fide. That would be better than reading romances, unlefs Lady M. would be our hif torian. What raifes thefe defires in me, is an acquaintance I am beginning with my Lady Sandwich, who has all the spirit of the last age, and all the gay experience of a pleasurable life. It were as fcandalous an omiffion to come to the Bath, and not fee my Lady Sandwich, as it had formerly been to have travelled to Rome without vifiting the Queen of Sweden. She is, in a word, the best thing this country has to boast of; and as fhe has been all that a woman of fpirit could be, fo she still continues that eafy and independent creature that a fenfible woman always will be.

Mrs. Thomas. So it is in the Original.

I must

I must tell you the truth, which is not, however, much to my credit. I never thought fo much of yourself and your fifter, as fince I have been fourfcore miles distant from you. In the Forest I looked upon you as good neighbours, at London as pretty kind of women, but here as divinities, angels, goddeffes, or what you will. In the fame manner I never knew at what rate I valued your life till you were upon the point of dying. If Mr. and you will but fall very fick every season, I fhall certainly die for you. Seriously I value you both so much, that I esteem others much the lefs for your fakes; you have robbed me of the pleasure of esteeming a thousand pretty qualities in them, by fhowing me fo many finer in yourselves. There are but two things in the world which could make you indifferent to me, which, I believe, you are not capable of, I mean ill-nature and malice. I have feen enough of you, not to overlook any frailty you could have, and nothing less than a vice could make me like you lefs. I expect you should discover by my conduct towards you both, that this is true, and that therefore you fhould pardon a thousand things in me for that one difpofition. Expect nothing from me but truth and freedom, and I fhall always be thought by you, what I always am,

Your, etc.