out of the my acknowledgment of ten guineas receiv'd from him; and, as I told you, I owe him for above three yards of fine cloath: let him reckon for it; and then there will remain the rest for me, ten more names wch he has given in. If he has not money by him, let him blott out as many of his names as he thinks good; and print onely those for which he pays or strikes off, in adjusting the accounts betwixt me and him. This is so reasonable on both sides, that he cannot refuse it; but I wou'd have things ended now, because I am pints of white wine," &c. Mr. William Pate was educated at Trinity Hall in Cambridge, where he took the degree of B. C. L. He died in 1746, and was buried at Lee, in Kent, where the following epitaph is inscribed upon his tombstone: Hic jacent reliquiæ Propter ingenii fœcunditatem Haud minus eximii, Quam ob morum urbanitatem suavitatemque, Hunc lapidem, Sequenti apopthegmate aureo incisum, Epicharnian illud teneto, Nervos alque artus esse sapientiæ NON TEMERE CREDERE. Anno ætatis suæ octogesimo; M1DCC XLVI. to deal with a draper, who is of my own perswasion, and to whom I have promis'd my custome. JOHN DRYDEN. Yours, I have sent to my tailour, and he sends me word, that I had three yards and half elle of cloath from Mr. Pate: I desire he wou'd make his price; and deduct so much as it comes to, and make even for the rest with ready money; as also that he would send word, what the name was, for whom Sam Atkins left him to make account for. LETTER XXI.' TO HIS SONS AT ROME. DEAR SONS, Sept. the 3d, our style, [1697.] BEING now at Sir William Bowyer's in the country, I cannot write at large, because I find my self somewhat indisposed with a cold, and am Our author, it should be remembered, at this time, was a Roman Catholick. The original of this letter is preserved in the Lambeth Library, No. 933; GIBSON'S PAPERS, vol. i. p. 56. It was kindly imparted to the publick by the Reverend Dr. Vyse, who furnished Dr. Johnson with a transcript of it. At Denham-Court in Buckinghamshire. Sir William Bowyer married a kinswoman of Lady Elizabeth Dryden; Frances, daughter of Charles, Lord Cranbourne, eldest son of William, the second Earl of Salisbury. thick of hearing, rather worse than I was in town. I am glad to find, by your letter of July 26th, your style, that you are both in health; but wonder you should think me so negligent as to forget to give you an account of the ship in which your parcel is to come. I have written to you two or three letters concerning it, which I have sent by safe hands, as I told you; and doubt not but you have them before this can arrive to you. Being out of town, I have forgotten the ship's name, which your mother will enquire, and put it into. her letter, which is joined with mine. But the master's name I remember: he is called Mr. Ralph Thorp; the ship is bound to Leghorn, consigned to Mr. Peter and Mr. Tho. Ball, merchants. I am of your opinion, that by Tonson's means almost all our letters have miscarried for this last year. But, however, he has missed of his design in the dedication, though he had prepared the book for it; for in every figure of Encas he has caused him to be drawn like King William, with a hooked nose." After my return to town, I intend to alter a play * The translation of Virgil. See p. 57, n. 9. In MS. Harl. p. 35, in the Museum, are the follow. ing verses, occasioned by this circumstance: To be published in the next edition of Dryden's Virgil. "Old Jacob by deep judgment sway'd, "To please the wise beholders, "Has placed old Nassau's hook-nosed head of Sir Robert Howard's, written long since, and lately put by him into my hands: 'tis called THE CONQUEST OF CHINA BY THE TARTARS. It will cost me six weeks' study, with the probable benefit of an hundred pounds. In the mean time I am writing a Song for St. Cecilia's Feast, who, you know, is the patroness of musick. This is troublesome, and no way beneficial; but I could not deny the Stewards of the Feast, who came in a body to me to desire that kindness, one of them being Mr. Bridgman, whose parents are your mother's friends. I hope to send you thirty guineas between Michaelmass and Christmass, of which I will give you an account when I come to town. I remember the counsel you give me in your letter; but dissembling, though lawful in some cases, is not my talent; yet, for your sake, I will struggle with the plain openness of my nature, and keep-in my just resentments against that "To make the parallel hold tack, "And t'other sent his packing." The disagreeable repetition of the word old in the third line might have been easily avoided, by substituting the word great; but the writer's principles would not allow him to give William this epithet.-In fact, neither he nor Tonson was old at the period alluded to; though some years afterwards (when these lines were probably written,) the latter was so called, to distinguish him from his nephew, the younger Jacob Tonson. degenerate order. In the mean time, I flatter not my self with any manner of hopes, but do my duty, and suffer for God's sake; being assured, beforehand, never to be rewarded, though the times should alter.-Towards the latter end of this month, September, Charles will begin to recover his perfect health, according to his Nativity, which, casting it my self, I am sure is true; and all things hitherto have happened accordingly to the very time that I predicted them: I hope at the same. time to recover more health, according to my age. Remember me to poor Harry, whose prayers I earnestly desire. My Virgil succeeds in the world beyond its desert or my expectation. You know, the profits might have been more; but neither my conscience nor my honour would suffer me to take them: but I never can repent of my constancy, since I am thoroughly persuaded of the justice of the cause for which I suffer. It has pleased GOD to raise up many friends to me amongst my enemies, though they who ought to have been my friends are negligent of me. I am called to dinner, and cannot go on with this letter, which I desire you to excuse; and am Your most affectionate father, This probably alludes to the proposition which ap. pears to have been made to him, concerning the dedica. tion of his Virgil to King William; for which a valuable pecuniary reward might have been expected. |