Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12.djvu/499

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DR. SWIFT.

487

you will show it by taking my advice; if not, I will endeavour to forget you, if I can. But, till that doubt is cleared, I am, as much as ever, the dean's obedient humble servant,

F. WORSLEY^[1].

TO MR. GAY AND THE DUCHESS OF QUEENSBURY.

DUBLIN, AUG. 12, 1732.

I KNOW not what to say to the account of your stewardship, and it is monstrous to me that the South Sea^[2] should pay half their debts at one clap. But I will send for the money when you put me into the way, for I shall want it here, my affairs being in a bad condition by the miseries of the kingdom, and

↑ Frances, lady Worsley, wife of sir Robert Worsley, bart., and mother of lady Carteret, wife of John, lord Carteret, afterward earl Granville.
↑ Gay, as well as his friend Pope, ventured some money in the famous South Sea scheme. And there was a print by Hogarth, representing Pope putting one of his hands into the pocket of a large fat personage, who wore a hornbook at his girdle, designed for a figure of Gay; and the hornbook had reference to his Fables, written for the young duke of Cumberland. To such subjects, it is to be wished, that Hogarth had always confined the powers of his pencil. "His Sigismunda," says Mr. Walpole, "is a maudlin strumpet, just turned out of keeping, and with eyes red with rage and usquebaugh, tearing off the ornaments her lover had given her. And as to his scene from Milton, Hell and Death have lost their terrours; and Sin is devested of all powers of temptation."

I I 4

my

[1] Frances, lady Worsley, wife of sir Robert Worsley, bart., and mother of lady Carteret, wife of John, lord Carteret, afterward earl Granville.

[2] Gay, as well as his friend Pope, ventured some money in the famous South Sea scheme. And there was a print by Hogarth, representing Pope putting one of his hands into the pocket of a large fat personage, who wore a hornbook at his girdle, designed for a figure of Gay; and the hornbook had reference to his Fables, written for the young duke of Cumberland. To such subjects, it is to be wished, that Hogarth had always confined the powers of his pencil. "His Sigismunda," says Mr. Walpole, "is a maudlin strumpet, just turned out of keeping, and with eyes red with rage and usquebaugh, tearing off the ornaments her lover had given her. And as to his scene from Milton, Hell and Death have lost their terrours; and Sin is devested of all powers of temptation."

[1]

[2]