Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges Part 70

"Devil Tavern, Temple Bar.

"Jan. 3, 1707-8.

"DEAR PRUE,-

"I have partly succeeded in my business to-day, and inclose two guineas as earnest of more. Dear Prue, I cannot come home to dinner.

I languish for your welfare, and will never be a moment careless more.

"Your faithful husband," &c.

"Jan. 14, 1707-8.

"DEAR WIFE,-

"Mr. Edgecombe, Ned Ask, and Mr. Lumley, have desired me to sit an hour with them at the George, in Pall Mall, for which I desire your patience till twelve o'clock, and that you will go to bed," &c.

"Gray's Inn, Feb. 3, 1708.

"DEAR PRUE,-

"If the man who has my shoemaker's bill calls, let him be answered that I shall call on him as I come home. I stay here in order to get Jonson to discount a bill for me, and shall dine with him for that end. He is expected at home every minute.

"Your most humble, obedient servant," &c.

"Tennis Court Coffee-house, "May 5, 1708.

"DEAR WIFE,-

"I hope I have done this day what will be pleasing to you; in the meantime shall lie this night at a baker's, one Leg, over against the 'Devil' Tavern, at Charing Cross. I shall be able to confront the fools who wish me uneasy, and shall have the satisfaction to see thee cheerful and at ease.

"If the printer's boy be at home, send him hither; and let Mrs. Todd send by the boy my night-gown, slippers, and clean linen. You shall hear from me early in the morning," &c.

Dozens of similar letters follow, with occasional guineas, little parcels of tea, or walnuts, &c. In 1709 the _Tatler_ made its appearance. The following curious note dates April 7, 1710:-

"I inclose to you ['Dear Prue'] a receipt for the saucepan and spoon, and a note of 23_l_. of Lewis's, which will make up the 50_l._ I promised for your ensuing occasion.

"I know no happiness in this life in any degree comparable to the pleasure I have in your person and society. I only beg of you to add to your other charms a fearfulness to see a man that loves you in pain and uneasiness, to make me as happy as it is possible to be in this life. Rising a little in a morning, and being disposed to a cheerfulness ... would not be amiss."

In another, he is found excusing his coming home, being "invited to supper to Mr. Boyle's". "Dear Prue," he says on this occasion, "do not send after me, for I shall be ridiculous."

104 Of this famous Bishop, Steele wrote,-

Virtue with so much ease on Bangor sits, All faults he pardons, though he none commits.

105 Here we have some of his later letters:-

TO LADY STEELE.

"Hampton Court, March 16, 1716-17.

"DEAR PRUE,

"If you have written anything to me which I should have received last night, I beg your pardon that I cannot answer till the next post.... Your son at the present writing is mighty well employed in tumbling on the floor of the room and sweeping the sand with a feather. He grows a most delightful child, and very full of play and spirit. He is also a very great scholar: he can read his primer; and I have brought down my Virgil. He makes most shrewd remarks about the pictures. We are very intimate friends and playfellows. He begins to be very ragged; and I hope I shall be pardoned if I equip him with new clothes and frocks, or what Mrs. Evans and I shall think for his service."

TO LADY STEELE.

[Undated.]

"You tell me you want a little flattery from me. I a.s.sure you I know no one who deserves so much commendation as yourself, and to whom saying the best things would be so little like flattery. The thing speaks for itself, considering you as a very handsome woman that loves retirement-one who does not want wit, and yet is extremely sincere; and so I could go through all the vices which attend the good qualities of other people, of which you are exempt. But, indeed, though you have every perfection, you have an extravagant fault, which almost frustrates the good in you to me; and that is, that you do not love to dress, to appear, to shine out, even at my request, and to make me proud of you, or rather to indulge the pride I have that you are mine....

"Your most affectionate, obsequious husband, "RICH. STEELE.

"A quarter of Molly's schooling is paid. The children are perfectly well."

TO LADY STEELE.

"March 26, 1717.

"MY DEAREST PRUE,

"I have received yours, wherein you give me the sensible affliction of telling me enow of the continual pain in your head.... When I lay in your place, and on your pillow, I a.s.sure you I fell into tears last night, to think that my charming little insolent might be then awake and in pain; and took it to be a sin to go to sleep.

"For this tender pa.s.sion towards you, I must be contented that your _Prueship_ will condescend to call yourself my well-wisher."

At the time when the above later letters were written, Lady Steele was in Wales, looking after her estate there. Steele, about this time, was much occupied with a project for conveying fish alive, by which, as he constantly a.s.sures his wife, he firmly believed he should make his fortune. It did not succeed, however.

Lady Steele died in December of the succeeding year. She lies buried in Westminster Abbey.

106 Lord Chesterfield sends these verses to Voltaire in a characteristic letter.

107 Steele replied to Dennis in an _Answer to a Whimsical Pamphlet, called __"__The Character of Sir John Edgar__"_. What Steele had to say against the cross-grained old Critic discovers a great deal of humour:

"Thou never didst let the sun into thy garret, for fear he should bring a bailiff along with him....

"Your years are about sixty-five, an ugly, vinegar face, that if you had any command you would be obeyed out of fear, from your ill-nature pictured there; not from any other motive. Your height is about some five feet five inches. You see I can give your exact measure as well as if I had taken your dimension with a good cudgel, which I promise you to do as soon as ever I have the good fortune to meet you....

"Your doughty paunch stands before you like a firkin of b.u.t.ter, and your duck-legs seem to be cast for carrying burdens.

"Thy works are libels upon others, and satires upon thyself; and while they bark at men of sense, call him knave and fool that wrote them. Thou hast a great antipathy to thy own species; and hatest the sight of a fool but in thy gla.s.s."

Steele had been kind to Dennis, and once got arrested on account of a pecuniary service which he did him. When John heard of the fact-"'Sdeath!" cries John; "why did not he keep out of the way as I did?"

The _Answer_ concludes by mentioning that Cibber had offered Ten Pounds for the discovery of the authorship of Dennis's pamphlet; on which, says Steele,-

"I am only sorry he has offered so much, because the _twentieth part_ would have over-valued his whole carca.s.s. But I know the fellow that he keeps to give answers to his creditors will betray him; for he gave me his word to bring officers on the top of the house that should make a hole through the ceiling of his garret, and so bring him to the punishment he deserves. Some people think this expedient out of the way, and that he would make his escape upon hearing the least noise. I say so too; but it takes him up half an hour every night to fortify himself with his old hair trunk, two or three joint-stools, and some other lumber, which he ties together with cords so fast that it takes him up the same time in the morning to release himself."

108 Gay calls him-"Dear Prior ... beloved by every muse".-_Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece._

Swift and Prior were very intimate, and he is frequently mentioned in the _Journal to Stella_. "Mr. Prior," says Swift, "walks to make himself fat, and I to keep myself down.... We often walk round the park together."

In Swift's works there is a curious tract called _Remarks on the Characters of the Court of Queen Anne_ [Scott's edition, vol. xii].

The _Remarks_ are not by the Dean: but at the end of each is an addition in italics from his hand, and these are always characteristic. Thus, to the Duke of Marlborough, he adds, "_Detestably Covetous_," &c. Prior is thus noticed-