LETTER XIX. FROM SIR GODFREY KNELLER. DEAR MR. POPE, I BELIEVE this will be card playrs evning, and we may do how we please. If you come about four o'clock, you may see me paint. To-morrow I am engaged to goe to Harrow the Hill with company, being ever, dear friend, Your, &c. LETTER XX. FROM SIR GODFREY KNELLER. SIR, From Great Queen Street, I AM in towne, and have louck'd for beds and bedsteads, which must cost ten pounds a year. When I promised to provide them you had maid no mention of the towne rates, which I am to pay, and will be 5 pounds a year at least, and which would be 15 pounds per annum whit the beds; and that house did let for 45 a year when I bought it; so that all I have laid out being near 400 pound, would be done for nothing, of which you will consider and let me know your mind. The stables are fitted as you gentlemen ordered them to be, and all the painting will be done to-morrow or Thursday, with whenscoating in the quickest manner and best; and if you can stay till Saturday let me know your pleasure about the beds and bedsteads, for them I cannot provide. You may have 6, of which two are to have courtins, for 10 pounds a year: `and am, giving my most humble respects to my Lady Mery Whortly, Your, &c. I thought one might have such beds and bedsteads for 4 or 5 pounds a-year; and which I would have done if no rates prop. LETTER XXI. MR. POPE TO MR. RICHARDSON. * January 13, 1732. I HAVE at last got my mother so well, as to allow myself to be absent from her for three days. * As an artist it was allowed, that "no one drew a head better than Richardson," and he was moreover a very excellent and worthy man. His essays "on the art of criticism in painting," and "on the science of a connoisseur," abound with judicious and solid observations, and are well calculated to inspire a knowledge and love of art; qualities which he possessed himself in an eminent degree, as was shewn by his fine collection of drawings by the ancient masters, which was sold after his death in 1748, and produced upwards of 2,000l. a large sum for that period, although greatly below their value. These drawings he had carefully mounted, and wrote the name of the artist frequently with his own observations in a neat and correct hand at the back, in which state we frequently meet with them in collections. In the use of the needle Richardson particularly excelled. Of Pope he has etched many striking and characteristic likenesses in different attitudes; some of them with verses testifying his admiration of, and respect for him. He also etched those of several of As Sunday is one of them, I do not know whether I may propose to you to employ it in the manner you mentioned to me once.* Sir Godfrey called employing the pencil the prayer of a painter, and affirmed it to be his proper way of serving God, by the talent he gave him. I am sure, in this instance, it is serving your friend; and you know we are allowed to do that (nay even to help a neighbour's ox or ass) on the sabbath; which though it may seem a general precept, yet in one sense particularly applies to you, who have helped many a human ox, and many a human ass to the likeness of man, not to say of God. Believe me, dear Sir, with all good wishes for yourself and your family, (the happiness of which ties I know by experience, and have learned to value from the late danger of losing the best of mine,) Your, &c. their common friends, and particularly of Swift and of Bolingbroke. Hudson, the son-in-law and successor to Richardson as an artist, was the master of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who, if he was not indebted to his instructor for the superior style which he adopted, obtained at least in this school of art that predilection for his profession and knowledge of the works of the early painters, which opened to him the path to excellence, and induced him to form a large collection of pictures and drawings, amongst the latter of which were a great number of those which had formerly been in the collection of Richardson. * Probably in painting or etching his portrait. LETTER XXII. TO MR. RICHARDSON. Twickenham, June 10, 1733. As I know you and I mutually desire to see one another, I hope that this day our wishes would have met, and brought you hither. And this for the very reason which possibly might hinder your coming, that my poor mother is dead.* I thank God, her death was as easy, as her life was innocent; and as it cost her not a groan, or even a sigh, there is yet upon her countenance such an expression of tranquillity, nay, almost of pleasure, that it is even amiable to behold it. It would afford the finest image of a saint expired, that ever painting drew† and it would be the greatest obligation which even that obliging art could ever bestow on a friend, if you would come and sketch it for me. I am sure, if there be no very preva Warburton. * Mrs. Pope died the 7th of June, 1733, aged 93. + One of the best of Richardson's portraits is that of our author, formerly in Dr. Mead's collection; who wrote under it the two following indifferent, harsh lines: Popius, ingenio, doctrinâ et carminis arte, Non habet, Invidia hoc nec neget ipsa, parem. The only piece of our author's own painting, is the head of Betterton, in the possession of the Earl of Mansfield. Warton. Not the only piece; there is a portrait of him at Arundel Castle, belonging to the Duke of Norfolk. Bowles. A drawing was accordingly made, and a print has been engraved from it; in which she is called by mistake, "daughter of Samuel Cooper, painter.” lent obstacle, you will leave any common business to do this; and I hope to see you this evening as late as you will, or to-morrow morning as early, before this winter flower is faded. I will defer her interment till to-morrow night. I know you love me, or I could not have written this-I could not (at this time) have written at all-Adieu! May you die as happily! Your, &c. LETTER XXIII. TO MR. RICHARDSON. Ir is hardly possible to tell you the joy your pencil gave me in giving me another friend, so much the same! and which (alas, for mortality!) will outlast the other.* Posterity will, through your means, see the man whom it will for ages honour, vindicate, and applaud, when envy is no more, and when (as I have already said in the Essay to which you are so partial) The sons shall blush the fathers were his foes. That Essay has many faults, but the poem you sent me has but one, and that I can easily forgive. Yet I would not have it printed for the world, and yet I would not have it kept unprinted neitherbut all in good time. I am glad you publish your Milton. Bentley will be angry at you, and at * This probably refers to the etching of Lord Bolingbroke, by Richardson. + This was the joint production of Richardson and his son, and |