Since I am so near your Lordship methinks after having passed the day among more severe studies, you may often take a trip hither, and relax yourself with the little curiosities of nature. I assure you no less a man than Cicero commends the two great friends of his age, Scipio and Lælius, for entertaining themselves at their country-houses, which stood on the seashore, with picking up cockle-shells and looking after birds' nests. For which reason I shall conclude this learned letter with a saying of the same author, in his treatise on Friendship. "Absint autem tristitia, et in omni re severitas: habent illa quidem gravitatem; sed amicitia debet esse lenior et remissior, et ad omnem suavitatem facilitatemque morum proclivior." If your Lordship understands the elegance and sweetness of these words, you may assure yourself you are no ordinary Latinist; but if they have force enough to bring you to Sandy End, I shall be very well pleased. I am, my dear Lord, your Lordship's most affectionate and most humble servant, J. ADDISON. Sandy End, May 20th, 1708. LIV. TO THE SAME. MY DEAREST LORD-I cannot forbear being troublesome to your Lordship whilst I am in your neighborhood. The business of this is to invite you to a concert of music, which I have found out in a neighboring wood. It begins precisely at six in the evening and consists of a black-bird, a thrush, a robin-redbreast and a bull-finch. There is a lark that by way of overture sings and mounts till she is almost out of hearing; and afterwards, falling down leisurely, drops to the ground as soon as she has ended her song. The whole is concluded by a nightingale that has a much, better voice than Mrs. Tofts, and something of the Italian manner in her divisions. If your Lordship will honor me with your VOL. II.-22* company, I will promise to entertain you with much better music and more agreeable scenes than you ever met with at the opera; and will conclude with a charming description of a nightingale, out of our friend Virgil "Qualis populeâ morens Philomela sub umbra 46 'So, close in poplar shades, her children gone, The mother nightingale laments alone; Whose nest some prying churl had found, and thence Your Lordship's most obedient May 27th, 1708. LV. J. ADDISON. [No address or date of place, but probably from Sandy End, and in 1708.-G.] DEAR SIR-If you are at leisure I will desire you to inquire in any bookseller's shop for a Statius, and to look in the beginning of the Achillead for a bird's-nest, which, if I am not mistaken, is very finely described. It comes in, I think, by way of simile towards the beginning of the book, where the poet compares Achilles's mother looking after a proper seat to conceal her son in, to a bird searching after a fit place for a nest. If you find it send it to me, or bring it yourself, and as you acquit yourself of this you may perhaps be troubled with more poetical commissiona from, sir, your most faithful humble servant, J. ADDISON. My hearty service to Dr. Swift. The next time you come bring a coach early that we may take the air in it." May 30. LVI. то MR. COLE AT VENICE. Whitehall, Oct. 31st, 1707. SIR-Yesterday we had news that the body of Sir Cloudesley Shovel was found on the coast of Cornwall. The fishermen who were searching among the wrecks, took a tin box out of one of the carcases that were floating, and found in it the commission of an admiral, upon which, examining the body more narrowly, they found it was poor Sir Cloudesley. You may guess the condition of his unhappy wife, who lost in the same ship with her husband, her two sons by Sir John Narborough. We begin to despair of the two other men of war and the fire ship that engaged among the same rocks. I am, sir, &c. LVII. TO MR. WORTLEY MONTAGU. DEAR SIR-I am very much obliged to you for the honor of your letter, and am glad to hear that there is no occasion for ratim.] [From C. J. Smith's "Historical and Literary Curiosities." 4to. LiteThe lines of Statius referred to are certainly the following, although they do not, as Addison imagined, describe a bird's-nest. If they had, he would probably have communicated them to the young lord. "Qualis vicino volucris jam sedula partu, Jamque timens quâ fronde domum suspendat inanem, Achillead, i. 212. Sir Cloudesley Shovel was returning with his fleet from the Mediterranean when his own ship and several others were wrecked on the Scilly islands. On board the admiral's ship every soul perished. Smollett relates in his history, that "the admiral's body being cast ashore was stripped and buried in the sand; but afterwards discovered and brought into Plymouth, from whence it was conveyed to London and buried in Westminster Abbey." acquainting you with the issuing out of the writs, which I hear will be on Thursday next. I send you enclosed a print that is thought to be well written. I fancy it is Manwaring's. We hear that the Duke of Florence furnished the Pope with the money that he contributed towards the intended expedition. If so, his minister will be put hence very suddenly. You have doubtless heard of the affront offered your cousin Manchester in searching his gondola for English cloth, which was found in some quantity aboard of it, by the corruption of his servants.' It was done at the time when the Venetians had heard that the invasion had succeeded. Their ambassador is banished our court, and though he has desired audience to explain the matter, it is refused till your cousin Manchester has had the satisfaction he demands, which is, that the searchers stand in the pillory, and the cloth be put into the gondola on the place where it was taken out. I long for some of your conversation in country air, and am ever, with the greatest truth and esteem, sir, your &c. Whitehall, April 27, 1708. Steele shall write to you by the next post. 1 The English ambassador at Venice.-G. b J. ADDISON. This gentleman, barely known by name to the general reader of the present day, stood with his contemporaries in the first rank of able writers, literary judges, and excellent conversers. He was the author of many occasional pieces on the Whig side, a member of the Kitcat Club, and secretary to the Duchess of Marlborough. Some account of him, and a number of his very sensible and well-written letters, are found in Coxe's Life of the Duke of Marlborough. b From a fac-simile in Addisoniana, vol. i. LVIII. то THE EARL OF MANCHESTER. Cock-Pit, July 23, 1708. MY LORD-I make bold to congratulate your Lordship on the appearance of so honorable a conclusion as your Lordship is getting to your dispute with the senate of Venice. I had the pleasure to-day of hearing your Lordship's conduct in this affair very much applauded by some of our first peers. We had an unlucky business about two days ago, that befell the Muscovite ambassador, who was arrested going out of his house, and rudely treated by the bailiffs. He was then upon his departure for his own country, and the sum under a hundred pounds that stays him : and what makes the business the worse, he has been punctual in his payments, and had given orders that this very sum should be paid the day after. However, as he is very well convinced that the government entirely disapproves such a proceeding, there are no ill consequences apprehended from it. Your Lordship knows that the privileges of ambassadors are under very little regulations in England, and I believe that a bill will be promoted in the next parliament for setting them upon a certain foot; at least, it is what we talk of in both offices on this occasion. I am, my Lord, your &c. LIX. TO MR. WORTLEY MONTAGU. DEAR SIR-I am infinitely obliged to you for your kind letter, but am afraid that the present posture of affairs in our office will not let me have the happiness I proposed to myself of passing part of the summer in your company. My brother Hopkins is aiming at the House of Commons, and therefore desired. 'The Russian ambassador demanded that the English bailiffs should be punished with death, but was obliged to take up with apologies, &c.-G. |