The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 11/From Matthew Prior to Jonathan Swift - 1

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FROM MR. PRIOR[1].


PARIS, APRIL 8, 1713.


PRAY take this word writ after our packet is closed, and the messenger staying for it, as an equivalent for your dispatches at midnight when the writer was half asleep. Hang me if I know how to go on, though I am in a country where every body does not only write letters, but print them. Our great affair goes on very successfully. We transmit the Spanish treaty, concluded at Madrid, for your approbation in England, and transmission to Utrecht; after which, I think, pax sit will become authentick Latin: after which, I suppose, our society will flourish, and I shall have nothing to do but to partake of that universal protection, which it will receive. In the mean time, pray give my great respects to our brethren[2]; and tell them, that, while in hopes of being favoured, they are spending their own money, I am advancing my interest in the French language, and forgetting my own mother tongue. But we shall have time enough to perfect our English, when we have done with other matters. I want mightily to hear from lord treasurer. Tell him so. I owe brother Arbuthnot a letter. Excuse my not writing to him, till I know what to say. I cannot find Vanhomrigh[3] since he brought me your letter. I have a rarity of a book to send you by the first fair occasion. It makes but little of the English wit, The Guardian; but, possibly, I do not enter into his design. Let lord Bolingbroke know, I love him mightily; and pray do you as much for Dick Skelton. Adieu, my good friend. I am very truly,

Your obedient and faithful servant,

  1. He was plenipotentiary to France.
  2. The sixteen. See note to a letter from lord Harley to Swift, dated July 17, 1714.
  3. One of the brothers of Vanessa. See the note prefixed to the dean's letter to miss Esther Vanhomrigh, dated July 8, 1713.