Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/535

 done very well; two shillings — tarts a shilling: but you will drink a glass of wine with me, though you supped so much before your usual time only to spare my pocket." — "No, we had rather talk with you, than drink with you." — "But if you had supped with me, as in all reason you ought to have done, you must then have drank with me. — A bottle of wine, two shillings — two and two is four, and one is five; just two and sixpence a piece. There, Pope, there's half a crown for you, and there's another for you, sir; for I won't save any thing by you, I am determined. — This was all said and done with his usual seriousness on such occasions; and in spite of every thing we could say to the contrary, he actually obliged us to take the money."

In all this account it is evident that Swift saw into his friends motive for not supping with him, which was the fear of putting him to expense. Their pretending to have supped at so unusual an hour, and afterward refusing a glass of wine, even supposing they had supped, were full proofs of this. It was clear therefore to him that they had given credit to the common report of his covetousness; and in order to show that he was above such sordid thrift, and to punish them for supposing it, by this practical rebuke, he made them undergo the shame of putting into their pockets, what would otherwise have been spent in good fellowship. This was evidently Swift's view, though it does not seem to have occurred to Dr. Johnson, who relates it only as an instance of his odd humour.

In his account of the Tale of a Tub, the doctor says, — "That Swift was its author, though it be