Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/103

Rh Mrs. Bracegirdle likewiſe had the higheſt veneration for our author, and joined with her Grace in a boundleſs profuſion of ſorrow upon his death. Some think, he had made a better figure in his Laſt Will, had he remembered his friendſhip he profeſſed for Mrs. Bracegirdle, whoſe admirable performance added ſpirit to his dramatic pieces; but he forgot her, and gratified his vanity by chuſing to make a rich ducheſs his ſole legatee, and executrix.

Mr. Congreve was the ſon of fortune, as well as of the muſes. He was early preferred to an affluent ſituation, and no change of miniſtry ever affected him, nor was he ever removed from any poſt he enjoyed, except to a better.

His place in the cuſtom-houſe, and his office of ſecretary in Jamaica, are ſaid to have brought him in upwards of 1200 l. a year; and he was ſo far an œconomift, as to raiſe from thence a competent eſtate. No man of his learning ever paſs’d thro’ life with more eaſe, or leſs envy; and as in the dawn of his reputation he was very dear to the greateſt wits of his time, ſo during his whole life he preſerved the utmoſt reſpect of, and received continual marks of eſteem from, men of genius and letters, without ever being involved in any of their quarrels, or drawing upon himſelf the leaſt mark of diſtaſte, or, even diſſatisfaction. The greateſt part of the laſt twenty years of his life were ſpent in eaſe and retirement, and he gave himſelf no trouble about reputation. When the celebrated Voltaire was in England, he waited upon Congreve, and paſs’d ſome compliments upon him, as to the reputation and merit of his works; Congreve thanked him, but at the ſame time told that ingenious foreigner, he did not chuſe to be conſidered as an author, but only as a private gentleman, and in that light expected to be viſited. Voltaire anſwered,