to him as he wanted it. But it is supposed that the discountenance
of the Court sunk deep into his heart, and gave him more discontent
than the applauses or tenderness of his friends could overpower. He
soon fell into his old distemper, an habitual colic, and languished,
though with many intervals of ease and cheerfulness, till a violent
fit at last seized him and carried him to the grave, as Arbuthnot
reported, with more precipitance than he had ever known. He died on
the 4th of December, 1732, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The
letter which brought an account of his death to Swift, was laid by
for some days unopened, because when he received it, he was
impressed with the preconception of some misfortune.

After his death was published a second volume of "Fables," more
political than the former. His opera of Achilles was acted, and the
profits were given to two widow sisters, who inherited what he left,
as his lawful heirs; for he died without a will, though he had
gathered three thousand pounds. There have appeared likewise under
his name a comedy called the Distressed Wife, and the Rehearsal at
Gotham, a piece of humour.

The character given him by Pope is this, that "he was a natural man,
without design, who spoke what he thought, and just as he thought
it," and that "he was of a timid temper, and fearful of giving
offence to the great;" which caution, however, says Pope, was of no
avail.

As a poet he cannot be rated very high. He was, I once heard a
female critic remark, "of a lower order." He had not in any great
degree the MENS DIVINIOR, the dignity of genius. Much, however,
must be allowed to the author of a new species of composition,