The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Old Bachelor, by William Congreve, Edited
by G. S. Street

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Title: The Old Bachelor

Author: William Congreve

Editor: G. S. Street

Release Date: January 7, 2008 [eBook #1192]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD BACHELOR***

Transcribed from the 1895 Methuen and Co. [Comedies of William Congreve]
edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

THE OLD BACHELOR

_Quem tulit ad scenam ventoso Gloria curru_,
_Exanimat lentus spectator_; _sedulus inflat_:
_Sic leve_, _sic parvum est_, _animum quod laudis avarum_
_Subruit_, _and reficit_.

HORAT. _Epist._ I. lib. ii.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, LORD CLIFFORD OF LANESBOROUGH, etc.

My Lord,--It is with a great deal of pleasure that I lay hold on this
first occasion which the accidents of my life have given me of writing to
your lordship: for since at the same time I write to all the world, it
will be a means of publishing (what I would have everybody know) the
respect and duty which I owe and pay to you. I have so much inclination
to be yours that I need no other engagement. But the particular ties by
which I am bound to your lordship and family have put it out of my power
to make you any compliment, since all offers of myself will amount to no
more than an honest acknowledgment, and only shew a willingness in me to
be grateful.

I am very near wishing that it were not so much my interest to be your
lordship's servant, that it might be more my merit; not that I would
avoid being obliged to you, but I would have my own choice to run me into
the debt: that I might have it to boast, I had distinguished a man to
whom I would be glad to be obliged, even without the hopes of having it
in my power ever to make him a return.

It is impossible for me to come near your lordship in any kind and not to
receive some favour; and while in appearance I am only making an
acknowledgment (with the usual underhand dealing of the world) I am at
the same time insinuating my own interest. I cannot give your lordship
your due, without tacking a bill of my own privi