cernere suave est._

I am sure his master Epicurus, and my better master Cowley, preferred
the solitude of a garden, and the conversation of a friend, to any
consideration, so much as a regard, of those unhappy people, whom, in
our own wrong, we call the great. True greatness, if it be any where
on earth, is in a private virtue; removed from the notion of pomp and
vanity, confined to a contemplation of itself, and centering on
itself:

_Omnis enim per se Divum natura necesse est
Immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur;
--cura semota, metuque,
Ipsa suis pollens opibus_[5].

If this be not the life of a deity, because it cannot consist with
Providence, it is, at least, a god-like life. I can be contented, (and
I am sure I have your lordship of my opinion) with an humbler station
in the temple of virtue, than to be set on the pinnacle of it:

_Despicere unde queas alios, passimque videre
Errare, atque viam palantes quaerere vitae._

The truth is, the consideration of so vain a creature as man, is not
worth our pains. I have fool enough at home, without looking for it
abroad; and am a sufficient theatre to myself of ridiculous actions,
without expecting company, either in a court, a town, or a play-house.
It is on this account that I am weary with drawing the deformities of
life, and lazars of the people, where every figure of imperfection
more resembles me than it can do others. If I must be condemned to
rhyme, I should find some ease in my change of punishment. I desire to
be no longer the Sisyphus of the stage; to roll up a stone with
endless labour, (which, to follow the proverb, gathers no moss) and
which is perpetually falling down again. I never thought myself very
fit for an employment, where many of my predecessors have excelled me
in all kinds; and some of my contemporaries, even in my own partial
judgement have outdone me in Comedy. Some little hopes I have yet
remaining, and those too, considering my abilities, may be vain, that
I may make the world some part of amends, for many ill plays, by an
heroic poem. Your lordship has been long acquainted with my design;
the subject of which you know is great, the story English, and neither
too far distant from the present age, nor too near approaching it.
Such it is in my opinion, that I could not have wished a nobler
occasion to do honour by it to my king, my country, and my friends;
most of our ancient nobility being concerned in the action[6]. And