and
the vexations of your employment, have betrayed you from yourself, and
given you up into the possession of the public. You are robbed of your
privacy and friends, and scarce any hour of your life you can call
your own. Those, who envy your fortune, if they wanted not
good-nature, might more justly pity it; and when they see you watched
by a crowd of suitors, whose importunity it is impossible to avoid,
would conclude, with reason, that you have lost much more in true
content, than you have gained by dignity; and that a private gentleman
is better attended by a single servant, than your lordship with so
clamorous a train. Pardon me, my lord, if I speak like a philosopher
on this subject; the fortune, which makes a man uneasy, cannot make
him happy; and a wise man must think himself uneasy, when few of his
actions are in his choice.

This last consideration has brought me to another, and a very
seasonable one for your relief; which is, that while I pity your want
of leisure, I have impertinently detained you so long a time. I have
put off my own business, which was my dedication, till it is so late,
that I am now ashamed to begin it; and therefore I will say nothing of
the poem, which I present to you, because I know not if you are like
to have an hour, which, with a good conscience, you may throw away in
perusing it; and for the author, I have only to beg the continuance of
your protection to him, who is,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's most obliged,
Most humble, and
Most obedient, servant,
JOHN DRYDEN.

Footnotes:
1. The person, to whom these high titles now belonged, was Sir Thomas
Osburne, a Baronet of good family, and decayed estate; part of
which had been lost in the royal cause. He was of a bold undaunted
character, and stood high for the prerogative. Hence he was thought
worthy of being sworn into the Privy Council during the
administration of the famous CABAL; and when that was dissolved by
the secession of Shaftesbury and the resignation of Clifford, he
was judged a proper person to succeed the latter as Lord High
Treasurer. He was created Earl of Danby, and was supposed to be
deeply engaged in the attempt to new-model our Constitution on a
more arbitrary plan; having been even heard to say, when sitting in
judgment, that a new proclamation from the Crown was superior to an
old act of Parliament. Nevertheless, he was persecuted as well by