nd who, dishonouring the bounty of their master,
suffer such to be in necessity who endeavour at least to please him;
and for whose entertainment he has generously provided, if the fruits
of his royal favour were not often stopped in other hands. But your
lordship has given me occasion, not to complain of courts whilst you
are there. I have found the effects of your mediation in all my
concernments; and they were so much the more noble in you, because
they were wholly voluntary. I, became your lordship's, (if I may
venture on the similitude) as the world was made, without knowing him
who made it; and brought only a passive obedience to be your creature.
This nobleness of yours I think myself the rather obliged to own,
because otherwise it must have been lost to all remembrance: For you
are endowed with that excellent quality of a frank nature, to forget
the good which you have done.

But, my lord, I ought to have considered, that you are as great a
judge, as you are a patron; and that in praising you ill, I should
incur a higher note of ingratitude, than that I thought to have
avoided. I stand in need of all your accustomed goodness for the
dedication of this play; which, though perhaps it be the best of my
comedies, is yet so faulty, that I should have feared you for my
critic, if I had not, with some policy, given you the trouble of being
my protector. Wit seems to have lodged itself more nobly in this age,
than in any of the former; and people of my mean condition are only
writers, because some of the nobility, and your lordship in the first
place, are above the narrow praises which poesy could give you. But,
let those who love to see themselves exceeded, encourage your lordship
in so dangerous a quality; for my own part, I must confess, that I
have so much of self-interest, as to be content with reading some
papers of your verses, without desiring you should proceed to a scene,
or play; with the common prudence of those who are worsted in a duel,
and declare they are satisfied, when they are first wounded. Your
lordship has but another step to make, and from the patron of wit, you
may become its tyrant; and oppress our little reputations with more
ease than you now protect them. But these, my lord, are designs, which
I am sure you harbour not, any more than the French king is contriving
the conquest of the Swissers. It is a barren triumph, which is not
worth your pains; and would only rank him amongst your slaves, w