ur Lordship's Feet, is
of that Critical Nature, that it does not only require the Patronage of
a great Title, but a great Man too, and there is often times a vast
difference between these two great things; and amongst all the most
Elevated, there are but very few in whom an illustrious Birth and equal
Parts compleat the Hero; but among these, your Lordship bears the first
Rank, from a just Claim, both of the glories of your Race and Vertues.
Nor need we look back into long past Ages, to bring down to ours the
Magnanimous deeds of your Ancestors: We need no more than to behold
(what we have so often done with wonder) those of the Great Duke of
_Beauford_, your Illustrious Father, whose every single Action is a
glorious and lasting President to all the future Great; whose unshaken
Loyalty, and all other eminent Vertues, have rendred him to us,
something more than Man, and which alone, deserving a whole Volume,
wou'd be here but to lessen his Fame, to mix his Grandeurs with those of
any other; and while I am addressing to the Son, who is only worthy of
that Noble Blood he boasts, and who gives the World a Prospect of those
coming Gallantries that will Equal those of his Glorious Father;
already, My Lord, all you say and do is admir'd, and every touch of your
Pen reverenc'd; the Excellency and Quickness of your Wit, is the Subject
that fits the World most agreeably. For my own part, I never presume to
contemplate your Lordship, but my Soul bows with a perfect Veneration to
your Mighty Mind; and while I have ador'd the delicate Effects of your
uncommon Wit, I have wish'd for nothing more than an Opportunity of
expressing my infinite Sense of it; and this Ambition, my Lord, was one
Motive of my present Presumption in Dedicating this Farce to your
Lordship.

I am sensible, my Lord, how far the Word Farce might have offended some,
whose Titles of Honour, a Knack in dressing, or his Art in writing a
Billet Doux, had been his chiefest Talent, and who, without considering
the Intent, Character, or Nature of the thing, wou'd have cry'd out upon
the Language, and have damn'd it (because the Persons in it did not all
talk like Heros) as too debas'd and vulgar as to entertain a Man of
Quality; but I am secure from this Censure, when your Lordship shall be
its Judge, whose refin'd Sence, and Delicacy of Judgment, will, thro'
all the humble Actions and trivialness of Business, find Nature there,
and that Diversion which was not meant fo