The Project Gutenberg EBook of The First of April, by William Combe

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Title: The First of April
Or, The Triumphs of Folly: A Poem Dedicated to a Celebrated
Duchess. By the author of The Diaboliad.

Author: William Combe

Release Date: August 4, 2006 [EBook #18988]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIRST OF APRIL ***

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THE

FIRST OF APRIL:

OR, THE

TRIUMPHS

OF

FOLLY:

A

POEM.

DEDICATED TO A

CELEBRATED DUTCHESS.

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE DIABOLIAD.

---- DOST THOU CALL ME FOOL, BOY?--
ALL THY OTHER TITLES THOU HAST GIVEN AWAY
THAT THOU WAST BORN WITH!--

SHAKESPEARE.

LONDON:

Printed for J. Bew, No. 28, Paternoster-Row.

MDCCLXXVII.

[Price Two Shillings and Six-Pence.]

DEDICATION

TO A

CELEBRATED DUTCHESS.

MADAM,

I am rather apprehensive that you will rank me among the Impertinents of
the Age, in giving a performance which treats professedly of the
Triumphs of Folly, the Sanction of Your Grace. But tho', in the too
great quickness of apprehension, this may be the case; I have not the
least doubt but, in some succeeding moments of coolness and candour,
you will accompany me through this Address; and not suffer a condemning
spirit to pass a final sentence upon me, without giving some little
attention to my justification.

I need not tell Your Grace, that, in former times, every Family of
Distinction was considered as incomplete in its establishment, if it did
not possess a certain whimsical Character called a _Fool_; who was
either to afford amusement to his witty Master by the real singularity
of his Humour,--or to act as a foil to his foolish Lord by well-timed
displays of affected Folly.--These appendages to Greatness have long
been laid aside.--Indeed, the present Age, which is remarkable for its
refinements, has, in the general methods of forming the Great, blended
the two Character