sed, out of
his Royal Bounty, to order me two hundred Pounds for it. Yes, Sir! 'tis
true--such was the Depravity of the Time, you will say, and so enormous
was the Reward of _such a Play as The Non-Juror_!

This brings to my Memory (what I cannot help smiling at) the bountiful
Banter, you at this time endeavoured to put upon me. This was the Fact I
had, not long before, been a Subscriber to your _Homer_: And now, to
make up our Poetical Accounts, as you call'd it, you sent me a Note,
with four Guineas inclosed, for four Tickets, for the Author's Day of
_such a Play as The Non-Juror_. So unexpected a Favour made me conclude,
there must be something at the bottom of it, which an indifferent Eye
might have overlooked: However I sent you the Tickets with a written
Acknowledgment; for I was willing you should think the kind Appearance
had passed upon me; though every Gentleman I told it to laugh'd at my
Credulity, wondering I should not see, you had plainly done this, in
scorn of my Subscription to your _Homer_. Which, to say the Truth, I
never had the least doubt of, but did not think myself so far obliged to
gratify your Pride, as to shew any sign of my feeling the Hurt you
intended me. Though, as this was in the Infancy of your Disinclination
to me, I confess, I might have been better pleased, would your Temper
have suffered me to have been upon better Terms with you: But so it is!
of such insensible Stuff am I made, that I have been rated by my
Friends, for not being surprized, or grieved at Disappointments. This I
only offer as an early Instance of our different Dispositions. My
Subscription had no Disguise, I thought it due to the Merit of Mr.
_Pope_: But that his Bounty to me rose from the same Motive, I am
afraid would be Vanity in me to suppose.

There is another whimsical Fact relating to this Play, which common
Fame, just after the Run of it, charged to Mr. _Pope_: Had I his
Sagacity in detecting concealed Authors, or his laborious Curiosity to
know them, I do not doubt but I might bring my Fact to a Proof upon him;
but let my Suspicion speak for itself. At this time then there came out
a Pamphlet (the Title I have forgot) but the given Name of the Author
was _Barnevelt_, which every body believed to be fictitious. The Purport
of this odd Piece of Wit was to prove, that _The Non-Juror_ in its
Design, its Characters, and almost every Scene of it, was a closely
couched Jacobite Libel against the Government: And, in