ows in his Head_.

Upon the whole, your languid Ill-will in this Remark, makes so sickly a
Figure, that one would think it were quite exhausted; for it must run
low indeed, when you are reduc'd to impute the want of an Excellence, as
a Shame to me. But in _ver._ 261, your whole Barrel of Spleen seems not
to have a Drop more in it, though you have tilted it to the highest: For
there you are forc'd to tell a downright Fib, and hang me up in a Light
where no body ever saw me: As for Example, speaking of the Absurdity of
Theatrical Pantomimes, you say

_When lo! to dark Encounter in mid Air
New Wizards rise: Here_ Booth, _and_ Cibber _there:_
Booth, _in his cloudy Tabernacle shrin'd,
On grinning Dragons_ Cibber _mounts the Wind._

If you, figuratively, mean by this, that I was an Encourager of those
Fooleries, you are mistaken; for it is not true: If you intend it
literally, that I was Dunce enough to mount a Machine, there is as
little Truth in that too: But if you meant it only as a pleasant Abuse,
you have done it with infinite Drollery indeed! Beside, the Name of
_Cibber_, you know, always implies Satyr in the Sound, and never fails
to keep the Flatness or Modesty of a Verse in countenance.

Some Pages after, indeed, in pretty near the same Light, you seem to
have a little negative Kindness for me, _ver._ 287, where you make poor
_Settle_, lamenting his own Fate, say,

_But lo! in me, what Authors have to brag on,
Reduc'd at last to hiss, in my own Dragon,
Avert it, Heav'n, that thou, or_ Cibber _e'er
Should wag two Serpent-Tails in_ Smithfield _Fair._

If this does not imply, that you think me fit for little else, it is
only another barren Verse with my Name in it: If it does mean so;
why----I wish you may never be toss'd in a Blanket, and so the Kindness
is even on both Sides. But again you are at me, _ver._ 320, speaking of
the King of Dunces Reign, you have these Lines:

_Beneath whose Reign,_ Eusden _shall wear the Bays,_
Cibber _preside Lord-Chancellor of Plays._

This I presume you offer as one of the heavy Enormities of the
Stage-Government, when I had a Share in it. But as you have not given
an Instance in which this Enormity appear'd, how is it possible (unless
I had your Talent of Self-Commendation) to bring any Proofs in my
Favour? I must therefore submit it to Publick Judgment how full your
Reflexion hits, or is wide of me, and can only say to it in the mean
time,--_Valeat qua