. Pray forgive this long
digression, and give me the hearing a little longer; for, thank heaven!
I am now near the goal.

"Baffled in all my attempts, I despaired of seeing my play acted; and
bethought myself of choosing some employment that might afford a sure,
though mean subsistence; but my landlord, to whom I was by this time
considerably indebted, and who had laid his account with having his
money paid all in a heap from the profits of my third night, could not
brook his disappointment, therefore made another effort in my behalf,
and, by dint of interest, procured a message from a lady of fashion
to Mr. Brayer, who had always professed a great veneration for her,
desiring that he would set up my play forthwith, and assuring him
that she and all her friends would support it in the performance. To
strengthen my interest, she engaged his best actors in my cause; and, in
short, exerted herself so much, that it was again received, and my hopes
began to revive. But Mr. Brayer, honest man, was so much engrossed by
business of vast consequence, though to appearance he had nothing at
all to do, that he could not find time to read it until the season was
pretty far advanced; and read it he must, for notwithstanding his having
perused it before, his memory did not retain one circumstance of the
matter.

"At length he favoured it with his attention, and having proposed
certain alterations, sent his duty to the lady who patronised it, and
promised, on his honour, to bring it on next winter, provided these
alterations should be made, and the copy delivered to him before the
end of April. With an aching heart, I submitted to these conditions,
and performed them accordingly: but fortune owed me another unforeseen
mortification; Mr. Marmozet, during the summer, became joint patentee
with Mr. Brayer, so that when I claimed performance of articles, I was
told he could do nothing without the consent of his partner, who was
pre-engaged to another author.

"My condition was rendered desperate by the death of my good friend and
landlord, whose executors obtained a judgment against my effects, which
they seized, turned me out into the streets naked, friendless, and
forlorn: there I was arrested at the suit of my tailor, and thrown into
the prison, where I have made shift to live these five weeks on the
bounty of my fellow prisoners, who, I hope, are not the worse for the
instruction and good offices by which I manifest my gratitude; bu