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The Assignation 319 TO MY MOST HONOUR'D FRIEND Sir CHARLES SEDLEY, Baronet. Sir, T HE Design of Dedicating Playes, is as common and unjust, as that of desiring Seconds in a Duel. 'Tis engaging our Friends (it may be) in a senceless quarrel, where they have much to venture, without any concernment of their own. I have declar'd thus much before-hand, to prevent you from suspicion , that I intend to interest either your judgment or your kindness, in defending the Errours of this Comedy. It succeeded ill in the representation, against the opinion of many the best 10 Judges of our Age, to whom you know I read it e're it was presented publickly. Whether the fault was in the Play it self, or in the lameness of the Action, or in the number of its Enemies, who came resolv'd to damn it for the Title, I will not now dispute: that wou'd be too like the little satisfaction which an unlucky Gamester finds in the relation of every cast by which he came to lose his Money. I have had formerly so much success, that the miscarriage of this Play wasonely my giving Fortune her revenge: I ow'd it her; and she was indulgent that she exacted not the paiment long before. I will therefore deal more reasonably with 20 you, than any Poet has ever done with any Patron: I do not so much as oblige you for my sake to pass two ill houres in reading of my Play. Think, if you please, that this Dedication is onely an occasion I have taken to do my self the greatest honour imaginable with Posterity; that is, to be recorded in the number of those Men whom you have favour'd with your Friendship and esteem. For, I am well assur'd, that besides the present satisfaction I have, it will gain me the greatest part of my reputation with afterAges , when they shall find me valuing my self on your kindness 2 Dedicating Playes] Dedicating Playes Qi~3, F, D. 3 Duel] Duel Qi-g, F.D. 8 Comedy] Comedy Qi-3, F, D. 17 Fortune] F, D; fortune Qi-g. gso The Assignation to me: I may have reason to suspect my own credit with them, but I have none to doubt of yours. And they who perhaps wou'd forget me in my Poems, wou'd remember me in this Epistle. This was the course which has formerly been practis'd by the Poets of that Nation who were Masters of the Universe. Horace and Ovid, who had little reason to distrust their Immortality; yet took occasion to speak with honour of Virgil, Varius, Tibullus , and Propertius their Contemporaries: as if they sought in the testimony of their Friendship a farther evidence of their 10 fame. For my own part, I, who am the least amongst the Poets, have yet the fortune to be honour'd with the best Patron, and the best Friend. For, (to omit some Great Persons of our Court, to whom I am many wayes oblig'd, and who have taken care of me, even amidst the Exigencies of a War,) I can make my boast to have found a better Maecenas in the person of my Lord Treasurer Clifford, and a more Elegant Tibullus in that of Sir Charles Sedley. I have chosen that Poet to whom I would resemble you, not onely because I think him at least equal, if not superiour to Ovid in his Elegies: nor because of his quality for he wr as (you 20 know) a Roman Knight as well as Ovid: but for his Candour, his Wealth, his way of Living, and particularly because of this testimony which is given him by Horace, which I have a thousand times in my mind apply'd to you. Non tu Corpus eras sine pectorej Dii tibi formam, Dii tibi divitias dederant, arteraq; fruendi. Quid voveat dulci Nutricula majiis Alumno Quam sapere, if /an possit qua sentiat, if cui Gratia, forma, valetudo contingat abunde; Et mundus victus, non deficiente crumena? so Certainly the Poets of that Age enjoy'd much happiness in the Conversation and Friendship of one another. They imitated the best way of Living, which was to pursue an innocent and inoffensive Pleasure; that which one of the Ancients called Eruditam voluptatem. We have, like them, our Genial Nights; where our discourse is neither too serious, nor too light...

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