Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders/Dedication
And now, Sir, 'tis time I should relieve you from the tedious length of this account. You have better and more profitable employment for your hours, and I wrong the Publick to detain you longer. In conclusion, I must leave my Poem to you with all its faults, which I hope to find fewer in the Printing by your emendations. I know you are not of the number of those, of whom the younger Pliny speaks, Nec sunt parum multi, qui carpere amicos suos judicium vocant; I am rather too secure of you on that side. Your candor in pardoning my Errors may make you more remiss in correcting them; if you will not withal consider that they come into the world with your approbation, and through your hands. I beg from you the greatest favour you can confer upon an absent person, since I repose upon your management what is dearest to me, my Fame and Reputation; and therefore I hope it will stir you up to make my Poem fairer by many of your blots; If not, you know the story of the Gamster who married the rich Man's Daughter, and when her Father denied the Portion, Christened all the Children by his Sirname, that if, in conclusion, they must beg, they should do so by one Name, as well as by the other. But since the reproach of my Faults will light on you, 'tis but reason I should do you that justice to the Readers, to let them know, that if there be any thing tolerable in this Poem; they owe the Argument to your choice, the Writing to your encouragement, the Correction to your judgment, and the Care of it to your friendship, to which he must ever acknowledge himself to owe all things, who is,
Sir,
The most Obedient and most
Faithful of Your Servants,
From Charlton in
Wiltshire, Nov.
10. 1666.
JOHN DRYDEN.