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 Gameſter 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.