To Sir R. L.
SIR,
You know the Sacredness of Liberty and Property. Now all stragling Apologues fall to you as Lord of the Mannor, and the very Ghost of Æsop (no very agreable Appartion, you may imagin) of Poggius, Abstemius, and my own old blind Author too for Company, durst I with-hold the Due, wou'd e'ry Night draw my Curtains 'till You had Justice done You. Besides as Duty and real Interest are ever inseparable, so particularly in the present Instance it's the Privilege of Your humble Imitators that by doing You Fealty they challenge Your Protection, the very end of Government, when at the same time too our Tribute's but a Peppercorn-rent, make the best on't, and Your Subjects are more beholden to You for accepting, than You to them for paying their Acknowledgments.
I have frequently wonder'd at the Confidence of Authors in expecting to be gratify'd for their Dedications, and oftener at the Weakness of Patrons, that they'll vouchsafe 'em those dishonourable Encouragements. For first, it's Ten to One but the great Man catches a Tartar, or provides for a Bantling that is not worth a Clout: Or secondly, if he has reason to be proud of his Purchase, all the Glory and Encomium of the Epistle smells abominably rank of Confederacy and Bargain. Mæcenas but spoils his own Market while he makes a liberal Art a mercenary one; and when the Orator or the Poet is to draw his Picture beyond the Life, he cann't be contented unless he set for't with a Cap and Bells forsooth! of his own providing. In a Word, the Fee shou'd rather accrue to the Patron from the Scribler, and little enough at last too considering what a Cause he's oblig'd to attend: Now my little harmless homely Ditty Petitions for no more than barely the benefit of the two Capital Letters aforesaid. It applys in forma Pauperis, and the Translator will magnify Your Charity both in his Author's Name and in his own, if You'll keep his Calliope in countenance gratis. Nay indeed the whole is but a Cur'sy to my Dancing-Master, par-don
