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Show I • • »-• • • • • * .•• .• THE PREFACE. Hen the falfe Edition of thefe Poem? ftole into the light, a Friend of that incomparable Ladys that made them, knowing how averfe fhe was to be in Print, and therefore being fure that it was abfolutely againft her confent, as he believed it ut-terly without her knowledge, (fhe being then in Wales, above 150 miles from this T o w n ) went pre- ' fently both to the Gentleman, who licensed it upou the Stationers averment that he had her leave and to the Stationer himfelf for w h o m it was* Printed, and took the beft courfe he could with both to get it fupprefs'd, as it prefently* was (though afterward many of the Books were privately fold) and gave her an account, by the next Poftof what he had done. A while after he received this Anfwer, which you have here (taken from her own hand) under that difguifed N a m e file had given him, it. being her cuftom to ufe fuch with mod of her particular friends. Worthy Poliarchus, I T is ^ery well that you chid me fo much for endeavouring to exprefs a part of the fenfe I have of your obligations ; for while you go on in conferring them beyond all poffibility of acknowledgment, it is convenient for me to be forbidden to attempt it. Your laft generous concern for me, in vindicating me from the unworthy ufage I have received at London from the Prefs, doth as much tranfcend all your former favors, as the injury done me by that PuhUfber and Printer exceeds all the troubles that I remember I ever had. AH I can fay to you for it, is, that though you ajsert an unhappy, it is yet a very innocent perfon, and that it is impofible for ma- ^ lice 1 213^4 |
