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Show The Preface. lice it felf to have printed thofe Rimes (you tell me are gotten abroad fo impudently ) with fo much abufe to the things, as the very publication of them at all, though they had been never fo correSt , had been to me ; to me ("Sir) who never writ any line in my life with an intention to have it printed, and who am *f my Lord Falkland's mind, that faid, He danger fear'd than icenfure Iefs,, N o r could he dread a breach like to a Prefs. And who ( I thinkjon know) am faffluently diftruftful of all, that my own want of company and better employment, or others commands have fedncd me to write, to endeavor rather that they fbould never be feen at all, than that they fbould be exposed to the world with fuch effrontcrs as now they mofl unhappily are. But is there no, retreat from the malice of this World ? I thought a Rock and a Mountain tnioht have hidden me, and that it had been free for all to fpend their Solitude in what Refveires they pleafe, and that our Rivers (though the are bab-ling) would not have betray d the follies of impertinent thoughts upon' their Banks ; but 'tis only I who am that unfortunate perfon that cannot fo much as thinl^m private, that muji have my imaginations rifled and ex-pofed to play the Mountebank?, and dance upon the Ropfes to entertain all the rabble ; to undergo all the raik Iery of the Wits, and all the feverity of the Wife j and to be the fport of fome that can, and fome that cannot read a Vcrfe* ihis is a moji cruel accident, and hath made fo proportionate an imprefflon upon me, that really it hath coji me a fbarp fit of fickpefs fince I heard it, and I believe would be more fatal but that 1 know what a Champion I have in you, and that I am fure your credit in the World will gain me a belief from all that are knowing and civil, that I am fo innocent of that wretched Artifice of a fecret confent (of which I am, I feary fufpeded ) that whoever would have brought me thofe Copies iflEfliii- *; The Preface. Copies corrected and amended, and a thoufand pounds to have bought my permiffwn for their being printed, fbould not have obtained it. But though there are ma* ny things, / believe, in this wicked impreffion of thofe fancies, which the ignorance of what occafiond them, and the falfenefs of the Copies may reprefent very ridi* adorn and extravagant, yet I could give fome account of them to the fevereft C:\to, and I am fare they muji be more abas d than I think is poffible (for I have not feen the Book^ W ™# imagine what's int) before they can be render d oiherwife than Sir Edward Deering fays in his Epilogue to Pompey, ~ No bolder thought can tax Thofe Rimes of blemilh to the blufliing Sex, As chafle the lines, as harmlefs is the &nk, As the firft fmiles of infant innocence. So that I hope there will be no need of juftifyin^ them to Vertue and Honor ; and I am fo little concern d for the reputation of writing Senfe, that, provided the World would ^ believe me innocent of any manner of knowledge, much lefs connivance at this Publication, I fball willingly compound ?iever to trouble them with the true Copies, as yon advife me to do : which if you fill fbould judge abfolutely ncceffary to the reparation of this misfortune, and to general fatisfat-lion j and that, as you tell me, all the reft of my friends will prefs me to it, I/houldyiefd to it with the fame reluSlancy as I would cut off a Limb tofave my Life. However I hope yon will fatisfie all your acquaintance of my averfion to it, and did they know me as well as yon do, that Apology were very needlefs fori am fo far from expe&ing apiltufe for any thing I fcribble, that I can hardly expefi pardon ; and fome-times I think tljat employment fo far above my reach and unfit for my Sex, that I am going to refalve dgainft it for ever 3 and could I have recovered thofe fugitive Papers that have efcafd my hands, I had long fence A 2 mai' |