Ah! cruel Heaven, that made no Cure for Love!
Your disconsolate Servant,_
ATHENAIS.
MISTER SPICTATUR,
My Heart is so full of Lofes and
Passions for Mrs. Gwinifrid, and
she is so pettish and overrun with Cholers
against me, that if I had
the good Happiness to have my Dwelling
(which is placed by my
Creat-Cranfather upon the Pottom of an
Hill) no farther Distance but
twenty Mile from the Lofers Leap, I would
indeed indeafour to preak
my Neck upon it on Purpose. Now,
good Mister SPICTATUR of Crete
Prittain, you must know it there is
in Caernaruanshire a fery pig
Mountain, the Glory of all Wales,
which is named Penmainmaure, and
you must also know, it iss no great Journey
on Foot from me; but the
Road is stony and bad for Shooes.
Now, there is upon the Forehead of
this Mountain a very high Rock, (like
a Parish Steeple) that cometh a
huge deal over the Sea; so when I am in
my Melancholies, and I do
throw myself from it, I do desire my fery
good Friend to tell me in
his Spictatur, if I shall be cure
of my grefous Lofes; for there is
the Sea clear as Glass, and as creen as
the Leek: Then likewise if I
be drown, and preak my Neck, if Mrs. Gwinifrid
will not lose me
afterwards. Pray be speedy in your
Answers, for I am in crete Haste,
and it is my Tesires to do my Pusiness
without Loss of Time. I remain
with cordial Affections, your ever lofing
Friend, Davyth ap
Shenkyn.
P. S. My Law-suits have brought me to
London, but I have lost my
Causes; and so have made my Resolutions
to go down and leap before the
Frosts begin; for I am apt to take Colds.
Ridicule, perhaps, is a better Expedient against Love than sober Advice, and I am of Opinion, that Hudibras and Don Quixote may be as effectual to cure the Extravagancies of this Passion, as any of the old Philosophers. I shall therefore publish, very speedily, the Translation of a little Greek Manuscript, which is sent me by a learned Friend. It appears to have been a Piece of those Records which were kept in the little Temple of Apollo, that stood upon the Promontory of Leucate. The Reader will find it to be a Summary Account of several Persons who tried the Lovers Leap, and of the Success they found in it. As there seem to be in it some Anachronisms and Deviations from the ancient Orthography, I am not wholly satisfied myself that it is authentick, and not rather the Production of one of those Grecian Sophisters, who have imposed upon the World several spurious Works of this Nature. I speak this by way of Precaution, because I know there are several Writers, of uncommon Erudition, who would not fail to expose my Ignorance, if they caught me tripping in a Matter of so great Moment. [3]