[Footnote:  Vid.  Shelton’s Translation of Don Quixot_, p._ 205.] And this now he inserts as my own Invention and manner of Stile, which is taken verbatim from the History of Don Quixot, and is by all those that can judge of humour, very pleasant and fit for that purpose.  Now if he has never read that History, his ignorance has abus’d me; and if he has, his impudence has, of which us perceiv’d he has Stock enough, for presently he worries me for saying, in my Epistle Dedicatory to the Duchess of Ormond, That I date my good fortune from her prosperous influence, and says ’tis Astrological. [Footnote:  Collier, p. 207.] I don’t know whether it has that sort of Learning in’t or no, but ’tis as good sense as when he says, like a Wag as he is, that the Ladies fancy is just slip-stocking high, and she seems to want sense more than her Break-fast. [Footnote:  Collier, p. 92.] Fancy slip-stocking high? no, no, the merry Grig must mean her pretty Leg was seen so high, for the Master of Art, I beg pardon of the rest that their Title is scandaliz’d, could never mean such Nonsence as t’other sure.

And now drawing near to an end, his malice grows more plainly to a head, by endeavouring to lessen my Credit with my Patron Mr. Montague, whose generous Candor and good Nature to me, and indeed to us all, he perhaps has heard of, for here our modest and moral Critick, has either mistaken the words, or found out a slip of the Press, which because it happens to be Nonsence, he has very gladly exposed for mine; ’tis in my Epistle to my aforesaid Patron, thus: 

Had your Eyes shot the haughty Austerity upon me of a right Courtier, your valued minutes had never been disturbed with dilatory Trifles of this nature; but my heart, on dull Consideration of your Merit, had supinely wish’d you Prosperity at a distance_. [Footnote:  Collier, p. 207.]

Mine in my Copy was written [due Consideration] but Doctor Crambo will have you believe, I consider’d so little to write the t’other; but now I will hold twenty Stubble Geese to the same number of Tithe Pigs, whenever he is preferr’d to be a Curate again, that I make my Patron smile more at my Entertainment of him at his own Cost, than ever he did at his quoting my dull Consideration, which no body but the dull Absolver could imagine a Man with any Brains could write.  And to prove I have yet a few, I will try to Paraphrase upon his Farewel to me, the Translation in Verse, but the Reader shall have his first.

  I like an Author that Reforms the Age,
  And keeps the right Decorum of the Stage;
  That always pleases by Just Reason’s Rule;
  But for a tedious Droll, a quibbling Fool,
  Who with low nauseous Bawdry fills his Plays,
  Let him be gone, and on two Tressels raise
  Some Smithfield Stage, where he may act his Pranks,
  And make Jack Puddings speak to Mountebanks.