Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 3.djvu/198

194 To this Miscellany he wrote a Preface, in which he gives an account of his mother's cruelty in a very uncommon strain of humour, and with a gaiety of imagination, which the success of his subscription probably produced. The Dedication is addressed to the Lady Mary Wortley Montague, whom he flatters without reserve, and to confess the truth, with very little art. The same observation may be extended to all his Dedications: his compliments are constrained and violent, heaped together without the grace of order, or the decency of introduction: he seems to have written his panegyricks for the perusal Rh