Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12.djvu/383

Rh their own. Mr. Cibber is made poet laureat. I am, sir, as much your humble servant as I can be to any person I do not know,

C.Q.

Mr. Gay is very peevish that I spell and write ill; but I do not care: for neither the pen nor I can do better. Besides, I think you have flattered me, and such people ought to be put to trouble.

Now I hope you are pleased, and that you will allow for so small a sum as two hundred pounds, you have a lumping pennyworth.

SIR,

OU need not have made any excuses to me for your solicitation: on the contrary, I am proud of being the first person, to whom you have thought it worth your while to apply, since those changes, which, you say, drove you into distance and obscurity. I very well know the person you recommend to me, having lodged at his house a whole summer at Richmond. I have always heard a very good character of him, which alone would incline me to serve him: but your recommendation, I can assure you, will make me impatient to do it. However, that he may not again meet with the common fate of court suitors, nor I lie under the imputatiimputation [sic] Rh