THE DRAMATIC WORKS. Catherine Maria Dawson 1762 WILLIAM CONGREVE, Efq; IN TWO VOLUME S. VOLUME FIRST. LONDON: M DCC.LXXIII. THE OLD BACHELOR. A COMEDY. "Quem tulit ad fcenam ventofo gloria curru, "Exanimat lentus fpectator; fedulus inflat. "Sic leve, fic parvum eft, animum quod laudis avarum "Subruit, aut reficit." Horat. Epift. I. Lib. 2. CH To the Right Honourable ARLES, I Lord CLIFFORD. MY LORD, : T is with a great deal of pleasure that I lay hold on this firft occafion, which the accidents of my life have given me, of writing to your Lordfhip for fince, at the fame time, I write to all the world, it will be a means of publishing (what I would have every body know) the respect and duty which I owe and pay to you. I have fo much in clination to be yours, that I need no other engagement: but the particular ties by which I am bound to your Lordship and family, have put it out of my power to make you any compliment; fince all offers of myself will amount to no more than an honest acknowledgment, and only fhew a willingnefs in me to-be grateful. I am very near wishing that it were not fo much my intereft to be your Lordship's fervant, that it might be more my merit; not that I would avoid being obliged to you, but I would have my own. choice to run me into the debt; that I might have it to boast, I had distinguished a man, to whom I would be glad to be obliged, even without the |