The Old Bachelor | Page 3

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The Old Bachelor
by William Congreve
Quem tulit ad scenam ventoso Gloria curru,
Exanimat lentus
spectator; sedulus inflat:
Sic leve, sic parvum est, animum quod
laudis avarum
Subruit, and reficit.
HORAT. Epist. I. lib. ii.
To the Right Honourable Charles, Lord Clifford of Lanesborough, etc.
My Lord,--It is with a great deal of pleasure that I lay hold on this first
occasion which the accidents of my life have given me of writing to
your lordship: for since at the same time I write to all the world, it will
be a means of publishing (what I would have everybody know) the
respect and duty which I owe and pay to you. I have so much
inclination 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, since all offers of
myself will amount to no more than an honest acknowledgment, and
only shew a willingness in me to be grateful.
I am very near wishing that it were not so much my interest to be your
lordship's servant, 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 hopes of having
it in my power ever to make him a return.
It is impossible for me to come near your lordship in any kind and not
to receive some favour; and while in appearance I am only making an
acknowledgment (with the usual underhand dealing of the world) I am
at the same time insinuating my own interest. I cannot give your
lordship your due, without tacking a bill of my own privileges. 'Tis true,

if a man never committed a folly, he would never stand in need of a
protection. But then power would have nothing to do, and good nature
no occasion to show itself; and where those qualities are, 'tis pity they
should want objects to shine upon. I must confess this is no reason why
a man should do an idle thing, nor indeed any good excuse for it when
done; yet it reconciles the uses of such authority and goodness to the

necessities of our follies, and is a sort of poetical logic, which at this
time I would make use of, to argue your lordship into a protection of
this play. It is the first offence I have committed in this kind, or indeed,
in any kind of poetry, though not the first made public, and therefore I
hope will the more easily be pardoned. But had it been acted, when it
was first written, more might have been said in its behalf: ignorance of
the town and stage would then have been excuses in a young writer,
which now almost four years' experience will scarce allow of. Yet I
must declare myself sensible of the good nature of the town, in

receiving this play so kindly, with all its faults, which I must own were,
for the most part, very industriously covered by the care of the players;
for I think scarce a character but received all the advantage it would
admit of from the justness of the action.
As for the critics, my lord, I have nothing to say to, or against, any of
them of any kind: from those who make just exceptions, to those who
find fault in the wrong place. I will only make this general answer in
behalf of my play (an answer which Epictetus advises every man to
make for himself to his censurers), viz.: 'That if they who find some
faults in it, were as intimate with it as I am, they would find a great
many more.' This is a confession, which I needed not to have made; but
however, I can draw this use from it to my own advantage: that I think
there are no faults in it but what I do know; which, as I take it, is the
first step to an amendment.
Thus I may live in hopes (sometime or other) of making the town
amends; but you, my lord, I never can, though I am ever your lordship's
most obedient and most humble servant,
WILL. CONGREVE.

To Mr. Congreve.
When virtue in pursuit of fame