A
LETTER
TO
DAVID GARRICK, Esq.
FROM
WILLIAM KENRICK, LL.D.
Meo deo irato. Ter. Phor.
THE THIRD EDITION.
LONDON:
Printed for J. WHEBLE, Pater-noster-Row.
Mdcclxxii.II
To DAVID GARRICK, Esq.
SIR,
The author of the following Eclogue, having requested my assistanceto introduce it to the world; it was with more indignation thansurprize I was informed of your having used your extensive influenceover the press to prevent its being advertised in the News-papers.How are you, Sir, concerned in the Lamentation of Roscius for hisNyky? Does your modesty think no man entitled to the appellationof Roscius but yourself? Does Nyky resemble any nick-named favouriteof yours? Or does it follow, that if you have cherished an unworthyfavourite, you must bear too near a resemblance to him? Quicapit ille facit; beware of self-accusation, where others bring nocharge! Or, granting you right in these particulars, by what right orprivilege do you, Sir, set up for a licenser of the press? That youhave long successfully usurped that privilege, to swell both your fameand fortune, is well known. Not the puffs of the quacks of Bayswaterand Chelsea are so numerous and notorious: but by what authoritydo you take upon you to shut up the general channel, inwhich writers usher their performances to the public? If they attackeither your talents or your character, in utrumque paratus, youare armed to defend yourself. You have, besides your ingenuouscountenance and conscious innocence; Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescereculpa; Besides this brazen bulwark, I say, you have a readypen and a long purse. The press is open to the one, and the baris ever ready to open with the other. For a poor author, not aprinter will publish a paragraph, not a pleader will utter a quibble.You have then every advantage in the contest: It is needless,therefore, to endeavour to intimidate your antagonists bycountenancing your retainers to threaten their lives! These intimidations,let me tell you Sir, have an ugly, suspicious look.They are besides needless; the genus irritabile vatum want no suchpersonal provocations; Heaven knows, the life of a play-wright, likethat of a spider, is in a state of the most slender dependency. Itis well for my rhiming friend that his hangs not on so slight athread. He thinks, nevertheless, that he has reason to complain,as well as the publick, of your having long preferred the flimzy,translated, patch'd-up and mis-altered pieces of your favourite compilers,to the arduous attempts at originality of writers, who haveno personal interest with the manager. In particular, he thinksIIIthe two pieces, you are projecting to get up next winter, for theemolument of your favorite in disgrace, or to reimburse yourself
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