The works of Mr. Thomas Brown, serious and comical : in prose and verse, with his remains in four volumes compleat; vol. IIBrown, Thomas
General
The works of Mr. Thomas Brown, serious and comical : in prose and verse, with his remains in four volumes compleat; vol. II
Brown, Thomas
English wit and humor -- Early works to 1800; Erotic literature -- Early works to 1800; Latin literature -- Translations into English
The flatterers have done you too much honour, Mr. _Pedant_, and shou’d
they believe you, and turn honest, (of which I think there is no great
danger) and perswade their masters to be just to their oaths and
treaties, wou’d not they govern in peace and unity? And wou’d not that
very thing cast the world into such a drowsy tranquility, that it wou’d
be melancholy living in it, and starve millions of all degrees and
professions, who now, lord it very handsomely? We, I’m sure, shou’d be
first sensible of it, by having no variety of news to stuff our _London
Gazettes_, _Mercuries_ and _Slips_ with; which wou’d make the
booksellers withdraw our stipends, and by consequence oblige us to leave
off tipping the generous juice of the grape, and content ourselves with
Geneva, or some more phlegmatick manufacture. Therefore keep your
harangues for your school-boys, and do not maliciously take our daily
bread from us, and seek to ruin those complaisant persons, that can
condescend to sooth the vanities and inclinations of their princes. But
to dismiss this point, and return to yourself; ’tis plain you have not a
jot of honour about you, since you pay no regard to your father’s
reputation. We easily perceive you have been a _pedagogue_ by your
tattling; which indiscretion makes you unworthy the title of great
_Pluto_’s disciple. But has your pedantick majesty no better rewards to
bestow on gentlemen of courtly breeding than wheels, vultures,
millstones, and an eternal thirst? Truly ’tis very liberal, and
school-master like in every respect; but you are desired to keep those
mighty blessings for yourself, who deserve them much better than any one
else; and if you were cullied by those about you, talk no more on’t, but
keep your weakness to yourself.
CHRISTIANA, _Queen of_ SWEDEN, _to the Ladies_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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