But, although authors may have been ready enough to flatter their patrons, the appetite of the latter was sometimes stronger than could be met by the supply. Peter Motteux, of whom I have already spoken, had a patron of this quality, whose name was Heveningham, and who, having accepted the dedication of one of Peter's dramatic trifles, was so little satisfied with the copy which was sent to him for approval, that he wrote one to himself, subscribed it with Motteux's name, and sent it to the press! Unluckily, Heveningham had mentioned therein an incident which could have been known only to himself; and the epigrammatic wits found their account in the oversight.
There is something more touching in the dedication of "Merope" to Bolingbroke, by poor Aaron Hill, when "hard up," through speculation, indiscreet generosity, and a profuse hospitality, in which there was no discretion at all! Aaron felt his position, and was conscious of an end approaching, to which the sad poet thus alludes:—
"Covered in Fortune's shade, I rest reclined,
My griefs all silent and my joys resigned.
With patient eye Life's ev'ning gleam survey,
Nor shake th' out-hasting sands, nor bid them stay;
Yet while from life my setting prospects fly,
Fain would my mind's weak off'ring shun to die;
Fain would their hope, some time through light explore,