or he was the protomartyr of the cause, and the type of his
unfortunate royal master.

Yet after all, my lord, if I may speak my thoughts, you are happy
rather to us than to yourself; for the multiplicity, the cares,
and the vexations of your employment, have betrayed you from
yourself, and given you up into the possession of the public.
You are robbed of your privacy and friends, and scarce any hour
of your life you can call your own. Those, who envy your
fortune, if they wanted not good-nature, might more justly pity
it; and when they see you watched by a crowd of suitors, whose
importunity it is impossible to avoid, would conclude, with
reason, that you have lost much more in true content, than you
have gained by dignity; and that a private gentleman is better
attended by a single servant, than your lordship with so
clamorous a train. Pardon me, my lord, if I speak like a
philosopher on this subject; the fortune which makes a man
uneasy, cannot make him happy; and a wise man must think himself
uneasy, when few of his actions are in his choice.

This last consideration has brought me to another, and a very
seasonable one for your relief; which is, that while I pity your
want of leisure, I have impertinently detained you so long a
time. I have put off my own business, which was my dedication,
till it is so late, that I am now ashamed to begin it; and
therefore I will say nothing of the poem, which I present to you,
because I know not if you are like to have an hour, which, with a
good conscience, you may throw away in perusing it; and for the
author, I have only to beg the continuance of your protection to
him, who is,

My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obliged,
Most humble, and
Most obedient, servant,
John Dryden.

PREFACE

The death of Antony and Cleopatra is a subject which has been treated
by the greatest wits of our nation, after Shakespeare; and by all so
variously, that their example has given me the confidence to try
myself in this bow of Ulysses amongst the crowd of suitors, and,
withal, to take my own measures, in aiming at the mark. I doubt not
but the same motive has prevailed with all of us in this attempt;
I mean the excellency of the moral: For the chief persons
represented were famous patterns of unlawful love; and their end
accordingly was unfortunate. All reasonable men have long since
concluded, that t