Mai To the Right Honourable deni Ja Hon N EARL of ORRERY : Baron Boyle of Marston, &c.me 20 AM proud that every of particular Reasons to do fo; for Your Lordship was so good to bespeak the Patronage of a part of my A Shakespeare: Shakespeare: and my Duty could do no less than throw the Whole under Your Protection. I shall be eafily pardon'd, tho' I should profess a Sorrow for being reduc'd to make You this unworthy Offering; because, I know, Your Lordship is truly a Mourner for the Neceffity. The good Lady Orrery (whose Memory I most fincerely venerate) did me the Honour of making her early Claim: and it comes now to You by the melancholy Right of Executorship. Would it had Merit enough to plead its Interest duly, as an Orphan and Relict from so dear a Friend! . It is a Maxim, I think, My Lord, of Monfieur Rochefoucault, that all our Actions and Defires flow from the Spring of Self-love. My ardent, but vain, Wishes that a long Life might crown the Countess of Orrery's Virtues, I may fay, sprung from a more generous Motive. I had Your Lordship's Joy and Interest principally in View: and wish'd She She might furvive, both to have made happy Your Bed, and shared in the Education of those dear Pledges, which She has left You, of your mutual Affection. -castum ut fervare Cubile Conjugis, & poffet parvos educere Natos. I have Your Lordship's Word for it, that She was, while living, my very good Friend: an Honour, that I would with to repay, now She is no more, by raising a Monument of Gratitude to her Name. Without aiming at her Praise, I can barely hope to do Justice to her Memory! Truth, in an Epitaph or Characteristic, may do the World some Service, while it exhibits a Pattern to be follow'd: but Flattery so exceeds all Proportion, that it leaves no Room for Imitation. I never left your Lordship's House, without the strongest Impressions of those Sweets, which endear Connubial Society. All the Qualities, that can make Woman laftingly amiable, were center'd A 2 center'd in Lady Orrery. The Fondness of a Wife, and tender Mother, were eminently confpicuous in all her Behaviour. It was a Pleasure to her to adapt her felf to all Your Lordship's Sentiments: and You could honour None with any Degree of your Friendthip, but That was a Merit to recommend them to her Smiles. In her Conversation, the Vivacity of Youth was happily temper'd with the Sageness of the Matron. She knew how to be pleasant without Levity, and to display Wisdom divested of all its disagreeable Severities. With what Sweetness of Deportment She behav'd to her Domesticks, was visible in that Love and Reverence with which they obey'd her. She maintain'd the Respect due to her Rank, without being either fupercilious or affected: yet at the same time knew, that her great Birth and Station ought not to set her above being the Mistress of her Family. Hence, in the Point of your Table, while She consulted your Quality, She took |