Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 8.djvu/413

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A SECOND PREFACE.
403

me to proceed in it, as by endeavouring to procure a good letter for the impression.

The favourable acceptance that my puns have met with in some private companies makes me flatter myself, that my labours therein will be candidly accepted, as they have been cordially intended to serve my native country[1].



From my Study, up one Pair of

Stairs, ill contrived Street-

wards, August 9th, 1719.

  1. Dr. Sheridan (who is mentioned as author of "The Art of Punning," by Mrs. Pilkington, vol. 1. p. 64,) had a large collection of bon mots and conts à rire; which dean Swift endeavoured, but without effect, to persuade him to publish.
    See his letter to Dr. Sheridan, March 27, 1733, vol. XIII, p. 44. After the publication of "The Art of Punning," Dr. Sheridan was attacked, by an anonymous writer[*], in a poem called, "Tom Pun-sibi metamorphosed, or the Giber gibed;" which he answered in a letter "To the Author of Tom Pun-sibi metamorphosed." And see the two poems here printed, pp. 427—429.
    *  Dr. Tisdell, called Black Tisdell.
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