LADY SNEERWELL. I wonder, Sir Benjamin, you never publish anything.
SIR BENJAMIN BACKBITE. To say truth, ma'am, 'tis very vulgar to print;
and as my little productions are mostly satires and lampoons on
particular people, I find they circulate more by giving copies in
confidence to the friends of the parties. However, I have some love
elegies, which, when favoured with this lady's smiles, I mean to give to
the public.
CRABTREE. 'Fore Heaven, ma'am, they'll immortalize you!--you will be
handed down to posterity, like Petrarch's Laura, or Waller's Sacharissa.
SIR BENJAMIN. Yes, madam, I think you will like them, when you shall see
them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall
meander through a meadow of margin.--R. B. SHERIDAN. _The School for
Scandal._