longer from the perusal of this book, in which all things are excellent,
excepting only the meanness of my performance in the translation. Such as
it is, be pleased, with your inborn goodness, to accept it, with the
offer of my unworthy prayers for the lasting happiness of my gracious
sovereign, for your own life and prosperity, together with the
preservation of the son of prayers, and the farther encrease of the
royal family; all which blessings are continually implored from heaven,
by,

MADAM,
Your Majesty's most humble,
And most obedient subject and servant,
JOHN DRYDEN.


[Footnote 1: Mary of Este, wife of James II.]

[Footnote 2: The superstitious and, as it proved, fatal insinuation, that
the birth of the Chevalier de St George was owing to the supernatural
intercession of St Francis Xavier, was much insisted on by the
Protestants as an argument against the reality of his birth. See the
Introduction to "Britannia Rediviva," Vol. X. p. 285. In that piece, our
author also alludes to this foolery:
Hail, son of prayers, by holy violence
Drawn down from heaven!--]

[Footnote 3: The Reverend Richard Hackluyt, editor of the large
collection of voyages to which Purchas' Pilgrim is a continuation.]