Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
LONDON: H. G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCXXXIX.
MY Booksellers inform'd me, lately, that several inquiries had been made for _My Night-Gown and Slippers_,--but that every copy had been sold;--they had been out of print these two years.--"Then publish them again," said I, boldly,--(I print at my own risk)--and with an air of triumph. Messrs. Cadell and Davies advise'd me to make additions.--"The _Work_ is, really, too short," said Messrs. Cadell and Davies,--"I wish, gentlemen," return'd I, "my readers were of your opinion."--"I protest, Sir," said they, (and they asserted it, both together, with great emphasis,) "you have but _Three Tales_."--I told them, carelessly, it was enough for the greatest _Bashaw_, among modern poets, and wish'd them a good morning. When a man, as Sterne observes, "can extricate himself with an _equivoque_, in such an unequal match,"--(and two booksellers to one poet are tremendous odds)--"he is not ill off;"--but reflecting a little, as I went home, I began to think my pun was a vile one,--and did not assist me, one jot, in my argument;--and, now I have put it upon paper, it appears viler still;--it is execrable.--So, without much further reasoning, I sat down to rhyming;--rhyming, as the reader will see, in open defiance of _all reason_,--except the reasons of Messrs. Cadell and Davies.--
Thus you have _My Night-Gown and Slippers_, with _Additions_, converted to _Broad Grins_;--and 'tis well if they may not end in _Wide Yawns_ at last! Should this be the case, gentle Reviewers, do not, ungratefully, attempt to break my sleep, (_you will find it labour lost_) because I have contributed to your's.
MY NIGHT-GOWN AND SLIPPERS TOM, DICK, and WILL, were little known to Fame;-- THE WATER-FIENDS. DICK ended:--TOM and WILL approve'd his strains; THE NEWCASTLE APOTHECARY. Ere WILL had done 'twas waxing wond'rous late; LODGINGS FOR SINGLE GENTLEMEN. THE KNIGHT AND THE FRIAR. THE KNIGHT AND THE FRIAR, PART FIRST. SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM's SONNET ON HIS LADY. THE KNIGHT AND THE FRIAR, PART THE SECOND. Ye Criticks, and ye Hyper-Criticks!--who THE ELDER BROTHER.