[October 1764]
Sir,
I think myself greatly honour'd by a paragraph in a letter which you were pleas'd some time ago to write to Mr Camp at Lyons and had it been in my power to have follow'd my inclinations, I should have paid my respects at Ferney long before this time, but a violent bilious fever most unluckily seiz'd me upon the road & confin'd me to my bed five weeks at Munich & now my affairs are so circumstanc'd that I am oblig'd to go to Paris as expeditiously as my present weak state of health will permit me. You were pleas'd to tell a Gentleman that you had a theatre ready to receive me; I should with great pleasure have exerted what little talents I have, & could I have been the means of bringing our Shakespeare into some favour with Mr Voltaire I should have been happy indeed!
No enthusiastick Missionary who had converted the Emperor of China to his religion would have been prouder than I, could I have reconcil'd the first Genius of Europe to our Dramatic faith.
I am
Sr
Your most humble & most Obedient servant
David Garrick
PS. Tho I have call'd Shakespeare our dramatick faith yet I must do my countrymen ye Justice to declare, that notwithstanding their deserv'd admiration of his astonishing Powers they are not bigotted to his errors, as some french Journalists have so confidently affirm'd.