It has been said that when Tonson bought the copy of "Troilus and Cressida" (1679), the first play of John Dryden's that he published, he was obliged to borrow the purchase money (£20) from Abel Swalle, another bookseller. The names of both booksellers appear on the title-page, as was often the case at that time. Tonson was sufficiently well off to purchase plays by Otway and Nahum Tate. In 1681 the brothers Richard and Jacob joined in publishing Dryden's "Spanish Friar", and in 1683 Jacob obtained a valuable property by purchasing from Barbazon Ailmer, the assignee of Samuel Simmons, one half of his right in "Paradise Lost". The other half was purchased at an advance in 1690. Tonson afterwards said he had made more by "Paradise Lost" than by any other poem.