The Reader is defired to obferve, that the Paffages omitted in the Representation at the Theatres are here preserved, and marked with fingle inverted Commas; as at Lines 2 to 4, in Page 20 W PREFACE. HE abilities of DRYDEN as a writer, are fo Tgenerally and fo juftly acknowledged to be of the first clafs, that it would be fomething worse than impropriety, to alter any of his productions without affigning the reafon. For the alteration of his AMPHITRYON, indeed, the reafon is evident; for it is so tainted with the profaneness and immodefty of the time in which he wrote, that the prefent time, however felfish and corrupt, has too much regard to external decorum, to permit the representation of it upon the stage, without drawing a veil, at least, over fome part of its deformity: the principal part of the alterations, therefore, are made with a moral view; though fome inaccuracies, which were remarked on the examination which thefe alterations made neceffary, are alfo removed, of which the following are the chief. In the scene between Sofia and Mercury in the fecond act, Amphitryon is supposed to have fent a buckle of diamonds by Sofia, as a prefent to Alcmena; for Sofia first asks Mercury "if Am-. "phitryon did fend a certain fervant with a pre"fent to his wife;" and foon after afks him, what that prefent was," which, by Mercury's anfwer, appears to be the diamond buckle: yet in the scene between Amphitryon and Alcmena, in the third act, when Alcmena asks him, as a proof of his having been with her before, from whofe hands fhe had the jewel, he cries out, “This is amazing! have I already given you thofe diamonds? the prefent I refervedAnd instead of fuppofing that Sofia had delivered A 2 them them as part of his errand, which he pretended he could not execute, he appeals to him for their being in fafe cuftody, referved to be prefented by himself. This is an inconfiftency peculiar to DRYDEN, for neither PLAUTUS nor MOLIERE any where mention the present to have been fent by Sofia. There is another inaccuracy of the fame kind, which occurs both in PLAUTUS and MOLIERE. It appears in the second act, that one part of Sofia's errand was to give Alcmena a particular account of the battle; and Sofia's account of his being prevented, is fo extravagant and abfurd that Amphitryon cannot believe it: yet when Alcmena, in the third act, afks Amphitryon how fhe came to know "what he had fent Sofia to "tell her," Amphitryon in aftonishment feems to admit that she could know these particulars only from himself, and does not confider her question as a proof that Sofia had indeed delivered his meffage, though for fome reafons he had pretended the contrary, and forged an incredible ftory to account for his neglect. As it would have been much more natural for Amphitryon, to have fuppofed that Sofia had told him a lie, than that Alcmena had, by a miracle, learnt what only he and Sofia could tell her, without feeing either of them; this inaccuracy is removed, by introducing fuch a fuppofition, and making the dialogue correspond with it. In the second act, Jupiter, in the character of Amphitryon, leaves Alcmena with much reluctance, pretending hafte to the camp, and great folicitude to keep his vifit to her a fecret from the Thebans: yet when he appears again in the third act, which he knew would be taken for the third appearance of Amphitryon, he does not account for his fuppofed fecond appearance at the return of the real Amphitryon, juft after his de parture, |