I. Roberts del. Publifhd for Bells British Theatre July 11777 Thornthwaite Sculp. M:MATTOCKS in the Character of ELVIRA. – but however I will, not stand with you for a Sample AS PERFORMED AT THE Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. Regulated from the Prompt-Book, By PERMISSION of the MANAGERS, By Mr. WILD, Prompter. Ut melius poffis fallere, fume togam.-MART. Alterna revifens Lufit, et in folido rurfus fortuna locavit.-VIRGIL. JB 4 LONDON: Printed for JoHN BELL, near Exeter-Exchange, in the Strand. MDCCLXXVII. WHEN I first defign'd this play, I found, or thought I found, fomewhat fo moving in the ferious part of it, and fo pleafant in the comic, as might deferve a more than ordinary care in both: accordingly I used the best of my endeavour, in the management of two plots, fo very different from each other, that it was not perhaps the talent of every writer, to have made them of a piece. Neither have I attempted other plays of the fame na ture, in my opinion, with the fame judgment; though with like fuccefs. And though many poets may fufpect themselves for the fondness and partiality of parents to their youngest children, yet I hope I may stand exempted from this rule, because I know myself too well, to be ever satisfied with my own conceptions, which have feldom reached to those ideas that I had within me and confequently, I prefume I may have liberty to judge when I write more or lefs pardonably, as an ordinary marksman may know certainly when he fhoots lefs wide at what he aims. Befides, the care and pains I have be ftowed on this beyond my other tragi-comedies, may reasonably make the world conclude, that either I can do nothing tolerably, or that this poem is not much amifs. Few good pictures have been finifhed at one fitting A 2 neither neither can a true juft play, which is to bear the teft of ages, be produced at a heat, or by the force of fancy, without the maturity of judgment. For my own part, I have both fo juft a diffidence of myself, and fo great a reverence for my audience, that I dare venture nothing without a strict examination; and am as much ashamed to put a loose indigested play upon the public, as I should be to offer brafs money in a payment: for though it fhould be taken, (as it is too often on the stage,) yet it will be found in the fecond telling: and a judicious reader will discover in his clofet that trashy stuff, whofe glittering deceived him in the action. I have often heard the ftationer fighing in his fhop, and wifhing for thofe hands to take off his melancholy bargain which clapped its performance on the ftage. In a play-houfe every thing contributes to impofe upon the judgment; the lights, the fcenes, the habits, and, above all, the grace of action, which is commonly the best where there is the moft need of it, furprize the audience, and caft a mist upon their understandings; not unlike the cunning of a juggler, who is always ftaring us in the face, and overwhelming us with gibberish, only that he may gain the opportunity of making the cleaner conveyance of his trick. But these false beauties of the ftage, are no more Balling than a rainbow, when the actor ceafes to fine upon them, when he gilds them no longer with his reflection, they vanish in a twinkling. I have fometimes wondered, in the reading, what was become of thofe glaring colours which amazed me in Buffy Damboys upon the theatre: but when I had taken up what I fuppofed a fallen ftar, I found I had been cozened with a jelly nothing but a cold dull mafs, which glittered no longer than it was fhooting: a dwarfish thought, dreffed up in gigantic words, repetition in abundance, looseness of expreffion, and grofs hyperboles; the fenfe of one line expanded prodigioufly into ten: and to fum up all, incorrect English, and a hideous mingle of falfe poetry and true nonfenfe; or, at best, a fcantling of wit which lay gafping for life, and groaning beneath a heap of tubbifh. A famous modern poet ufed to facrifice every year a Statius to Virgil's manes; and I have indignation enough to burn a Damboys annually to the memory of Johnson. |