for giving that title to the play of Philafter. If Lear, Hamlet, Othello, &c. &c. notwithstanding the casual introduction of comick circumftances in the natural course of the action, are tragedies; Philafter is fo too. The duke of Buckingham entitles his alteration a Tragi-comedy; but that word, according to its prefent acceptation, conveys the idea of a very different species of compofition 3 a play like the Spanish Friar, or Oroonoko, in which two diftinct actions, one ferious and the other comick, are unnaturally woven together; as abfurd a medley (in the opinion of Addison) as if an epick writer was to undertake to throw into one poem the adventures of Æneas and Hudibras.

As to the form in which the piece is now fubmitted to the publick, fome, perhaps, will think that the editor has taken too many liberties with the original, and many may cenfure him for not having made a more thorough alteration. There are, it must be confeffed, many things ftill left in the play, which may be thought to lower the dig nity of Tragedy, and which would not be admitted in a fable of modern construction: But where fuch things were in nature, and inoffenfive, and ferved at the fame time as fo many links in the chain of circumftances that compofe the action, it was thought better to fubdue in fome meafure the intemperance

of

of the scenes of low humour, than wholly to reject or omit them. It would not have been in the power, nor indeed was it ever in the intention or defire, of the editor, to give Philafter the air of a modern performance; no more than an architect of this age would endeavour to embellifh the magnificence of a Gothick building with the orṇaments of the Greek or Roman orders. It is impof fible for the feverest reader to have a meaner opinion of the editor's fhare in the work than he entertains of it himself. Something, however, was necessary to be done; and the reafons for what he has done have already been affigned; nor can he repent of the trouble he has taken, at the inftance of a friend, whom he is happy to oblige, when he sees himself the instrument of restoring Philafter to the theatre, of difplaying new graces in Mrs. Yates, and of calling forth the extraordinary powers of so promif ing a genius for the ftage as Mr. Powell.

PRO

PROLOGUE,

Spoken by Mr. KING.

W

HILE modern Tragedy, by rule exact, Spins out a thin-wrought fable, act by act, We dare to bring you one of those bold plays Wrote by rough English wits in former days; Beaumont and Fletcher! those twin ftars, that run Their glorious course round Shakespeare's golden fun;

Or when Philafter Hamlet's place fupplied,
Or Beffus walk'd the stage by Falstaff's fide.
Their fouls, well pair'd, fhot fire in mingled rays,
Their hands together twin'd the social bays,
'Till fashion drove, in a refining age,

Virtue from court, and Nature from the stage.
Then nonfenfe, in heroicks, feem'd fublime;
Kings rav'd in couplets, and maids figh’d in rhime.
Next, prim, and trim, and delicate, and chafte,
A hafh from Greece and France, came Modern Tafte.
Cold are her fons, and fo afraid of dealing

In rant and fuftian, they ne'er rife to feeling.

Oh,

Oh, fay, ye bards of phlegm, fay, where's the name
That can with Fletcher urge a rival claim?

Say, where's the poet, train'd in pedant fchools,
Equal to Shakespeare, who o'erleap'd all rules?
Thus of our bards we boldly speak our mind;
A harder task, alas, remains behind :
To-night, as yet by publick eyes unfeen,
A raw, unpractis'd novice fills the scene.
Bred in the city, his theatrick star

Brings him at length on this fide Temple-Bar;
Smit with the muse, the ledger he forgot,
And when he wrote his name, he made a blot.
Him while perplexing hopes and fears embarras, –
Skulking (like Hamlet's rat) behind the arras,
Me a dramatick fellow-feeling draws,
Without a fee, to plead a brother's cause.
Genius is rare; and while our great comptroller,
No more a manager, turns arrant ftroller,
Let new adventurers your care engage,
And nurse the infant faplings of the stage!

DRAMATIS