Tthose who judge of dramatic merit from the Greek models, the rules of French critics, or the examples of modern writers, a justifica­tion of the following piece would be attempted in vain. They would call it a motley perfor­mance, deficient in almost every article, which constitutes a true and proper tragedy. If the author was to alledge, that he never meant to compose a tragedy, according to their accep­tation of the word, but that his intention was to fill up a picture of real life, in a certain given time, the outlines of which were taken from historical facts, his reason would be deemed un­satisfactory.

Regardless of the end proposed, they would continue to exclaim, that the unities were neg­lected, that the grave was intermingled with the ludicrous; that the business of the drama frequently stood still; that the dialogue was too familiar, and the metre little better than mea­sured prose.

How far some of these objections may be valid, and how many more might, perhaps, with [Page ii] reason be urged against particular passages, the author would not determine. The force of others of them he would endeavour to dimi­nish, by answering, that they militate equally against human life itself; and that while he should be sorry to have this denominated an ar­tificial poem, he would flatter himself, it cannot be justly thought an unnatural one.

Dr. Johnson indeed, in the preface to his edi­tion of Shakespeare, seems to have sufficiently vindicated this particular species of writing, to which, those who please, may (instead of tra­gedy) give the more simple name of history. Neither are there wanting many good judges of composition, who wish that the less studied diction, and more plain and level metre of the school of that immortal poet, (which seems to have ended with Southern) had been conti­nued to the present time. Even this perfor­mance, with all its imputed irregularities and deficiencies, will, perhaps, be preferred by them, to those translated tragedies or imitations, which of late years have, through novelty, lived their nine nights on the stage, and been damned for ever after in the closet: tho' they had been cor­rected and metamorphosed by managers, calcu­lated to afford to favourite actors or actresses op­portunities of shining, and curtailed by lord chamberlains.

[Page iii] A diversification of characters hath been at­tempted in this piece; and to give to every cha­racter the mode of sentiment and expression, peculiarly suited to it. It is not at all difficult for a man of a very middling genius, to contrive a regular plot, to pen down a certain number of sounding lines; and though his Dramatis Per­sonae are distinguished by particular names, to put his own sentiments in their mouths through­out five acts. Had the author been solicitous of adapting his plan to the stage, or wished to conciliate the favour of the indiscriminating multitude, he might probably have followed the same method.

However it may appear to us, when we are reading, no small attention is requisite in writ­ten dialogue of any kind, for an author entirely to cast off self. This was the characteristic of Shakespeare; and perhaps after all, the author of this play hath deceived himself, and it may with reason be applied to him.