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Right Honourable

THE

Earl of JERSEY,

Lord Chamberlain of his MAJESTY'S Houfhold, &c.

My LORD

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F any thing may atone for the Liberty I také in offering this Trifle to your Lordship, it is, that I will engage not to be guilty of the common Vice of Dedications, nor pretend to give the World an Account of the many good Qualities they ought to admire in your Lordfhip. I hope I may reckon on it as fome little piece of Merit, in an Age where there

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are fo many People write Panegyricks, and fo few de-ferve 'em. I am fure you ought not to fit for your Picture, to fo ill a Hand as mine. Men of your Lordhip's Figure and Station, tho useful and ornamental to the Age they live in, are yet referv'd for the Labours of the Hiftorian, and the Entertainment of Pofterity; nor. ought to be afpers'd with fuch Pieces of Flattery while living, as may render the true Hiftory fufpected to thofe that come after. That which fhould take up all my Care at prefent, is moft humbly to beg your Lordship's pardon for importuning you upon this account; for imagining that your Lordship (whofe Hours are all dedicated to the best and most important Ufes) can have any Leifure for this Piece of Poetry. I beg, my Lord, that you will receive it, as it was meant, a Mark of my entire Refpect and Veneration.

I hope it may be fome advantage to me, that the Town has not receiv'd this Play ill; to have depended merely upon your Lordship's Good nature, and have offer'd fomething without any degree of Merit, would have been an unpardonable Fault, efpecially to fo good a Judge. The Play it felf, as I prefent it to your Lordfhip, is a much more perfect Poem than it is in the Reprefentation on the Stage. I was led into an Error in the writing of it, by thinking that it would be easier to retrench than to add but when I was at laft neceffitated, by reason of the extreme Length, to cut off near fix hundred Lines, I found that it was maim'd by it to a great difadvantage. The Fable (which has no manner of Relation to any part of true Hiftory) was left dark and intricate, for want of a great part of the Narration, which was left out in the firft Scene; and the Chain and Connection, which ought to be in the Dialogue, was interrupted in many other Places. But fince what was omitted in the Acting is now kept in, I hope it may indifferently entertain your Lordship at an unbending Hour. The Faults which are moft generally found, (and which I could be very proud of fubmitting to your Lordship's Judgment, if you can have Leifure for fo trivial a Caufe) are, that the Cataftrophe in the fifth Act is barbarous, and fhocks

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the Audience. Some People, whofe Judgment I ought to have a deference for, have told me, that they wish'd I had given the latter part of the Story quite another turn; that Artaxerxes and Ameftris ought to have been preferv'd, and made happy in the Conclufion of the Play; that befides the Satisfaction which the Spectators would have had to have seen two virtuous (or at least innocent) Characters, rewarded and fuccefsful, there might have been also a more noble and instructive Moral drawn that way. I must confefs if this be an Error, (as perhaps it may) it is a voluntary one, and an Error of my Judg ment: Since in the writing I actually made fuch a fort of an Objection to my felf, and chose to wind up the Story this way. Tragedies have been allow'd, I know, to be written both ways very beautifully: But fince Terror and Pity are laid down for the Ends of Tragedy by the grear Mafter and Father of Criticism, I was always inclin'd to fancy, that the laft and remaining Impreffions, which ought to be left on the Minds of an Audience, fhould proceed from one of these two. They fhould be ftruck with Terror in feveral parts of the Play, but always conclude and go away with Pity; a fort of Regret proceeding from Good-nature, which, tho an uneafinefs, is not always difagreeable to the Perfon who feels it. It was this Paffion that the famous Mr. Otway fucceeded fo well in touching, and must and will at all times affect People, who have any Tenderness or Humanity. If therefore I had fav'd Artaxerxes and Ameftris, I believe (with fubmiffion to my Judges) I had deftroy'd the greatest occafion for Compaffion in the whole Play. Any body may perceive, that he is rais'd to fome degrees of Happiness, by hearing that her Father and Husband are living, (whom he had fuppos'd dead) and by feeing the Enemy and Perfecutor of her Family dying at her Feet, purposely, that the turn of her Death may be more furprizing and pitiful. As for that part of the Objection, which fays, that innocent Perfons ought not to be fhewn un fortunate; the Succefs and general Approbation, which many of the beft Tragedies that have been writ, and which

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which were built on that Foundation, have met with, will he a fufficient Anfwer for me.

That which they call the Poetical Juftice, is, I think, ftrictly obferv'd; the two principal Contrivers of Evil, the Statesman and Prieft, are punifh'd with death, and the Queen is depos'd from her Authority by her own Son; which, I fuppofe, will be allow'd as the fevereft Mortification that could happen to a Woman of her imperious Temper.

If there can be any excufe for my entertaining your Lord hip with this detail of Criticisms, it is, That I would have this firft Mark of the Honour I have for your Lordship appear with as few faults as poffible. Did not the prevailing Character of your Lordship's excellent Humanity and Good-nature encourage me, what ought I not to fear from the Nicenefs of your Tafte and Judgment? The Delicacy of your Reflections may be very fatal to fo rough a Draught as this is; but if I will believe (as I am fure I ought to do) all Men that I have heard fpeak of your Lordship, they bid me hope every thing from your Goodnefs. This is that I muft fincerely own, which made me extremely ambitious of your Lordship's Patronage for this Piece. I am but too fenfible that there are a Multitude of Faults in it; but fince the Good-nature of the Town has cover'd, or not taken notice of 'em, I must have fo much difcretion, as not to look with an affected Nicety into 'em my felf. With all the Faults and Imperfections which it may have, I must own, I fhall be yet very well fatisfy'd with it, if it gives me an Opportunity of reckoning my felf from this time,

Your Lordship's most Obedient

and devoted Humble Servant,

N. ROWE.

PRO

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PROLOGUE,

Spoken by Mr. Betterton.

F dying Lovers yet deferve a Tear,
If a fad Story of a Maid's Despair,
Yet move Compaffion in the pitying Fair;
This Day the Poet does his Art employ,

The foft Acceffes of your Souls to try.
Nor let the Stoick boaft his Mind unmov'd;
The Brute Philofopher, who ne'er has prov'd
The Joy of Loving or of being Lov'd;
Who fcorns his Human Nature to confess,
And ftriving to be more than Man, is lefs.
Nor let the Men the weeping Fair accufe,
Thofe kind Protectors of the Tragick Mufe,
Whofe Tears did moving Otway's Labours crown,
And made the poor Monimia's Grief their own:
Thofe Tears, their Art, not Weakness has confeft,
Their Grief approv'd the Niceness of their Tafte,
And they wept moft, because they judg'd the best.
O could this Age's Writers hope to find

An Audience to Compaffion thus inclin'd,

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The Stage would need no Farce, nor Song, nor Dance,
Nor Capering Monfieur brought from active France.
Clinch and his Organ-Pipe, his Dogs and Bear,
To native Barnet might again repair,

Or breathe with Captain Otter Bankside Air:
Majeftick Tragedy should once agen

In Purple Pomp adorn the fwelling Scene

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