TO THE FIRST AND SECOND EDITION;

WITH

ADDITIONS.

THE little production now fubmitted to the public

eye was written on the performance of Jane Shore. It first made its appearance in manuscript, when that play, among others, was acted by a party of Ladies and Gentlemen for their private entertainment: and to a fimilar circumstance, tho' at a distant period, the revival of the fame tragedy, [March 16th, 1790,] in which feveral of the fame party were concerned, at Sir Kildare Borrowes's, it owes its introduction to the prefs. A Bookfeller fome years ago, feeing it in the Writer's study, obtained a kind of indirect promife he should have it to publish; but through want of leifure, or perhaps inclination, to give it a thorough revifal, it was from time to time poftponed, till on the present occafion a copy was produced, and it appeared likely to be brought forward from another quarter. Being apprized of the defign, the Writer could no longer hefitate; choofing rather to commit it to the candour of the Public, imperfect as it is, than to become responsible for faults that were not his own. He is of a profeffion, it is pretty generally

known, that affords him little opportunity for amufe ment; but, if all modes of relaxation are not prohibited, as he is wholly unacquainted with the hiftory of the Four Kings, and conftitutionally difqualified for the orgies of Bacchus, poffibly this way of diverting his moments of leifure may be as excufeable as any.

In a compofition of this purport, the introduction of India affairs, from which it might feem at firft fo entirely disconnected, may, as well as other things, he fears, excite animadverfion, and expofe him to unfavourable ftrictures; yet, in the nature of Episode, he perfuades himself the deviation is not too violent, and may be allowable on the score of variety; in one point of view, at least, not abfolutely foreign to the bufinefs of the piece. The Tragic Muse, reputed of Grecian origin, cannot always be confined to Greek and Roman fubjects, now growing trite and almoft exhaufted. Hereafter new fields of action may be opened to her, and genius exercise itself to advantage in the display of Eastern Manners and Customs, as yet partially known. A fcene of Oriental diftrefs, the catastrophe of an innocent, oppreffed, and unfortunate Afiatic, may excite compaffion in the breafts of our virtuous pofterity with as much effect as any of claffic extraction, and plead the Author's apology for the admiffion of their lamentable ftory here. The courfe

courfe of reading and converfation he was frequently engaged in gave a bias to his reflections, and many a fhocking detail he had liftened to from thofe who had long been refidents on the spot, and avowed themfelves eye-witneffes of the facts they related. The impreffions they made on his mind were ftrong and forcible; they feized upon his imagination, and the impulfe was not to be refifted. Such was the tenour of his thoughts in May 1779, when the whole, in its prefent form, was committed to paper. To occurrences of more recent notoriety there could be no reference, and, to the difgrace of human nature, fuffici. ent were the evils previously on record. If in the picture any features of fubfequent times be difcernable, it muft arife from the family likenefs; or if, gentle Reader! thou be difpofed to do the Writer grace, impute it to inspiration, from the infancy of letters, the acknowleged claim of the tribe of Parnaffus.

Every clafs of life has its pedants; thofe of a theatrical turn fhow their predilection in their use of theatrical allufions, and citations from plays on every occafion; not unhappily exemplified in the character of Dick, in the Apprentice. Conformably to that practice, the 40th line is taken entire from the Fair Penitent, and to obviate the charge of plagiarism, diftinguished by the ufual fignature of a quotation.→→

Here the Writer takes leave, once for all to acknowJege that, in a few other inftances, for the purpose of illustrating and enforcing his fubject, he has studiously imitated the turn of expreffion, or adopted a favourite phrafe from the paffage alluded to, in other writers, without particularizing it by any mark or intimation; deeming it fuperfluous to the learned reader, who needs no monitor to recognize an old acquaintance, perhaps rather be pleased to meet with, in a novel and unexpected fituation; to the less learned, it would be empty parade, and disfigure the page to no purpose. -Our most eminent poets have very freely indulged themselves in this practice: Pope efpecially; but as he reforted to the ancients, and works not commonly known, it has not been generally noticed; and, by most who have obferved it, esteemed a beauty: Demonstration of which may be found in the fixty-third number of the Adventurer.

Befides Pope's profeffed

imitations of Horace, to that admired critic as well as poet, he is evidently indebted for many beauties in his Effay; but more confiderably to M. H. Vida, bifhop of Alba, a native of Cremona, and an elegant Latin writer of the 15th century, who left an art of poetry in three books, of which Pope's Effay on Criticifm, it may be almost affirmed, is but an ingenious abridgement. Addison, (1) tho' with circumfpection and referve, has

trodden