the clergy of those days; but it is a true one: and I believe it will be perceived throughout the whole, that it is drawn by one, who would have touched it with a lighter hand, had the spirit and the precepts of christianity, and above all, the superlatively beautiful character of its divine Founder, been more indifferent to her.
To give a view of Ambition, as it is generally found in the ordinary intercourse of life, excited by vanity rather than the love of power, and displayed in a character which is not, like that of Ethwald, supported by the consciousness of abilities adequate to its designs, has been my object in the comedy that accompanies the foregoing tragedies. As a long period of time, and a long chain of events, did not appear necessary to this purpose, I have confined myself to the usual limits of a dramatic work. There is nothing, I believe, either in the story or the characters of the piece, that call upon me to say any thing in regard to them. Such as it is, I leave it, with its companions, in the hands of my reader, with some degree of confidence struggling against many fears: and I am willing to hope, that, if in the course of this volume I have given, in general, a true representation of human nature, under such circumstances as interest our hearts and excite our curiosity, many sins will be forgiven me; especially as, I trust, they are not sins of carelessness or presumption.
