Paris almoſt e’ry one goes to the Theatre, here not the tenth part, for Hypocriſie and Buſineſs here, divide the greater part to their ſeveral and different Offices: Another Reaſon is, That the Governours of the Houſe were unwilling to wear it out, and ſo balk’d the Run of it.
I am not ignorant of the ſeveral Objections made againſt this Play by the Criticks, viz. that the Scenes are looſe, and not at all akin to the Plot, and may be cut out and alter’d in perpetuum, without the leaſt Injury or Advantage to the thin and frail Deſign of the Play; that in Lydia, before the time of Alexander the Great, they talk of Juſtices of the Peace, Fox Hunting, Flanders Horſes, and other things which are entirely Modern; but at the ſame time that theſe Accuſations must be confeſs’d not to be ill grounded; it muſt be own’d, that without theſe Faults we muſt have loſt Beauties of greater Conſequence. This I’m ſure, there has never been on the Stage, a Play of more general Satyr ſince the Plain Dealer; and there are ſuch Publick and uſeful Morals recommended to the Audience, that will be as beneficial to the Common-weal, as diverting to the immediate Spectators.
The Provok’d Wife, a Comedy, 4 to. Acted at the Theatre in Little Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, by his Majeſty’s Servants, 1697. To ſpeak of this Play as I ought, I ſhou’d have the Pen of the Author who Writ it, and the recommending the Reader to a Peruſal of it, is the greateſt Praiſe I can give it. But I cannot omit the Objections I have heard made to it, by ſome of our Criticks, viz. That it is a looſe Play, without Deſign, or if there be a Deſign, ’tis ſuch a one as the juſt Rules of Comedy exclude, ſince it teaches the Wives how they ought to return the Brutality of their Husbands. I cannot by any means allow this Objection; for the Deſign ſeems to me as juſt as the Reflections and Wit of it are poinant, the Converſation lively and genteel; for it rather teaches Husbands how they ought to expect their Wives ſhou’d make them a Return, if they uſe them as Sir John Brute did his; ſuch Husbands may learn, that ſlighted and abuſed Virtue and Beauty, may be provoked to hearken to the prevailing Motives of Revenge. I can never think any reaſonable Man ſhou’d ſuppoſe a Woman entirely diveſted of a ſenſe of Humanity, or inſenſible either of the Power of an agreeable Temptation, or of the Pleaſure it yields: and as moſt of our Vices are the ſureſt Guard, if not ſource of our Virtues, I’m confident, when the Husbands ill Uſage of his wife deprives himſelf of her Love, he diſmiſſes the ſureſt Guard of their common Honour; and the other, that is her Pride and Care of her Reputation will not be of force enough againſt Revenge; and the ſtrong ſollicitations of an agreeable Perſon, that demonſtrates a value for what the Poſſeſſor ſlights: So that it cannot be deny’d, that this Moral is of admirable Uſe; and offers a Truth to our conſidera-
