University of Virginia Library

THE PREFACE.

The Publisher informs the Reader he has had this Play several Years in his Hand, and that the Person whom he procur'd it from esteem'd it very much, and assur'd him it was Mr. Otway's; and any one of Taste, may perceive his Genious through the whole. 'Tis well known among the Dramatick Writers, that he left a Play behind him, equal, if not exceeding any of his former; and Mr. Gildon in his Account of the Dramatick Poets, mentions this of him, and the Play left unpublish'd; which though some Part is foreign to my Purpose, I thought convenient to Transcribe the Whole.

‘The Place of Mr. Otway's Birth I know not, but he was of a good Family, and has a Nephew a Captain in the present Service. He was bred at Christ-Church in Oxon, and thence remov'd to London, not going on with the Design of being of the Clergy; tho' at first but with little Encouragement here, being what a small Allowance and Salary from the Play-house afforded,

for he was first a Player; but after he had writ Don Carlos he began to have a Name, having in that Play discover'd some touches of a Talent very few of our English Poets have been Masters of, in moving the Passions that are and ought to be the Poets Aim. He was a Jovial Companion, and a great Lover of the Bottle, particularly Punch, the last Thing he made before his Death, being an excellent Song on that Liquor. We have in print Ten of his Plays; another more excellent than all of them, is by some malicious designing Person, suppos'd, either hereafter to set up a Reputation to themselves by owning it, or to procure a Profit by selling it for their own. Whither he design'd to make any Alteration, I leave the Reader to Judge?