 | The Princess of Cleve |  |
TO THE Right Honourable Charles Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold, and one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council, &c.
May it please your Lordship,
This Play, when it was Acted, in the Character of the Princess of Jainville, had a resemblance of Marguerite in the Massacre of Paris, Sister to Charles the Ninth, and Wife to Henry the Fourth King of Navar: That fatal Marriage which cost the Blood of so many Thousand Men, and the Lives of the best Commanders. What was borrowed in the Action is left out in the Print, and quite obliterated in the minds of Men. But the Duke of Guise, who was Notorious for a bolder Fault, has wrested two whole Scenes from the Original, which after the Vacation he will be forc'd to pay. I was, I confess, through Indignation, forc'd to limb my own Child, which Time, the true Cure for all Maladies, and Injustice has set together again. The Play cost me much pains, the Story is true, and I hope the Object will display Treachery in its own Colours. But this Farce, Comedy, Tragedy or meer Play, was a Revenge for the Refusal of the other; for when they expected the most polish'd Hero in Nemours, I gave 'em a Ruffian reeking from Whetstone's-Park. The fourth and fifth Acts of the Chances, where Don John is pulling down; Marriage Alamode, where they are bare to the Waste; the Libertine, and Epsom-Wells, are but Copies of his Villainy. He lays about him like the Gladiateor in the Park; they may walk by, and take no notice. I beg your Lordship to excuse this account, for indeed 'tis all to introduce the Massacre of Paris to your Favour, and approve it to be play'd in its first Figure.
| The Princess of Cleve | |