To the Reader.
It
was Plato's conceit, that if Virtue had a body so that all the beauty and
lustre of its several ornaments could be seen, all men could be in love with it:
By the same rule, were Vice drawn, and all the parts and lims of it set before us
in its height of Deformity, that with one glance of the Eye we might discover
all the ugliness of it, we should fly from it with winged haste. The true and primary
intent of the Tragedians and Commedians of old, was to magnifie Virtue,
and to depress Vice; And you may observe throughout the Works of incomparable
Johnson, excellent Shakespear, and elegant Fletcher, &c they (however
vitus erated by some streight-laced brethren not capable of their sublimity,)
aim at no other end: My drift is the same in the composure of this Comedy;
Pamphlets no Critick can more contemn then my self; however, it may please
thousands of the vulgar (for whose sakes I am purposely plain and spungey)
something there is here that will inform the wiser sort. Such things are these
are less then least of my Recreations.
VALE.
