PREFACE
Tho
I have very little Inclination to write Prefaces
before Works of this nature, yet, upon this particular
Occasion, I cannot but think my self oblig'd
to give some short Account of this Play, as well in
justice to my self, as to a very Learned and Ingenious Gentleman,
my Friend, who is dead. The Person I mean was
Mr. Smith of Christ-Church, Oxon: one whose Character
I could with great pleasure enter into, if it was not already
very well known to the World. As I had the Happiness to be
intimately acquainted with him, he often told me that he design'd
writing a Tragedy upon the Story of the Lady Jane
Gray; and if he had liv'd, I should never have thought of
meddling with it my self. But as he dy'd without doing it
in the beginning of the last Summer I resolv'd to undertake it
And indeed the hopes I had of receiving some considerable Assistances
from the Papers he left behind him, were one of the
principal Motives that induc'd me to go about it. These Papers
were in the hands of Mr. Ducket, to whom my Friend
Mr. Tho. Burnett was so kind to write and procure 'em
for me. The least Return I can make to those Gentlemen
is this publick Acknowledgment of their great Civility on this
occasion. I must confess, before those Papers came to my
hand; I had intirely form'd the Design or Fable of my own
Play: And when I came to look 'em over, I found it was
very different from that which Mr.
Smith intended; the
Plan of his being drawn after that, which is in Print, of
Mr.
Banks: at least I thought so, by what I could pick out
of his Papers. To say the truth, I was a good deal surpriz'd
and disappointed at the sight of 'em. I hop'd to have
met with great part of the Play written to my hand, or at
least the whole Design regularly drawn out. Instead of that,
I found the quantity of about two Quires of Paper written over
in odd pieces, blotted, interlin'd and confus'd. What was
contain'd in 'em in general, was loose Hints of Sentiments,
and short obscure Sketches of Scenes. But how they were
to be apply'd, or in what order they were to be rang'd, I
could not by any Diligence of mine (and I look'd 'em very
carefully over more than once) come to understand. One
scene there was, and one only, that seem'd pretty near perfect;
in which Lord
Guilford singly persuades the Lady
Jane to take the Crown. From that I borrow'd all that I
could, and inserted it in my own third Act. But indeed the
Manner and Turn of his Fable was so different from mine,
that I could not take above five and twenty or thirty Lines at
the most; and even in those I was oblig'd to make some Alteration.
I should have been very glad to have come into a
partnership of Reputation with so fine a Writer as Mr.
Smith
was; but in truth his Hints were so short and dark (many
of 'em mark'd ev'n in Short-Hand) that they were of little
use or service to me. They might have serv'd as Indexes to
his own Memory, and he might have form'd a Play out of
'em; but I dare say, no body else could. In one Part of his
Design he seem'd to differ from Mr.
Banks, whose Tale he
generally design'd to follow; since I observ'd in many of
those short Sketches of Scenes he had introduc'd Queen
Mary.
He seem'd to intend her Character Pitiful and inclining to
Mercy, but urg'd on to Cruelty by the Rage and bloody Dispositions
of
Bonner and
Gardiner. This Hint I had likewise
taken from the late Bishop of
Salisbury's History of
the Reformation; who lays, and I believe very justly, the
horrible Cruelties that were acted at that time, rather to the
charge of that Persecuting Spirit by which the Clergy was
then animated, than to the Queen's own natural Disposition.
Many People believ'd, or at least said, that Mr. Smith
left a Play very near entire behind him. All that I am sorry
for, is, that it was not so in fact: I should have made a
scruple of taking three, four, or even the whole five Acts
from him; but then I hope I should have had the Honour
to let the World know they were his, and not take another
Man's Reputation to my self.
This is what I thought necessary to say, as well on my
own account, as in regard to the Memory of my Friend.
For the Play, such as it is, I leave it to prosper as it
can: I have resolv'd never to trouble the World with any
publick Apologies for my Writings of this kind, as much as
have been provok'd to it. I shall turn this my young
Child out into the World, with no other Provision than
Saying which I remember to have seen before one of
Mrs. Behn's:
Va! mon Enfant prend ta Fortune.
