ADVERTISEMENT.
The
Reader will probably expect some Account
of a Play which makes it's first Appearance in
the World in this Manner.—He is to know then,
that The Siege of Aleppo
having been refused
by the Managers of both Theatres, to one of which,
viz. Mr. Garrick, it was strongly recommended by
Lady Caroline Burdet (who is thereby intitled to
my present grateful Acknowlegements), would not
have been offered to the Publick, had it not been
honoured with the Approbation of several Persons
of the first Note in the Republick of polite Literature,
whom I am not at Liberty to mention.—
I am obliged to declare this, in order to do common
Justice to myself, and to obviate the Prejudices
which might be conceived against a Performance
that has not had the Credit and Advantage of a
Theatrical Representation.—But the Play must
now speak for itself; of which I shall say no more
than just to premise, that the Fable, and whole
Construction of it, excepting the Reality of the
Siege, is purely fictitious: That the Incidents were
designed to be natural, tho' unexpected, not arising
from common-place Exigencies, or forced Expedients,
(which is too frequently the Case) but from
the predominant Principles of the Characters themselves:
And that for this Purpose I have endeavoured
to give a new, and something of an original Cast
to the principal Characters, particularly to those of
Theodore, Sophronius, and Ormelia.
