University of Virginia Library

ADVERTISEMENT.

The last representation of “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” was in 1763, and the alterations and additions then introduced, were said to have been by Colman and Garrick; but whoever will read the Play, as published by Tonson in that year, must doubt much whether either of those Gentlemen could have been concerned in so inefficient a production: for notwithstanding the support of a strong Company —of expensive Decorations—and of Music by Arne, Burney, and Handel, “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” was coldly received on the first night, and after the second night, was totally withdrawn.

Such a Drama meeting with such a reception, seems extraordinary; but may probably have arisen from the two following causes:—first, from several of the most poetical passages having been omitted, particularly those in the characters of Titania, Oberon, and the other Fairies, who were all acted by children;— secondly, from disappointment in that part of the plot, which related to Quince, Bottom, and the other “hard-handed men of Athens,” who, though they

so decidedly led the Audience to expect the performance of a Play, never performed any Play at all.

Whether the alteration of 1816, will be thought to possess more or less merit than that of 1763, of course I cannot anticipate; but I trust I have not failed in my chief object, namely, the preservation of all Shakspeare's beauties;—and though it may be said, that his name is degraded, by his lines being interwoven with those of a modern Dramatist, (for I have not only been compelled to alter, transpose, introduce new Songs, and new Speeches, but also to write the whole of one additional Scene, and part of another); yet I do flatter myself, there is still critical candour enough to acknowledge, that I have made some atonement for my own defects, by restoring to the Stage, the lost, but divine Drama, of “A Midsummer Night's Dream.”