To His Grace THOMAS, Duke of Newcastle,
Lord Chamberlain of His Majesty's
Houshold, one of His Majesty's most
Honourable Privy-Council, and Knight
of the most Noble Order of the Garter.
My Lord,
I take the Liberty to Dedicate
to Your Grace
The
Invader of his Country,
which is the Coriolanus of
Shakespear alter'd by me.
And I have presum'd to do
this without asking Your
Leave, because this is a Dedication
of an extraordinary
Nature, and an Application to Your Grace
for Justice, in a Cause that is determinable by
Your Grace alone, by vertue of Your Office;
as all Causes of the like Nature, ever since I
could remember, have been decided in the last
Appeal by Your
Grace's Predecessors.
My Lord, Coriolanus throws himself at
Your Grace's Feet, in order to obtain Justice
of You, after having received as injurious Treatment
from the petulant Deportment of two or
three Insolent Players, as ever he formerly did
at Rome from the Brutal Rage of the Rabble.
He has been banish'd from our Theatre by the
one, thro' a mistaken Greediness of Gain, as the
other formerly expell'd him from Rome thro' a
groundless Jealousy of Power.
My Lord, when I tell the World that Coriolanus
has been unjustly banish'd from our Theatre
by two or three Insolent Players, I am sure
all those will be apt to believe me, who will reflect
with Indignation and Disdain, that that Roman
is not the first Nobleman whom they have
audaciously dar'd to exclude from thence. And
I hope this provoking Reflection will oblige
Your Grace to vindicate Your own just Right,
and the Crown's undoubted Prerogative.
If the Concern which I have in this Cause were
the only thing in Question, I should make a Conscience
of giving Your Grace any Trouble about
it. But, my Lord, 'tis a Cause of far more extensive
and more important Consequence. 'Tis
the noble Cause of Your Country, in which
Your Grace has been so Active and so Successful,
and in which this Play was alter'd; 'tis the
Cause of Dramatick Poetry, the Cause of the
British Muses, and of all those whom They
vouchsafe to inspire. 'Tis Your Grace who
is to determine whether these shall Flourish for
the future, and do Honour to Great Britain,
and consequently to augment, in some measure,
the Interest and Power of Your Country; or
whether the best Professors of the noblest Art,
and the Art it self, must die. 'Tis Your
Grace
who is to determine, whether Gentlemen who
have great Capacities, who have had the most
generous Education, who have all their Lives
had the best and the noblest Designs for the Service
of their Country, and the Instruction of
Mankind, shall have their worthy Labours supported
and render'd effectual to the great Ends
for which they intended them; or whether they
must all be sacrific'd to two or three Insolent
Actors, who have no Capacity, who have had
no Education, who have not the least Concern
for their Country, who have nothing in their
Heads or in their Hearts but low Thoughts,
and sordid Designs; and yet at the same time
have so much Pride, and so much insupportable
Insolence, as to dare to fly in the Face of
the greatest Persons in
England.
I will now lay the Matter of Fact before Your
Grace, by which I believe you will very easily
Discern, that there was a Conspiracy from the
beginning, between the three Members of this
separate Ministry, as they are pleas'd to call
themselves, for the Destruction of this Play.
They were engaged to Act it the last Winter
by their Words solemnly given, and the acting
of it then had been most seasonable, when the
Nation was in the uneasy Expectation of a
Double Invasion from Sweden on the North,
and from Spain on the West of England. Instead
of keeping their Words with me; they
Postpon'd a Play, that was writ in the Cause of
their Country, in the Cause of their Sovereign,
whose Servants as well as Subjects they call
themselves, for the most Absurd and Insipid
Trifles that ever came upon any Stage. They
began the Winter with preaching up Adultery
to the Town by the Mouth of a Dramatick
Priest: They ended it much after the rate at
which they began it, by teaching Ladies how
they may Cuckold their Husbands without
the Apprehension of a Discovery; as if any
License, or any Patent, would bear these People
out in Debauching the People, or as if such
a Practice were not sufficient to disannul any
Patent. My
Lord, in the beginning of this
Winter they began to rehearse the Play,
after they had dispos'd some of the Comick
Parts to Persons who were wholly unfit for
them; and maim'd two of the principal
Tragick Scenes to that Degree, that I could
hardly know them. After about five Weeks
Rehearsal, the tenth of
November was fix'd for
the Acting the Play. I could not prevail with
them to put it off for a Week longer, notwithstanding
it was most apparently their Interest
more than mine; because there was a
daily Expectation of the KING's Arrival. My
Lord, when the Tenth of
November came,
these three Religious Persons were, to the
wonder of all that heard of it, attack'd with
Scruples of Conscience: They were inform'd
that it was the Third Day of a Young Author
at the other House; and it would be
Cruel, it would be Barbarous to have my First
Day upon the other's Third. Thus did these
good-natur'd Gentlemen take an occasion
from a pretended Tenderness to exercise a real
Barbarity. My
Lord, I was very easily prevail'd
with to put off the Play; but little
thought, at the same time, that they design'd to
put it off for a Day only. I was very much surpriz'd
when I found by the Bills, that the Play
was to be Acted the very next Day, and that
consequently
Friday was to be my Third Day:
Now, My
Lord,
Friday is not only the very
worst Day of the Week for an Audience, but
this was that particular
Friday, when a Hundred
Persons who design'd to be there, were
either gone to meet the KING, or preparing
here in Town to do that Duty, which was expected
from them at His Arrival.
Thus, My Lord, did these good, human,
tender-hearted Managers take an occasion to
exercise a real Barbarity upon their old Acquaintance,
to whom they and their Stage are
more oblig'd than to any Writer in England,
from a pretended Tenderness to one who is a
meer Stranger to them, and from whose Success
they could expect nothing but the lessening of
their Gain. My Lord, the Play was Acted
on Wednesday the 11th to an Audience of near
a Hundred Pound, for so much they own'd to
me. It was favourably received by the Audience.
There did some Malice appear twice,
but it was immediately drown'd by the utmost
Clamours of Applause. On Thursday the Play
was Acted again to an Audience of between
Fifty and Threescore Pounds. And on Friday
to an Audience of between Sixty and Seventy
Pounds. Considering the Disadvantages
under which we lay, here were fair hopes for
the future. And on Friday, after the Play was
done, these tender-hearted Managers caus'd another
to be given out, to the Astonishment of
the Audience, the Disappointment of those
who had reserv'd themselves for the Sixth
Day, and the Retrenching three parts in four
of my Profits; and this contrary to an Ancient
Rule, which has been always observ'd till now
by those who have at any time had the Government
of a Playhouse, and that is, never to
give over a new Play which is favourably received
by an Audience as long as it brings
Charges. And, My
Lord, nothing can be
more reasonable and equitable than the Observation
of this Rule. For since the Poet ventures
his Interest in his Play, which is sometimes
his All, and his Reputation into the bargan,
which is his Hope of future Gain, can any
thing be more Just, than that the Masters or
Managers of a Play-house should venture their
Gain upon a probable prospect of future Profit,
the loss of which for two or three Nights they
will hardly feel, rather than by laying down a
Play abruptly, absolutely ruin the Author, who
perhaps has done his part to please.
Now, my Lord, I appeal to Your Grace,
if here was not a fair Prospect of Success for
the future: The Play had been acted three
Nights together, to a Hundred, to Sixty, and
to Seventy Pound. The Play was receiv'd the
first Night with Applause: The KING, and the
Court, and the Parliament, were all coming to
Town. But notwithstanding all our reasonable
Expectation, the Managers gave out another
Play, insolently declaring, that no Play was worth
their Acting any longer than it brings a Hundred
Pound. Now, my Lord, they cannot but
know that several Plays which have been but indifferently
follow'd the first Days, have afterwards
come to be admir'd Plays, and to bring
crowded Audiences. The best Play which can
be writ by an Author who has not a Cabal, will
hardly bring a Hundred Pound upon the second
and fourth Nights; and the worst that can be
writ by a Poetaster who has a Cabal, may do a
great deal more. As long as the publick Taste is
so vitiated as it is at present, bad Plays are like
to be more crowded than good ones. So that,
by their own Declaration, as long as these Persons
have the Management of the Play-house,
there can be no Improvement of the publick
Taste; good Writers are sure to be discourag'd,
and the Art of the Drama, in a little time, is
certain to be lost; and the Art of Writing is sure
to be followed by the Art of Acting. For great
Actors are not to be made but by Original Parts;
and as 'tis an eternal general Rule, that a Copy
has neither the free Spirit nor easy Grace of an
Original, so the Copy of a Copy is still more
faint, and the several succeeding Copies grow
weaker still the further they descend from the
Original, till all Life and all Resemblance comes
at last to be lost. But if any one happens to object
to him, that when a young Man who has a
Talent for Acting comes to Act a Part of which
he has seen neither the Copying nor Original
Actor, that Part is to him an Original one. To
him I answer, that most of our Poets having had
either the Address or the Weakness, I leave it
to Your
Grace to determine which, to write
to the Manners and the Talents of some particular
Actors, it seems to me to be absolutely impossible,
with Submission to Your
Grace's
Judgment, that any Actor can become an admirable
Original, by Playing a Part which was
writ and design'd for another Man's particular
Talent.
Thus have I laid before Your Grace the
Reasons why the Conduct of the present Managers
must destroy the very Species of Dramatick
Poets and Players. And these Reasons, which
I hope are clear in themselves, are confirm'd by
infallible Experience: It being evident from Fact,
that all our principal Dramatick Poets and Players
have been form'd while our Theatres were
under the Lord Chamberlain's Regulation; and
that both Writing and Acting have gradually
fall'n off, since the Players have pretended to
exclude him from his Jurisdiction over them.
And, my Lord, 'tis a melancholy thing to consider,
that there is not at present in Great Britain
one promising Genius, or promising Actor,
growing up for the Stage.
As every Branch of Poetry in England must
fall with the Dramatick, there being here no
constant visible Encouragement for Poets, but
what is deriv'd from the Stage, I appeal to
Your Grace, whether it is worth while, to
turn Poetry, which is the noblest, and perhaps
the only Original Branch of the British Learning,
out of the Nation, only to advance the
Lucre of three Actors.
Thus, My Lord, have I laid this Cause before
Your Grace; not without flattering my
self, that I have fully made it appear to You,
that I have been us'd with extream Injustice
by the Managers of the Play-house. Before
this Play came upon the Stage, it had the Approbation
of some of the very best Judges in
England, who are so, and are universally acknowledg'd
to be so, and who are too exalted
both by their High Stations, and the
Greatness of their Minds, to say a thing to me,
which they did not think. I have had this
Play long enough by me to form as true and
as sure a Judgment of it my self, as any one
can do, who understands Poetical Matters no
better than my self. And as a Man who is opprest
is allow'd to speak Truth in his own behalf,
I humbly conceive, that nothing comparably
to it has been produced at the Theatre
in
Drury-Lane, since these People had the
Management of it, not excepting Mr.
Cibber's
Heroick Daughter, who, for ought I know,
may be more Heroick than the Daughter of
Corneille; but there is this remarkable Difference
between them, that
Corneille's is Beautiful
and Spiritual, and Mr.
Cibber's Ugly and
Insipid.
My Lord, I humbly beg Your Grace's
Pardon, for speaking these few Words in my
own behalf, which I do not absolutely despair
of obtaining, when I consider that Cibber has
lately employed thirty Pages in his own fulsom
Commendation.
My Lord, the Mention of this Player naturally
brings me to another thing which Your
Grace is now to determine; and that is, whether
this is not only mine, but the Cause of Dramatick
Poetry it self, of all the Writers, and of
all the Lovers of it: I hope I have made it appear,
that all these join with me in this Petition
to Your Grace for a Redress of intollerable
Grievances, which none but the KING and
Your Grace can Redress; that we who have
scorn'd to be Slaves to our Princes, may be no
longer subject to the ridiculous Tyranny of our
own wretched Creatures, our own Tools and
Instruments; that They may no longer set up for
Judges in their own Cause, which
Englishmen
would never allow to their Kings; that They
may no longer usurp a Government, which they
have neither Capacity, nor Equity, nor Authority
to support, and of which Your
Grace is
the Lawful Monarch. How glorious will it be
for Your
Grace to Protect and Preserve so
noble an Art, and the only reasonable publick
Diversion that ever was yet invented! And how
much will it endear Your
Grace's Name and
Memory to all the Writers and Lovers of Dramatick
Poetry, both present and to come! My
Lord, as all those Persons will be highly
pleased with an Alteration in the Management
of the Stage, they certainly expect it from Your
Grace's Beneficence, from Your Love to Your
Country, from Your Knowledge and Love of
Letters, and from the Greatness of Your Mind.
I am,
My LORD,
Your
Grace's
most Obedient, and
most Humble Servant,
John Dennis.
