GUSTAVUS VASA,

THE

* DELIVERER OF HIS COUNTRY.

TRAGEDY.

Written by HENRY BROOKE, Esq.

AS INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN PERFORMED AT THE

Theatre Royal in Dury-Lane.

AB

LONDON:

Printed for JOHN BELL, near Exeter-Exchange, in the Strand.

MDCCLXXVIII.

A PREFATORY

DEDICATION

то

THE

A

SUBSCRIBERS.

SI esteemed it my happiness to live under a government where national liberty was eftablished by law, and the rights of fubjects interwoven with their allegiance, fo I ever thought it my fafety to act with fuch allowable freedom, as did not contradict any of our written and known regulations.

Tho' inconfiderable in myfelf, I am yet a fubject of Great-Britain; and the privileges of her meanest member are dear to the whole constitution.

Among those privileges, I claim that of justifying my conduct, I claim that of defending my property, and wifh I could do both, without giving difguft, even to those by whofe cenfures I am a fufferer.

When I wrote the following sheets, I had studied the ancient laws of my country, but was not converfant with her prefent political state. I did not confider things minutely; in the general view, I liked our conftitution, and zealously wished that the religion, the laws, and liberties of England might ever be facred and fafe. I had nothing to fear or hope from party or preferment. My attachments were only to truth; I was confcious of no other principles, and was far from apprehending that such could be offensive.

I took my fubject from the History of Sweden, one of thofe Gothic and glorious nations, from whom our form of government is derived, from whom Britain has inherited thofe unextinguishable fparks of liberty and patriotism, that were her light through the ages of ignorance and fuperftition, her flaming fword turned every way against invafion, and that vital heat which has fo often preferved her, so often reftored her, from intestine malignities. Thofe are the fparks, the gems, that alone give true ornament and brightness to the crown of a Britifh monarch; that give him freely to reign over the free, and shall ever fet him above the princes of the earth, till corruption grows univerfal, till fubjects wifh to be flaves, and Kings know not how to be happy.

I was pleased with the fimilitude between the principles, and, as I may fay, between the natural constitutions of Sweden and Britain. I looked no further for fentiments, than as they arose from facts; and for the facts I am indebted to hiftory: nay, I ingenuoufly confess, I was fo far from a view of merit with the difaffected, that I looked upon this performance as the highest compliment I could pay the prefent establishment-Such was my ignorace, or fuch is my misfortune.

Many are the difficulties a new author has to encounter in introducing his play on the stage. I had the good fortune to furmount them. This piece was about five weeks in rehearfal; the day was appointed for acting; I had difpofed of many hundred tickets; and imagined I had nothing to fear, but from the weakness of the performance.

But, then it was, that where I looked for approbation, I met with repulfe. I was condemned and punished in my works, without being accufed of any crime; and made obnoxious to the government under which I live, without having it in my power to alter my conduct, or knowing in what inftance I had given offence.

However fingular and unprecedented this treatment may appear, had I conceived it to be the intention of the legiflature, I fhould have fubmitted without complaining; or had any, among hundreds who have perufed the manufcript, obferved but a fingle line that might inadvertently

tend

tend to fedition or immorality, I would then have been the first to strike it out; I would now be the last to publish it. Had the dignity of the Lord Chamberlain's office condefcended, as fome would infinuate, to a theatrical examination of the drama, to a critical inquifition of the conduct, the unities, and tricks of fcenery, even fo I might. have hoped for equal indulgence with farces, pantomimes, and other performances of like tafte and genius.

But this is not the cafe; the Lord Chamberlain's office is alone concerned in those reasons which gave birth to the ftatute; it is to guard against fuch reprefentations as he may conceive to be of pernicious influence in the commonwealth; this is the only point to which his prohibitions are understood to extend, and his prohibition lays me under the neceffity of publishing this piece, to convince the public, that (though of no valuable confequence) I am at least inoffenfive.

Patriotism, or the love of country, is the great and fingle moral which I had in view through this play. This love (fo fuperior in its nature to all other interefts and af fections) is perfonated in the character of Gustavus. It is the love of national welfare; national welfare is national liberty; and he alone that can be confcious of it, he alone can contribute to the fupport of it, who is per fonally free.

By perfonal freedom I mean that state refulting from virtue, or reafon ruling in the breaft, fuperior to appetite and paffion; and by national freedom, I mean a fecurity (arifing from the nature of a well-ordered conftitution) for thofe advantages and privileges that each man has a right to, by contributing as a member to the weal of that community..

The monarch, or head of fuch a conftitution, is as the father of a large and well-regulated family; his fubjects are not fervants, but fons; their care, their affections, their attachments are reciprocal, and their interest is one,, is not to be divided..

This is truly to reign; this only is to reign. How glorious, how extenfive, is the prerogative of fuch a monarch! He is fuperior to fubjects, each of whom is equal: to any monarch, who is only fuperior to flaves. He is. fceptered in the hearts of his people, from whence he di

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rects.