Be rich in ancient brafs, tho' not in gold,
And keep his Lares, tho' his house be fold;
To headless Phabe his fair bride poftpone,
Honour a Syrian Prince, above his own;
Lord of an Otho, if I vouch it true;
Bleft in one Niger, till he knows of two,
POPE'S DUNCIAD.
Pibu Yeoman's 11 22-27 5777
WH
THEN I confider the long intimacy that has fubfifted be-
twixt us, the obligations I owe to your generous, dif-
interefted friendship, and the protection and encouragement I
received both from you and your brother, when neceflity lifted
me in the service of the public; there is no man to whom with
equal propriety and pleasure I can addrefs the following work.
It would be paying a bad compliment to the town, were I to
trouble you with an apology for the inconfiderableness of the pre-
fent. I thought it worthy their attention, and confequently not
beneath the acceptance of my friend. With the aid of a love-
plot I could have fpun out the piece to the extent of five acts
but befides that I wanted to confine the eye to the fingle object
of my fatire, I declare myfelf a rebel to this univerfal tyrant,
who, not contented with exciting all that is pitiful or terrible in
human nature, has claimed the privilege of occafioning every
thing that is ridiculous or contemptible in it; and thus, from the
abject fubmiffion of our dramatic poets, is both Tragedy and
Comedy fubjected to the power of Love. It may be thought
prefumptuous in me to have dignified fo fhort a performance
with the name of a Comedy; but when my reasons why it cannot
be called a Farce are confidered, the critics muft indulge me
with the use of that title, at leaft till they can furnish me with a
better. As the follies and abfurdities of men are the fole objects
of Comedy, fo the powers of the imagination (plot and incident
excepted) are in this kind of writing greatly reftrained. No
unnatural affemblages, no creatures of the fancy, can procure
the protection of the Comic Mufe; men and things must appear
as they are. It is employed either in debafing lofty fubjects, or
in raifing humble ones. Of the two kinds we have examples in
the Tom Thumb of Mr F, and a travestie of the Ulyffes,
where Penelope keeps an ale-houfe, Telemachus is a tapfter,
and the Hero a recruiting ferjeant. In both thefe inflances you
fee nature is reverfed; but as I flatter myself in the following
fheets her steps have been trode with an undeviating fimplicity,
give me leave to hope, that, though I have not attained the
Togata, yet I have reached the Tabernaria of the Romans. I
once intended to have thrown into this addrefs the contents of
many of our converfations on the fubject of Comedy; for, in
whatever diffipations the world may fuppofe our days to have
been confumed, many, many hours have been confecrated to
other fubjects than generally employ the gay and the giddy. I
hope the prefent occafion will demonftrate, that pleasure has not
been always my purfuit; and, unless I am greatly mistaken, it
will foon be difcovered, that, joined to the acknowledged beft
heart in the world, Mr Delaval has a head capable of directing it. As I am now above the reach of common obligations, an acknowledgment of thefe qualities, in the perfon of a man who has honoured me with his friendship, is the fole cause of the trouble you now receive. Long has been our union; may it never be divided till the fatal ftroke, that demolishes all fublunary connections, fhall reach one of us, which one will, I hope, be
Your obliged and affectionate fervant,
SAMUEL FOOTE.
WAS always apprehenfive that the fubject of the following piece was too abftracted and fingular for the comprehenfion of a mix'd affembly. Juno Lucina, Jupiter Tonans, Phidias, Praxiteles, with the other gentlemen and ladies of antiquity, were, I dare fay, utterly unknown to my very good friends of the gallery; nor, to speak the truth, do I believe they had many acquaintances in the other parts of the houfe. But though I defpair of gratifying the Populum Tributim of the THEATRE, yet I flatter myself the Primores Populi will find me no difagreeable companion in the closet, et fatis magnum Theatrum mihi eftis.
I was neither prompted by a lucrative nor an ambitious motive to this undertaking. My defign was to ferve a man, who had ever great merit with his friends, and to whom, on the score of fome late tranfactions, I think the public vaftly indebted. That my good intentions for Mr Worfdale have proved fuccessful, is entirely owing to the generofity and humanity of the Managers of Drury-Lane Theatre; they have given him a benefit, and are jointly entitled to my thanks; but as to Mr Garrick, 1 have more perfonal obligations. I take this opportunity of affuring him, that I fhall ever retain the most grateful remembrance of his affiftance, affiduity, and kind concern, at the birth, progress, and untimely end of this my laft and favourite offspring.
The objects of my fatire were fuch as I thought, whether they were confidered in a moral, a political, or a ridiculous light, deferved the notice of the Comic Mufe. I was determined to brand thofe Goths in fcience, who had prostituted the ufeful ftudy of antiquity to trifling fuperficial purposes; who had blafted the progrefs of the elegant arts amongst us, by unpardonable frauds and abfurd prejudices; and who had corrupted the minds and morals of our youth, by perfuading them, that what only ferves to illuftrate literature was true learning, and active idleness real business. How far this end has been obtained, is now, in the following sheets, more generally fubmitted to the public. PROLOGUE.
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