(whatever vanity or ambition occasioned that design) to have written
a true and regular comedy, but I found it an undertaking which put
me in mind of SUDET MULTUM, FRUSTRAQUE LABORET AUSUS IDEM. And now,
to make amends for the vanity of such a design, I do confess both
the attempt and the imperfect performance. Yet I must take the
boldness to say I have not miscarried in the whole, for the
mechanical part of it is regular. That I may say with as little
vanity as a builder may say he has built a house according to the
model laid down before him, or a gardener that he has set his
flowers in a knot of such or such a figure. I designed the moral
first, and to that moral I invented the fable, and do not know that
I have borrowed one hint of it anywhere. I made the plot as strong
as I could because it was single, and I made it single because I
would avoid confusion, and was resolved to preserve the three
unities of the drama. Sir, this discourse is very impertinent to
you, whose judgment much better can discern the faults than I can
excuse them; and whose good nature, like that of a lover, will find
out those hidden beauties (if there are any such) which it would be
great immodesty for me to discover. I think I don't speak
improperly when I call you a LOVER of poetry; for it is very well
known she has been a very kind mistress to you: she has not denied
you the last favour, and she has been fruitful to you in a most
beautiful issue. If I break off abruptly here, I hope everybody
will understand that it is to avoid a commendation which, as it is
your due, would be most easy for me to pay, and too troublesome for
you to receive.

I have since the acting of this play harkened after the objections
which have been made to it, for I was conscious where a true critic
might have put me upon my defence. I was prepared for the attack,