This is the real voice of Catharine Trotter, raised to defend her sex,
and conscious of the many intellectual indignities and disabilities
which they suffered.

The first draft of _The Revolution in Sweden_ being now completed, she
sent it to Congreve, who was living very quietly in lodgings in Arundell
Street. He allowed some time to go by before, on November 2nd, 1703, he
acknowledged it. His criticism, which is extremely kind, is also
penetrating and full. "I think the design in general," he says, "very
great and noble; the conduct of it very artful, if not too full of
business which may run into length and obscurity." He warns her against
having too much noise of fighting on the stage in her second act, and
against offending probability in the third. The fourth act is confused,
and in the fifth there are too many harangues. Catharine Trotter has
asked him to be frank, and so he is, but his criticism is practical and
encouraging. This excellent letter deserves to be better known.

To continue the history of Miss Trotter's fifth and last play, _The
Revolution in Sweden_ was at length brought out at the Queen's Theatre
in the Haymarket, towards the close of 1704. It had every advantage
which popular acting could give it, since the part of the hero, Count
Arwide, was played by Betterton; that of Constantia, the heroine, by
Mrs. Barry; Gustavus by Booth; and Christina by Mrs. Harcourt. In spite
of this galaxy of talent, the reception of the play was unfavourable.
The Duchess of Marlborough "and all her beauteous family" graced the
theatre on the first night, but the public was cold and inattentive.
Some passages of a particularly lofty moral tone provoked laughter. _The
Revolution in Sweden_, in fact, was shown to suffer from the
ineradicable faults which Congreve had gently but justly suggested. It
was very long, and very dull, and very wordy, and we could scarcely find