and were all Dramatick Writers of my mind, they shou'd wear their old
_Playes_ Thred-bare e're they shou'd have any _New_, till they better
understood their own Interest, and how to distinguish betwixt good and
bad."

The "Prologue intended for the overture of the Theater 1666," opens
thus:--

"In these sad Times our Author has been long
Studying to give you some diversion;
And he has ta'en the way to do't, which he
Thought most diverting, mirth and Comedy;
And now he knows there are inough i' the Town
At name of mirth and Comedy will frown,
And sighing say, the times are bad; what then?
Will their being sad and heavy better them?"


[Footnote: In 1665 the plague broke out in London, and in the succeeding
year the great fire took place; only at Christmas 1666 theatrical
performances began again.]

According to the list of "The Representers, as they were first
design'd." I see that Nell Gwyn should have played the part of
"_Lysette_, the _Damoiselle's_ waiting Woman."

James Miller, a well-known dramatist, and joint-translator of Moliere,
with H. Baker, has also imitated part of "the _Pretentious Young
Ladies_," and with another part borrowed from Moliere's _School for
Husbands_, two characters taken from Moliere's _Learned Ladies_, and