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FOR MESSIEURS RIVINGTON, T. CARNAN AND F. NEWBERY,
PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD; T. LOWNDES AND

IN ST.

G. KEARSLEY, IN FLEET-STREET; T. CADELL AND

T. EVANS IN THE STRAND.

MDCCLXXX.

PREFACE.

WHEN I undertook to write a comedy, I confefs I was ftrongly prepoffeffed in favour of the poets of the last age, and ftrove to imitate them. The term, genteel comedy, was then unknown amongst us, and little more was defired by an audience, than nature and humour, in whatever walks of life they were moft confpicuous. The author of the following scenes never imagined that more would be expected of him, and therefore to delineate character has been his principal aim. Those who know any thing of compofition, are fenfible, that in pursuing humour, it will fometimes lead us into the receffes of the mean; I was even tempted to look for it in the master of a fpunging-house: but in deference to the public tafte, grown of late, perhaps, too delicate, the scene of the bailiffs was retrenched in the reprefentation. In deference alfo to the judgment of a few friends, who think in a particular way, the fcene is here reftored. The author fubmits it to the

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