. 2 may have leave to single out any one in particular, Jane, the wife of Henry, Lord Hyde, and daughter n. 9. 3 What the objections were which were made to this tragedy, has not been recorded. Motteux, in his GENTLEMAN'S JOURNAL for April, 1692, says, "I was in hopes to have given you in this letter an account of the acting of Mr. Dryden's CLEOMENES: it was to have appeared upon the stage on Saturday last, and you need not doubt but that the town was big with the expectation of the performance; but orders came from her Majesty to hinder its being acted: so that none can tell when it shall be played." In the following month, we find this further notice on the subject: "I told you in my last that none could then tell when Mr. Dryden's CLEOMENES would appear. Since that time the innocence and merit of the play have raised it several eminent advocates, who have prevailed to have it acted, and you need not doubt but it has been with great applause." King William being at this time in the Netherlands, Holland) the order came from the Queen only. Her Majesty, Neither am I to forget my charming patroness ; though she will not allow my publick address to her in a Dedication, but protects me unseen, like my guardian angel, and shuns my gratitude, like a fairy who is bountiful by stealth; and conceals the giver when she, bestows the gift, But my Lady Sylvius has been juster to me, and pointed out the goddess at whose altar I was to pay my sacrifice and thanks-offering; and had she been silent, yet my Lord Chamberlain himself, in restoring my play, without any alteration, avowed to me, that I had the most earnest solicitress, as well as the fairest, and that nothing could be refused to my Lady Hyde. These favours, my Lord, received from yourself and your noble family, have encouraged me two years before, had found herself greatly embarrassed at the representation of THE SPANISH FRYAR, which she had commanded to be performed; and hence, probably, was extremely apprehensive of any new piece being produced on the stage, that might admit of political applications to her own times. See a curious account of her distress during the performance of THE SPANISH FRYAR, in a letter written by Daniel, Earl of Nottingham; Dals sumple's Memoirs, second Appendix, pr78 qtor singular Lady Sylvius was the wife of Sir Gabriel Sylvius, who in 1679 was Envoy to the Duke of Brunswick, and at the time of the Revolution was Ambassador Extraor which contatin is some "Fruits of the manners of The times vs.i.p. 17. dinary at the court of Denmark. The editors of the modern editions of this play have been content to read my Lady Sylvia. Our author's patron, Charles, Earl of Dorset. to this Dedication; wherein I not only give you back a play, which, had you not redeemed it, had not been mine, but also at the same time dedicate to you, the unworthy author, with my inviolable faith, and, how mean soever, my utmost service; and I shall be proud to hold my dependence on you in chief, as I do part of my small fortune, in Wiltshire. Your goodness has not been wanting to me during the reign of my two masters: and even from a bare treasury, my success has been contrary to that of Mr. Cowley; and Gideon's fleece has then been moistened, when all the ground has been dry about it." Such and so many provocations of this nature have concurred 6 I suspect this part of our author's fortune was the portion brought by his wife, whose father, Thomas, Earl of Berkshire, derived from his mother the lordship of Charlton, in Wiltshire. 7 Our author here alludes to the following verses in Cowley's poem entitled THE COMPLAINT: "As a fair morning of the blessed spring, "After a tedious stormy night, "Such was the glorious entry of our King ; 66 Enriching moisture dropp'd on every thing; "Plenty he sow'd below, and cast about him light. "But then, alas! to thee alone "One of old Gideon's miracles was shewn, "For every tree and every herb around "The fruitful seed of heaven did brooding lie, to my invading of your modesty with this address. I am sensible that it is in a manner forced upon you. But your Lordship has been the aggressor in this quarrel, by so many favours, which you are not weary of conferring on me; though at the same time I own the ambition on my side, to be ever esteemed A Your Lordship's most thankful And most obedient servant, JOHN DRYDEN. PREFACE то CLEO MENE S. 8 Ir is now seven or eight years since I designed to write this play of CLEOMENES; and my Lord Falkland (whose name I cannot mention without honour, for the many favours I have received from him,) is pleased to witness for me, that in a French book which I presented him about that time, there were the names of many subjects that I had thought on for the stage; amongst which this tragedy was one. This was out of my remembrance; but my Lord, on the occasion of stopping my play, took the opportunity of doing me a good office at court, by repre * Antony, fourth Viscount Falkland, who at this time was one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and died in 1694. He wrote the prologue spoken before Otway's comedy called THE SOLDIER'S FORTUNE, and another intended for Congreve's OLD BACHELOR, and prefixed to that play, but not spoken, probably on account of its indecency. This nobleman, who succeeded his father, Henry, Led Falkland, in 1664, is frequently mentioned in the Viscont lampoons of Charles the Second's time. VOL. II. |