To His Grace THOMAS, Duke of Newcastle, Lord Chamberlain of His Majesty's Houshold, one of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council, and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter.

My Lord,

I take the Liberty to Dedicate to Your Grace The Invader of his Country, which is the Coriolanus of Shakespear alter'd by me. And I have presum'd to do this without asking Your Leave, because this is a Dedication of an extraordinary Nature, and an Application to Your Grace for Justice, in a Cause that is determinable by Your Grace alone, by vertue of Your Office; as all Causes of the like Nature, ever since I

could remember, have been decided in the last Appeal by Your Grace's Predecessors.

My Lord, Coriolanus throws himself at Your Grace's Feet, in order to obtain Justice of You, after having received as injurious Treatment from the petulant Deportment of two or three Insolent Players, as ever he formerly did at Rome from the Brutal Rage of the Rabble. He has been banish'd from our Theatre by the one, thro' a mistaken Greediness of Gain, as the other formerly expell'd him from Rome thro' a groundless Jealousy of Power.

My Lord, when I tell the World that Coriolanus has been unjustly banish'd from our Theatre by two or three Insolent Players, I am sure all those will be apt to believe me, who will reflect with Indignation and Disdain, that that Roman is not the first Nobleman whom they have audaciously dar'd to exclude from thence. And I hope this provoking Reflection will oblige Your Grace to vindicate Your own just Right, and the Crown's undoubted Prerogative.

If the Concern which I have in this Cause were the only thing in Question, I should make a Conscience of giving Your Grace any Trouble about it. But, my Lord, 'tis a Cause of far more extensive and more important Consequence. 'Tis the noble Cause of Your Country, in which Your Grace has been so Active and so Successful, and in which this Play was alter'd; 'tis the Cause of Dramatick Poetry, the Cause of the British Muses, and of all those whom They vouchsafe to inspire. 'Tis Your Grace who is to determine whether these shall Flourish for the future, and do Honour to Great Britain, and consequently to augment, in some measure,

the Interest and Power of Your Country; or whether the best Professors of the noblest Art, and the Art it self, must die. 'Tis Your Grace who is to determine, whether Gentlemen who have great Capacities, who have had the most generous Education, who have all their Lives had the best and the noblest Designs for the Service of their Country, and the Instruction of Mankind, shall have their worthy Labours supported and render'd effectual to the great Ends for which they intended them; or whether they must all be sacrific'd to two or three Insolent Actors, who have no Capacity, who have had no Education, who have not the least Concern for their Country, who have nothing in their Heads or in their Hearts but low Thoughts, and sordid Designs; and yet at the same time have so much Pride, and so much insupportable Insolence, as to dare to fly in the Face of the greatest Persons in England.

I will now lay the Matter of Fact before Your Grace, by which I believe you will very easily Discern, that there was a Conspiracy from the beginning, between the three Members of this separate Ministry, as they are pleas'd to call themselves, for the Destruction of this Play. They were engaged to Act it the last Winter by their Words solemnly given, and the acting of it then had been most seasonable, when the Nation was in the uneasy Expectation of a Double Invasion from Sweden on the North, and from Spain on the West of England. Instead of keeping their Words with me; they Postpon'd a Play, that was writ in the Cause of their Country, in the Cause of their Sovereign,

whose Servants as well as Subjects they call themselves, for the most Absurd and Insipid Trifles that ever came upon any Stage. They began the Winter with preaching up Adultery to the Town by the Mouth of a Dramatick Priest: They ended it much after the rate at which they began it, by teaching Ladies how they may Cuckold their Husbands without the Apprehension of a Discovery; as if any License, or any Patent, would bear these People out in Debauching the People, or as if such a Practice were not sufficient to disannul any Patent. My Lord, in the beginning of this Winter they began to rehearse the Play, after they had dispos'd some of the Comick Parts to Persons who were wholly unfit for them; and maim'd two of the principal Tragick Scenes to that Degree, that I could hardly know them. After about five Weeks Rehearsal, the tenth of November was fix'd for the Acting the Play. I could not prevail with them to put it off for a Week longer, notwithstanding it was most apparently their Interest more than mine; because there was a daily Expectation of the KING's Arrival. My Lord, when the Tenth of November came, these three Religious Persons were, to the wonder of all that heard of it, attack'd with Scruples of Conscience: They were inform'd that it was the Third Day of a Young Author at the other House; and it would be Cruel, it would be Barbarous to have my First Day upon the other's Third. Thus did these good-natur'd Gentlemen take an occasion from a pretended Tenderness to exercise a real Barbarity. My Lord, I was very easily prevail'd

with to put off the Play; but little thought, at the same time, that they design'd to put it off for a Day only. I was very much surpriz'd when I found by the Bills, that the Play was to be Acted the very next Day, and that consequently Friday was to be my Third Day: Now, My Lord, Friday is not only the very worst Day of the Week for an Audience, but this was that particular Friday, when a Hundred Persons who design'd to be there, were either gone to meet the KING, or preparing here in Town to do that Duty, which was expected from them at His Arrival.

Thus, My Lord, did these good, human, tender-hearted Managers take an occasion to exercise a real Barbarity upon their old Acquaintance, to whom they and their Stage are more oblig'd than to any Writer in England, from a pretended Tenderness to one who is a meer Stranger to them, and from whose Success they could expect nothing but the lessening of their Gain. My Lord, the Play was Acted on Wednesday the 11th to an Audience of near a Hundred Pound, for so much they own'd to me. It was favourably received by the Audience. There did some Malice appear twice, but it was immediately drown'd by the utmost Clamours of Applause. On Thursday the Play was Acted again to an Audience of between Fifty and Threescore Pounds. And on Friday to an Audience of between Sixty and Seventy Pounds. Considering the Disadvantages under which we lay, here were fair hopes for the future. And on Friday, after the Play was done, these tender-hearted Managers caus'd another to be given out, to the Astonishment of

the Audience, the Disappointment of those who had reserv'd themselves for the Sixth Day, and the Retrenching three parts in four of my Profits; and this contrary to an Ancient Rule, which has been always observ'd till now by those who have at any time had the Government of a Playhouse, and that is, never to give over a new Play which is favourably received by an Audience as long as it brings Charges. And, My Lord, nothing can be more reasonable and equitable than the Observation of this Rule. For since the Poet ventures his Interest in his Play, which is sometimes his All, and his Reputation into the bargan, which is his Hope of future Gain, can any thing be more Just, than that the Masters or Managers of a Play-house should venture their Gain upon a probable prospect of future Profit, the loss of which for two or three Nights they will hardly feel, rather than by laying down a Play abruptly, absolutely ruin the Author, who perhaps has done his part to please.

Now, my Lord, I appeal to Your Grace, if here was not a fair Prospect of Success for the future: The Play had been acted three Nights together, to a Hundred, to Sixty, and to Seventy Pound. The Play was receiv'd the first Night with Applause: The KING, and the Court, and the Parliament, were all coming to Town. But notwithstanding all our reasonable Expectation, the Managers gave out another Play, insolently declaring, that no Play was worth their Acting any longer than it brings a Hundred Pound. Now, my Lord, they cannot but know that several Plays which have been but indifferently follow'd the first Days, have afterwards

come to be admir'd Plays, and to bring crowded Audiences. The best Play which can be writ by an Author who has not a Cabal, will hardly bring a Hundred Pound upon the second and fourth Nights; and the worst that can be writ by a Poetaster who has a Cabal, may do a great deal more. As long as the publick Taste is so vitiated as it is at present, bad Plays are like to be more crowded than good ones. So that, by their own Declaration, as long as these Persons have the Management of the Play-house, there can be no Improvement of the publick Taste; good Writers are sure to be discourag'd, and the Art of the Drama, in a little time, is certain to be lost; and the Art of Writing is sure to be followed by the Art of Acting. For great Actors are not to be made but by Original Parts; and as 'tis an eternal general Rule, that a Copy has neither the free Spirit nor easy Grace of an Original, so the Copy of a Copy is still more faint, and the several succeeding Copies grow weaker still the further they descend from the Original, till all Life and all Resemblance comes at last to be lost. But if any one happens to object to him, that when a young Man who has a Talent for Acting comes to Act a Part of which he has seen neither the Copying nor Original Actor, that Part is to him an Original one. To him I answer, that most of our Poets having had either the Address or the Weakness, I leave it to Your Grace to determine which, to write to the Manners and the Talents of some particular Actors, it seems to me to be absolutely impossible, with Submission to Your Grace's Judgment, that any Actor can become an admirable Original, by Playing a Part which was

writ and design'd for another Man's particular Talent.

Thus have I laid before Your Grace the Reasons why the Conduct of the present Managers must destroy the very Species of Dramatick Poets and Players. And these Reasons, which I hope are clear in themselves, are confirm'd by infallible Experience: It being evident from Fact, that all our principal Dramatick Poets and Players have been form'd while our Theatres were under the Lord Chamberlain's Regulation; and that both Writing and Acting have gradually fall'n off, since the Players have pretended to exclude him from his Jurisdiction over them. And, my Lord, 'tis a melancholy thing to consider, that there is not at present in Great Britain one promising Genius, or promising Actor, growing up for the Stage.

As every Branch of Poetry in England must fall with the Dramatick, there being here no constant visible Encouragement for Poets, but what is deriv'd from the Stage, I appeal to Your Grace, whether it is worth while, to turn Poetry, which is the noblest, and perhaps the only Original Branch of the British Learning, out of the Nation, only to advance the Lucre of three Actors.

Thus, My Lord, have I laid this Cause before Your Grace; not without flattering my self, that I have fully made it appear to You, that I have been us'd with extream Injustice by the Managers of the Play-house. Before this Play came upon the Stage, it had the Approbation of some of the very best Judges in England, who are so, and are universally acknowledg'd to be so, and who are too exalted

both by their High Stations, and the Greatness of their Minds, to say a thing to me, which they did not think. I have had this Play long enough by me to form as true and as sure a Judgment of it my self, as any one can do, who understands Poetical Matters no better than my self. And as a Man who is opprest is allow'd to speak Truth in his own behalf, I humbly conceive, that nothing comparably to it has been produced at the Theatre in Drury-Lane, since these People had the Management of it, not excepting Mr. Cibber's Heroick Daughter, who, for ought I know, may be more Heroick than the Daughter of Corneille; but there is this remarkable Difference between them, that Corneille's is Beautiful and Spiritual, and Mr. Cibber's Ugly and Insipid.

My Lord, I humbly beg Your Grace's Pardon, for speaking these few Words in my own behalf, which I do not absolutely despair of obtaining, when I consider that Cibber has lately employed thirty Pages in his own fulsom Commendation.

My Lord, the Mention of this Player naturally brings me to another thing which Your Grace is now to determine; and that is, whether this is not only mine, but the Cause of Dramatick Poetry it self, of all the Writers, and of all the Lovers of it: I hope I have made it appear, that all these join with me in this Petition to Your Grace for a Redress of intollerable Grievances, which none but the KING and Your Grace can Redress; that we who have scorn'd to be Slaves to our Princes, may be no longer subject to the ridiculous Tyranny of our

own wretched Creatures, our own Tools and Instruments; that They may no longer set up for Judges in their own Cause, which Englishmen would never allow to their Kings; that They may no longer usurp a Government, which they have neither Capacity, nor Equity, nor Authority to support, and of which Your Grace is the Lawful Monarch. How glorious will it be for Your Grace to Protect and Preserve so noble an Art, and the only reasonable publick Diversion that ever was yet invented! And how much will it endear Your Grace's Name and Memory to all the Writers and Lovers of Dramatick Poetry, both present and to come! My Lord, as all those Persons will be highly pleased with an Alteration in the Management of the Stage, they certainly expect it from Your Grace's Beneficence, from Your Love to Your Country, from Your Knowledge and Love of Letters, and from the Greatness of Your Mind. I am,

My LORD,
Your Grace's
most Obedient, and
most Humble Servant,
John Dennis.