Dedication TO M^R. QUIN, IN RETURN FOR THE FREQUENT PLEASURE RECEIVED, BY HIS REPRESENTATION OF THE CHARACTER OF SIR JOHN FALSTAFF; A PLEASURE WHOSE REMEMBRANCE IS AS GRATEFUL AS SUCH REMEMBRANCE IS INDELIBLE; THIS ATTEMPT, TO COPY THE GREAT ORIGINAL WHICH HE EXHIBITED ON THE STAGE, IS INSCRIBED, AS AN IMPERFECT TRIBUTE TO PERFECT MERIT, BY THE AUTHOR.

THE PREFACE.

The remarkable ill success of preceding imitators of Shakespeare* ^note
, would certainly have deterred the present writer from renewing the attempt, were he to be easily diverted from a favourite object by the difficulties attending its pursuit. But, having long since adopted the Motto, In magnis voluisse sat est, the arduousness of the task is only an additional incentive to his perseverance.

As to the present performance, however, it must not be supposed that he presumes to think it will in the smallest degree contribute to deprive his great master of that honour, which is so justly and peculiarly his due; viz. that of being truly inimitable. Had there been the least room, indeed, for suspecting the author of such a design, the profound reverence and esteem which he bears to the memory of Shakespeare, would have induced him rather to commit his manuscript to the flames than to the press: for, however roughly he may have cropt the bays, which have

been prostituted to grace the temples of the living, he will never deface, with unhallowed hands, the laurelled busts of the dead.

The truth is, this little piece was a juvenile performance, written so long ago as the year 1751, when the author was young and giddy enough to amuse himself in a stuffed doublet, before a private audience, with an attempt at a personal representation of the humours of Sir John Falstaff. How he performed his part was then, and is now, of no consequence; how far he might enter into the spirit of his author, may possibly be gathered from a perusal of the following sheets, containing the result of those impressions, which the striking excellencies of the character then left on his mind.

Were the author possessed of that ridiculous mock-modesty, on which it is the fashion for modern authors to pique themselves, he might affect to treat this work as the paultry jeu d'esprit of his boyish days, unworthy of his present notice, or that of the publick. But, if he really thought it so, he would have acted otherwise with regard to its publication: for though he should be sorry the present object of his studies were not more useful and important, yet he must frankly own that, if he was ashamed of having written this little performance, he should be equally ashamed of offering it to the publick. An hour's entertainment, for a reader of taste and judgment, is not always at hand, much less concomitant with novelty.

If the writer, therefore, by having agreeably amused himself a few days, may contribute to one hour's amusement of such a reader, it is the utmost he expects or desires from this publication.

It is presumed, also, that his favourable opinion of it, will not be thought altogether founded on self-sufficiency, when the reader is informed that one of the best judges of Shakespeare now living, has declared it to contain “a very good imitation of Shakespeare, particularly in the character of Falstaff.”

This was Mr. Garrick; whose letter now lies before me—not a letter written to the author (for in this polite and complimenting age such testimony might justly be deemed equivocal) but a letter written on this subject above six years ago, to one of Mr. G's acquaintance, whom the author neither knows, nor hath ever seen† ^note.

Several of the writer's friends, indeed, have conceived this piece might be brought with success on the stage; for which, however, it never was planned nor intended* ^note; having been written as a kind of

poetical exercise, which the author had prescribed to himself, and of which he was by no means vain; well knowing that an indifferent writer may sometimes be lucky in his imitation of the best.

That he was sincere in these sentiments, he thinks sufficiently evinced by keeping his piece in manuscript nine years, and even permitting it to remain six years in the bookseller's warehouse after it was printed. Nor would it even now have made it appearance, might it not serve in some measure to corroborate what the author hath elsewhere asserted, with regard to his Review of Dr. Johnson's Shakespeare, viz. that that editor must impute the severe chastisement he hath received, not to any motives of personal resentment against him, but to an enthusiastic veneration for Shakespeare, long ago enkindled and still glowing with unremitted ardour.

To close with a word or two to the critics. The author foresaw that these mice would necessarily be nibbling; he hath therefore, purposely left some rotten holes in the cheese, that the poor little animals may be kept doing; for, considering them as real objects of pity, he would by no means have them starve for want of employment.

He would not have them plume themselves, however, so immoderately as they sometimes do, on their prowess and penetration, at the casual detection of a maggot or the incidental destruction of a mite.

The reader may possibly think it a fault that the author hath in some places copied the blemishes of Shakespeare; but if he hath succeeded in any degree in hitting off his beauties, he hopes he shall stand excused, even supposing him mistaken in conceiving such blemishes necessary to preserve the similitude of the imitation. What limner, who piques himself on drawing an exact likeness, would omit a distinguishing mole or freckle, tho' not altogether agreeable to the sight, or compatible with symmetry and beauty?

But, if after all, the publick should think the writer hath thrown his time away upon an insignificant subject, I protest against their present decision, and appeal—to the same public, when less intoxicated with the fumes of modern criticism, and better disposed to do justice to the immortal genius of Shakespeare.

Jan. 1, 1766.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. King Henry the Fifth. Duke of Gloucester, Brother to the King, Duke of Bedford, Brother to the King, Duke of Clarence, Brother to the King, Duke of York, Uncle to the King, Duke of Exeter, Uncle to the King, Archbishop of Canterbury, The Pope's Legate. Lord Scroop of Masham. The Earl of Cambridge. Sir Thomas Grey. Sir John Falstaff. Justice Shallow. Master Slender. Pleadwell, a Lawyer. Mithridate, a Doctor. Father Paul, Friar. Father Lawrence, Friar. Bardolph. Pistol. Peto, Francis. Dame Ursula, afterwards Lady Falstaff. Eleanor Poins, quondam Mistress to the King. Hostess Quickley [Mrs. Quickly]. Dol Tearsheet [Doll Tearsheet]. Bishops, Lords, Officer, Page, Guards, and Attendants. [Officer], [Friar], [Apothecary], [Bridget], [Page]

FALSTAFF's WEDDING, &c.

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