of a comical entertainment? To prepare this episode, you see Dorax giving the character of Antonio, in the beginning of the play, upon his first sight of him at the lottery; and to make the dependence, Antonio is engaged in the fourth act for the deliverance of Almeyda, which is also prepared, by his being first made a slave to the captain of the rabble.

I should beg pardon for these instances; but perhaps they may be of use to future poets, in the conduct of their plays. At least, if I appear too positive, I am growing old, and thereby in possession of some experience, which men in years will always assume for a right of talking. Certainly, if a man can ever have reason to set a value on himself, it is when his ungenerous enemies are taking the advantage of the times upon him, to ruin him in his reputation; and therefore for once, I will make bold to take the counsel of my old master Virgil:

Tu, ne cede malis, sed contrà audentior ito.

DEDICATION

OF

AMPHITRY ON,

OR, THE TWO SOSIAS.3

TO THE HONOURABLE

SIR WILLIAM LEVESON GOWER, BART.4

THERE is one kind of virtue which is inborn in the nobility, and indeed in most of the ancient families of this nation; they are not apt to insult on the misfortunes of their countrymen. But you,

3 This comedy was performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane by the King's Servants, and first printed in 1690. It is arranged in our author's chronological list of his plays after DON SEBASTIAN, which was printed in the same year.It seems (says Dr. Johnson) to have succeeded at its first appearance, and was, I think, long considered as a very diverting entertainment."

4 Sir William Leveson Gower (ancestor of the present Marquis of Stafford,) was the second son of Sir Thomas Gower, Bart. by Frances, daughter and coheir of Sir John Leveson of Haling, in Kent. On the death of his nephew, Sir Edward Gower, in December 1689, he succeeded to the title and estate; and afterwards, by the will of his maternal uncle, Sir Richard Leveson, of Trentham, in Staffordshire, Knight, became possessed of that estate also. He died in December, 1691.

Sir, I may tell it

you

without flattery, have grafted on this natural commiseration, and raised it to a nobler virtue. As you have been pleased to honour me, for a long time, with some part of your esteem and your good will, so in particular, since the late Revolution, you have increased the proofs of your kindness to me; and not suffered the difference of opinions,' which produce such hatred and enmity in the brutal part of human kind, to remove you from the settled basis of your good nature and good sense. This nobleness of yours, had it been exercised on an enemy, had certainly been a point of honour, and as such I might have justly recommended it to the world; but that of constancy to your former choice, and the pursuance of your first favours, are virtues not over common amongst Englishmen. All things of honour have, at best, somewhat of ostentation in them, and self-love; there is a pride of doing more than is expected from us, and more than others would have done; but to proceed in the same tract of goodness, favour, and protection, is to shew that a man is actuated by a thorough principle: it carries somewhat of tenderness in it, which is humanity in a heroical degree; it is a a kind of unmoveable good-nature; a word which is commonly despised, because it is so seldom

5 Sir William Leveson Gower had been one of the Duke of Monmouth's sureties in 1683, and had taken an active part in promoting the Revolution.

practised. But after all, it is the most generous virtue, opposed to the most degenerate vice, which is that of ruggedness and harshness to our fellow

creatures.

It is upon this knowledge of you, Sir, that I have chosen you, with your permission, to be the patron of this poem; and as since this wonderful Revolution, I have begun with the best pattern of humanity, the Earl of Leicester, I shall continue to follow the same method in all to whom I shall address, and endeavour to pitch on such only as have been pleased to own me in this ruin of my small fortune; who, though they are of a contrary opinion themselves, yet blame not me for adhering to a lost cause, and judging for myself, what I cannot choose but judge, so long as I am a patient sufferer, and no disturber of the government; which if it be a severe penance, as a great wit has told the world, it is at least enjoined me by myself; and Sancho Pança, as much a fool as I, was observed to discipline his body no farther than he found he could endure the smart.

You see, Sir, I am not entertaining you, like Ovid, with a lamentable epistle from Pontus: I suffer no more than I can easily undergo; and so long as I enjoy my liberty, which is the birthright of an Englishman, the rest shall never go near

6 I have not been able to discover this great wit, but I suspect our author ironically alludes to some trite obser vation of his antagonist, the facetious Thomas Brown.