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To the Right Honorable

CHARLES

Lord HALLIFAX.

MY LORD,

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F I could have the Vanity to make a Merit of Dedicating this TRAGEDY, I should here take an Opportunity of telling You, that I am, in this, endeavouring to make the best, and only Return I am capable of, for all thofe Marks of exceeding Goodness and Humanity, which I have ftill had the Honor to meet with from Your Lordship. But fince the Matter is quite otherwise, since it is highly to my Advantage to fhelter myfelf under fo great a Name; fince I have done myfelf fo much Honor by it; I am bound to own, with all the Gratitude I am capable

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capable of, that Your Lordship's Patronage is a new, and will be a lafting Obligation

upon me.

Moft kinds of Poetry, but especially TRAGEDIES, Come into the World now, like Children born under ill Stars; a general Indifference, or rather Difinclination, attends like a bad Influence upon them; and after having buftled through ill Ufage, and a fhort Life, they fleep and are forgotten. The Relish of Things of this Kind is certainly very much altered from what it was fome Time fince; and though I will not prefume to cenfure other People's Pleasures, and prefcribe to the various Taftes of Mankind; yet I will take the Liberty to fay, that those who fcorn to be entertained like their Fore-fathers, will hardly fubftitute fo reasonable a Diverfion in the Room of that which they have laid afide. I could wish there were not fo much Reafon as there is to attribute this Change of Inclinations, to a Difesteem of Learning itfelf. Too many People are apt to think, that Books are not neceffary to the finishing the Character of a fine Gentleman; and are therefore

therefore easily drawn to defpife what they know nothing of. But, my Lord, among all these mortifying Thoughts, it is ftill a Pleasure to the Mufes, to think there are fome Men of too delicate Understandings to give into the Taftes of a depraved Age; Men that have not only the Power but the Will, to protect thofe Arts which they love, because they are Mafters of them.

It would be very easy for me to distinguish one among thofe few, after the most advantageous Manner; but all Men of common Senfe have concurred in doing it already, and there is no Need of a Panegyric.

I could be almoft tempted to expoftulate with the rest of the World (for I am sure there is no Occasion to make an Apology to Your Lordship) in Defence of Poetry. I am far from thinking of a good Poet, as the Stoics did of their Wife-man, that he was fufficient for every Thing, could be every Thing, and excel in every Thing, as he pleafed; yet fure may be allowed to say, that that Brightness, Quickness, that Strength and Greatnefs of Thinking, which is required in any of the B 3

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nobler

nobler Kinds of Poetry, would raise a Man to an uncommon Diftinction in any Profeffion or Business, that has a Relation to good Senfe and Understanding. One modern Inftance can at least be given, where the fame Genius that fhone in Poetry, was found equal to the firft Employments of the State; and where the fame Man, who by his Virtue and Wifdom was highly useful to, and inftrumental in the Safety and Happinefs of his native Country, had been equally ornamental to it

in his Wit.

This is what I could not help faying, for the Honor of an Art which has been formerly the Favorite of the greatest Men. Not that it wants a Recommendation to Your Lordship, who have always been a conftant and generous Protector of it. This indeed would be much more properly faid to the World, and when I have told them what Men have equally adorned it, and been adorned by it, I might not unfitly apply to them, what Horace faid to the Pifo's,

Ne forté Pudori

Sit tibi Mufa Lyra folers & Cantor Apollo:

For

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