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Preface

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WHEN I undertook to write a comedy, I confess I was strongly prepossessed in favour of the poets of the last age, and strove to imitate them. The term, genteel comedy, was then unknown amongst us, and little more was desired by an audience than nature and humour in whatever walks of life they were most conspicuous. The author of the following scenes never imagined that more would be expected of him, and therefore to delineate character has been his principal aim. Those who know any thing of composition are sensible that, in pursuing 10 humour, it will sometimes lead us into the recesses of the mean; I was even tempted to look for it in the master of a spunging-house; but in deference to the public taste, grown of late, perhaps, too delicate, the scene of the bailiffs was retrenched in the representation. In defer- 15 ence also to the judgment of a few friends, who think in a particular way, the scene is here restored. The author submits it to the reader in his closet; and hopes that too much refinement will not banish humour and character from our's, as it has already done from the French thea- 20 tre. Indeed the French comedy is now become so very elevated and sentimental that it has not only banished humour and Molière from the stage, but it has banished all spectators too.

Upon the whole, the author returns his thanks to the 25 public for the favourable reception which the Good Natur'd Man has met with: and to Mr. Colman in par

ticular, for his kindness to it.

It may not also be improper to assure any, who shall hereafter write for the theatre, that merit, or supposed merit, will ever be a 30 sufficient passport to his protection.

PROLOGUE

WRITTEN BY DR. JOHNSON

SPOKEN BY MR. BENSLEY

Prest by the load of life, the weary mind
Surveys the general toil of human kind;
With cool submission joins the labouring train,
And social sorrow loses half it's pain:

Our anxious Bard, without complaint, may share
This bustling season's epidemic care.
Like Casar's pilot, dignifi'd by fate,

Tost in one common storm with all the great;
Distrest alike, the statesman and the wit,
When one a borough courts, and one the pit.
The busy candidates for power and fame,
Have hopes, and fears, and wishes, just the same;
Disabled both to combat, or to fly,

5 Our anxious Bard. In the Prologue as printed in the Public Advertiser, 3 February, 1768, this read: "Our little Bard"; but the epithet was altered in deference to the susceptivities of the author. At the same time, two lines which preceded it were withdrawn :

"Amidst the toils of this returning year,
When senators and nobles learn to fear
Our," etc.

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ΙΟ

Must hear all taunts, and hear without reply.
Uncheck'd on both, loud rabbles vent their rage,
As mongrels bay the lion in a cage.

Th' offended burgess hoards his angry tale,
For that blest year when all that vote may rail;
Their schemes of spite the poet's foes dismiss,
Till that glad night when all that hate may hiss.
This day the powder'd curls and golden coat,
Says swelling Crispin, begg'd a cobbler's vote.
This night, our wit, the pert apprentice cries,
Lies at my feet; I hiss him, and he dies.

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The great, 'tis true, can charm th' electing tribe; 25
The bard may supplicate, but cannot bribe.
Yet judg'd by those, whose voices ne'er were sold,
He feels no want of ill persuading gold;
But, confident of praise, if praise be due,
Trusts, without fear, to merit, and to you.

15 Uncheck'd etc. The first version reads: —

"Uncheck'd, on both caprice may vent its rage,
As children fret the lion in a cage."

21-24 This day

first version.

he dies. These four lines are not in the.

30 merit, first version, candour.

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