SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER OR THE MISTAKES OF A NIGHT. A COMEDY BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH AS ACTED AT THE THEATRE-ROYAL, COVENT-GARDEN [First printed in 1773] DEDICATION TO SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. DEAR SIR, By inscribing this slight performance to you, I do not mean so much to compliment you as myself. It may do me some honour to inform the public, that I have lived many years in intimacy with you. It may serve the interests of mankind also to inform them, that the greatest wit may be found in a character, without impairing the most unaffected piety. I have, particularly, reason to thank you for your partiality to this performance. The undertaking a Comedy, not merely sentimental, was very dangerous; and Mr. Colman, who saw this piece in its various stages, always thought it so. However, I ventured to trust it to the public; and, though it was necessarily delayed till late in the season, I have every reason to be grateful. I am, Dear Sir, Your most sincere OLIVER GOLDSMITH. PROLOGUE. BY DAVID GARRICK, ESQ. Enter MR. WOODWARD, dressed in black, and holding a Handkerchief to his Eyes. Excuse me, Sirs, I pray - I can't yet speak I'm crying now ''Tis not alone this and have been all the week. mourning suit,' good masters: 'I've that within ' for which there are no plasters! 5 Pray, would you know the reason why I'm crying? The Comic Muse, long sick, is now a-dying! And if she goes, my tears will never stop; shall lose my bread Io I'd rather, but that's nothing - lose my head. 15 We can as soon speak Greek as Sentiments! 20 They'll turn us out, and no one else will take us. But, why can't I be moral? Let me try My heart thus pressing-fix'd my face and eye — With a sententious look, that nothing means, (Faces are blocks in sentimental scenes) Thus I begin 'All is not gold that glitters, Pleasures seem sweet, but prove a glass of bitters. Learning is better far than house and land. I give it up morals won't do for me; To make you laugh, I must play tragedy. But desperate the Doctor, and her case is, The College you, must his pretensions back, 5 ΙΟ 15 20 |