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BY MESSRS. ELMSLY, PRIDDEN, RICHARDSONS, AND

RIVINGTONS.

1801.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

WHEN the First Part of KING HENRY the FOURTH

was acted at Reading School, it was fufficient to curtail fome tedious paffages, and to omit fome exceptionable expreffions. In the Second Part it was abfolutely neceffary to do more. This Play in the original is disfigured not only with indelicate speeches, but with characters, that cannot now * be tolerated on a public theatre, much less in a classical exhibition, which ought to be "weeded of all noxious expreffions, and in which nothing fhould be left to taint the mind, or crimson the cheek of youth." Thofe only, who have read the original with fome attention, can appreciate the difficulty of the prefent undertaking. The general moral of the ftory, the excellent inftructions of a dying father to his son, and the reformation of a diffipated Prince, independently of innumerable beauties of style and of fentiment, render this Play admirably calculated for youth: it is therefore hoped that this attempt to pluck the thorns from the roses will not be unfavorably received, or feverely criticised.†

I know

*It is hoped that this Play is fuch as the excellent HANNAH MORE will not only recommend to be read as a dramatic compo. fition, but permit to be feen as a theatrical exhibition. HANNAH MORE, Vol. III. page 42.

Works of

+ It has been faid by the enemies of theatrical amufements that the reformation, introduced by Mr. Garrick in the purification of the ftage, has lately loft ground. To thofe, who frequent the theatre, it is well known that the chastity of the drama has been confiderably improved during the last twenty years. One of the principal caufes of this falutary charge is given in the Preface to KING JOHN,

A

I know that it is confidered by fome eminent Critics as facri-
legious to alter a word of SHAKESPEARE. It is the defire
of many perfons, highly respectable for their judgment,
"to lose no part of that immortal man.”

It is perhaps unneceffary to justify the liberties, which have
been taken, in order to adapt a Play to the prefent occafion;
but it might be alleged, in defence of alterations for gene-
ral representation, that fome of our Poet's beft pieces are
never now offered to the public in their original form. King
Lear, Cymbeline, Richard III. Romeo and Juliet, the Tempest,
&c. afford a rational delight in a fhape very different from
that, in which they were written. The fuccefs of the freedom
with which "the God of our Idolatry" has been stripped
of his coarse attire, and arrayed in more graceful ornaments,
is a proof that a change at least has taken place in the taste
of the times. He difplays the wildness of his imagination
with equal force, and difpenfes his graces with the fame.
attractive power;
but modern art has foftened the afperities
of the former, and dignified and extended the happy influ-
ence of the latter.

The Reader will forgive me, if, confiftently with the spirit of these remarks, I turn his attention to fome criticisms on the Alteration of KING JOHN. Flattered as I am with the general approbation, which they contain, I may perhaps be permitted to defend one paffage, which has appeared objectionable to a refpectable Critic. In the IIId. Act of the original, Constance thus addresses her injured fon :

If thou, that bidft me be content, wert grim,

Ugly, &c.

I would not care: I then would be content;

"For then I would not love thee.

1

If SHAKESPEARE did not nod in writing this paffage, I have always dreamed in reading it. I have fhrunk with hor

ror

!

ror at the fuppofition that a Mother could banish her child from her affection because he was deformed. Were that even poffible, is it confiftent with the ambitious character of Constance that he would not care, that she could be content with the political degradation of her only fon? With fome confidence I appeal to the feelings of Parents whether that fentiment is natural; and whether pity would not add an undiscriminating and invincible support to affection! Impreffed with this conviction, I determined to adopt the alteration censured by the Critic; and I was pleased to find that CIBBER had been actuated by the fame confiderations.

In the course of the fame Play, the reader will find other paffages fubject to the fame animadverfion in confequence of variations generally defended in the notes. Is the filence of the Critic to be confidered as a proof that he acquiefced in their propriety? I intreat him to compare, after a candid perufal, the effect of the Alteration of KING JOHN, with that of the Abridgment of the fame Play as it is performed in London. Had he witneffed the reprefentation of both, the challenge might be made with still less presumption.

The prefent Play will, it is feared, be expofed to the fame cenfure. In one fcene, particularly, a total change has been made in the character of Falstaff. In the original, he is reprefented as a hero fo terrible in arms, that one of his enemies furrenders himself at the very mention of his name. This voluntary Captive is no where represented as deficient in courage; and miferably deftitute indeed must he have been of common 'fenfe, to yield himself so calmly, at the call of a fingle man, to immediate execution; when by refifting he had at least a chance of escaping. But the conduct and expreffions of the Knight of the mirthful countenance in both parts of HENRY IV uniformly characterize

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