drama at this
time, the representation of a riot upon the stage seems to have had
the same charms for the popular part of the English audience, which
its reality always possesses in the streets.

Notwithstanding the excellence of this tragedy, it appears to have
been endured, rather than applauded, at its first representation;
although, being judiciously curtailed, it soon became a great
favourite with the public[3]; and, omitting the comic scenes, may be
again brought forward with advantage, when the public shall be tired
of children and of show. The tragedy of "Don Sebastian" was acted and
printed in 1690.

Footnotes:
1. "The Battle of Alcazar, with Captain Stukely's death, acted by the
Lord High Admiral's servants, 1594," 4to. Baker thinks Dryden might
have taken the hint of "Don Sebastian" from this old play.
Shakespeare drew from it some of the bouncing rants of Pistol, as,
"Feed, and be fat; my fair Callipolis," &c.

2. In a Zambra dance, introduced in the "Conquest of Granada," our
author had previously introduced the Moors bowing to the image of
Jupiter; a gross solecism, hardly more pardonable, as Langbaine
remarks, than the introduction of a pistol in the hand of
Demetrius, a successor of Alexander the Great, which Dryden has
justly censured.

3. Langbaine says, it was acted "with great applause;" but this must
refer to its reception after the first night; for the author's own
expressions, that "the audience endured it with much patience, and
were weary with much good nature and silence," exclude the idea of
a brilliant reception on the first representation. See the
beginning of the Preface.

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

PHILIP,

EARL OF LEICESTER, &c.[1]

Far be it from me, my most noble lord, to think, that any thing which
my meanness can produce, should be worthy to be offered to your
patronage; or that aught which I can say of you should recommend you
farther to the esteem of good men in this present age, or to the
veneration which will certainly be paid you by posterity. On the other
side, I must acknowledge it a great presumption in me, to make you
this address; and so much the greater, because by the common suffrage
even of contrary parties, you have been always regarded as one of the
first persons of the age, and yet not one writer