their Approbation, or whether they comply with the
Importunity of the Actors, who tell them, that such is the Disposition
of the Audience, that no Plays of that kind will appear beautiful, if
they are strip'd of those Embellishments and Ornaments of Wit, which
some morose and unfashionable People stile impure and obscene, and
that to leave out those ingenious Strokes and Heightnings of Fancy,
and put into the Mouths of the Actors only good Sense and modest and
clean Expressions, is to clear and refine our Comedies from the most
entertaining and delightful Parts: Perhaps they assure them, that the
Audience will endure no Reformation of the Stage, and that it were
altogether as adviseable to shut up the Doors of the Play-House, as to
attempt a Regulation of the Pleasures and Diversions of it.

But tho Men who love their Country, born down with a Torrent of
profane Libertines, Persons without Taste and Distinction of Vertue
and Vice, have almost despair'd of seeing the Comick Poets reform'd,
and the exorbitant Liberties of the Stage restrain'd within the Limits
of modest Language and decent Behaviour; yet now their Hopes revive,
and they promise to themselves a sudden and effectual Reformation of
these Abuses, since the Government has plac'd so worthy a Person at
the Head of the Actors, and given him ample Authority to rectify their
Errors: What a happy Revolution, what a regular and clean Stage may
justly be now expected? How free from all sordid and impure Mixtures,
how innocent, as well as diverting, will our Comedies appear, when
they have been corrected and refin'd by such an accomplish'd Director
of the Dramatick Poets? One that has a true and delicate Taste, and
who is sensible of the Indecencies and hurtful Nature of our Plays;
who has engag'd his celebrated Pen, in defiance of sneering Wits and
powerful Libertines, on the Side of Vertue, and has propagated the
Esteem of Morals, Humanity, Decorum and Sobriety of Manners; who
with great Spirit, Genius, and Courage, to his lasting Honour, has
publickly expos'd the Absurdities, Vices, and Follies, that stain
and disgrace the Theatre; in which Censure he has not spar'd his own
Performances: One who has express'd a warm Zeal on this Subject, and
declar'd his generous Intention, if it were in his Power, to cleanse
these polluted Places, and not to suffer a Comedy to be presented but
what had past a severe Examination, and where all things which might
shock a modest Ear,