c part of the drama. The sudden
turn of fortune in the conclusion is ridiculed in "The Rehearsal."

The researches of Mr Malone have ascertained that "Marriage A-la-Mode"
was first acted in 1673, in an old theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields,
occupied by the King's company, after that in Drury-Lane had been
burned, and during its re-building. The play was printed in the same
year.

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE

EARL OF ROCHESTER[1].

MY LORD,

I humbly dedicate to your Lordship that poem, of which you were
pleased to appear an early patron, before it was acted on the stage. I
may yet go farther, with your permission, and say, that it received
amendment from your noble hands ere it was fit to be presented. You
may please likewise to remember, with how much favour to the author,
and indulgence to the play, you commended it to the view of his
Majesty, then at Windsor, and, by his approbation of it in writing,
made way for its kind reception on the theatre. In this dedication,
therefore, I may seem to imitate a custom of the ancients, who offered
to their gods the firstlings of the flock, (which, I think, they
called _Ver sacrum_) because they helped them to increase. I am sure,
if there be any thing in this play, wherein I have raised myself
beyond the ordinary lowness of my comedies, I ought wholly to
acknowledge it to the favour of being admitted into your lordship's
conversation. And not only I, who pretend not to this way, but the
best comic writers of our age, will join with me to acknowledge, that
they have copied the gallantries of courts, the delicacy of
expression, and the decencies of behaviour, from your lordship, with
more success, than if they had taken their models from the court of
France. But this, my lord, will be no wonder to the world, which knows
the excellency of your natural parts, and those you have acquired in a
noble education. That which, with more reason, I admire, is that being
so absolute a courtier, you have not forgot either the ties of
friendship, or the practice of generosity. In my little experience of
a court, (which, I confess, I desire not to improve) I have found in
it much of interest, and more of detraction: Few men there have that
assurance of a friend, as not to be made ridiculous by him when they
are absent. There are a middling sort of courtiers, who b