ogether remiss, he thought to procure some
advantage to the stage, by having our author's play, called the
Relapse, to be acted upon it. In this he was not disappointed, for
the Relapse succeeded beyond the warmest expectation, and raised
Vanbrugh's name very high amongst the writers for the stage.

Tho' this play met with greater applause, than the author expected,
yet it was not without its enemies. These were people of the graver
sort, who blamed the looseness of the scenes, and the unguarded
freedom of the dialect. These complaints induced Vanbrugh to make some
observations upon them in his preface, which he thus begins, 'To go
about to excuse half the defects this abortive brat is come into the
world with, would be to provoke the town with a long useless preface,
when 'tis, I doubt, sufficiently sour'd already, by a tedious play.

'I do therefore, with all the humility of a repenting sinner, confess
it wants every thing--but length, and in that I hope the severest
critics will be pleased to acknowledge, I have not been wanting. But
my modesty will sure attone for every thing, when the world shall know
it is so great, I am even to this day insensible of those two shining
graces, in the play (which some part of the town is pleased to
compliment me with) blasphemy and bawdy. For my part I cannot find
them out; if there were any obscene expressions upon the stage,
here they are in print; for I have dealt fairly, I have not sunk a
syllable, that could be ranged under that head, and yet I believe with
a steady faith, there is not one woman of real reputation in town, but
when she has read it impartially over in her closet, will find it so
innocent, she'll think it no affront to her prayer book, to lay it
upon the same shelf.'

Being encouraged by the success of the Relapse, he yielded to the
sollicitation of lord Hallifax, who had read some of the loose sheets
of his Provok'd Wife, to finish that piece; and after throwing
them into a proper form, gave the play to the Theatre in
Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Though Sir John had a greater inclination to
serve the other company, yet the request of lord Hallifax, so eminent
a patron of the poets, could not be resisted. Sir Thomas Skipwith was
not offended at so reasonable a compliance, and the Provok'd Wife was
acted 1698, with success. Some critics likewise objected against this,
as a loose performance; and that it taught the married women how to
revenge themselves on their husb