e Stage, and carried to the Press.

No one who reads the _Preface_ which I published with it, will imagine I
could be induced to say so much, as I then did, had I not known the man I
best loved had had a part in it; or had I believed that any other
concerned had much more to do than as an amanuensis.

But, indeed, had I not known at the time of the transaction concerning
the acting on the Stage and the sale of the Copy; I should, I think, have
seen Mr. ADDISON in every page of it! For he was above all men in that
talent we call Humour; and enjoyed it in such perfection, that I have
often reflected, after a night spent with him apart from the World, that
I had had the pleasure of conversing with an intimate acquaintance of
TERENCE and CATULLUS, who had all their Wit and Nature heightened with
Humour more exquisite and delightful than any other man ever possessed.

They who shall read this Play, after being let into the secret that it
was written by Mr. ADDISON or under his direction, will probably be
attentive to those excellencies which they before overlooked, and wonder
they did not till now observe that there is not an expression in the
whole Piece which has not in it the most nice propriety and aptitude to
the Character which utters it. Here is that smiling Mirth, that delicate
Satire and genteel Raillery, which appeared in Mr. ADDISON when he was
free among intimates; I say, when he was free from his _remarkable_
bashfulness, which is a cloak that hides and muffles merit: and his
abilities were covered only by modesty, which doubles the beauties which
are seen, and gives credit and esteem to all that are concealed.

The _Drummer_ made no great figure on the Stage, though exquisitely well
acted: but when I observe this, I say a much harder thing of the Stage,
than of the Comedy.

When I say the Stage in this place, I am understood to mean, in general,
the present Taste of theatrical representations: where nothing that is
not violent, and as I may say, grossly delightful, can come on, without
hazard of being condemned or slighted.

It is here republished, and recommended as a closet piece [_i.e., for
private reading_], to recreate an intelligent mind in a vacant hour: for
vacant the reader must be, from every strong prepossession, in order to
relish an entertainment, _quod nequeo monstrare et sentio tantum_, which
cannot be enjoyed to the degree it deserves, but by those of the most
polite Taste among Scholars, t