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 has dared to tell you
so; whether we have been all conscious to ourselves that it was a
needless labour to give this notice to mankind, as all men are ashamed
to tell stale news; or that we were justly diffident of our own
performances, as even Cicero is observed to be in awe when he writes
to Atticus; where, knowing himself over-matched in good sense, and
truth of knowledge, he drops the gaudy train of words, and is no
longer the vain-glorious orator.
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