But enough of
this: the difficulties continue; they increase; and I am still
condemned to dig in those exhausted mines.
Whatever fault I next commit, rest assured it shall not be that of too
much length: Above twelve hundred lines have been cut off from this
tragedy since it was first delivered to the actors. They were indeed
so judiciously lopped by Mr Betterton, to whose care and excellent
action I am equally obliged, that the connection of the story was not
lost; but, on the other side, it was impossible to prevent some part
of the action from being precipitated, and coming on without that due
preparation which is required to all great events: as, in particular,
that of raising the mobile, in the beginning of the fourth act, which
a man of Benducar's cool character could not naturally attempt,
without taking all those precautions, which he foresaw would be
necessary to render his design successful. On this consideration, I
have replaced those lines through the whole poem, and thereby restored
it to that clearness of conception, and (if I may dare to say it) that
lustre and masculine vigour, in which it was first written. It is
obvious to every understanding reader, that the most poetical parts,
which are descriptions, images, similitudes, and moral sentences, are
those which of necessity were to be pared away, when the body was
swollen into too large a bulk for the representation of the stage.
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