was restored to me without the least alteration by his Lordship. It is printed as it was acted; and I dare assure you, that here is no parallel to be found it is neither compliment nor satire, but a plain story, more strictly followed than any which has appeared upon the stage. It is true, it had been garbled before by the superiours of the playhouse; and I cannot reasonably blame them for their caution, because they are answerable for any thing that is publickly represented; and their zeal for the government is such, that they had rather lose the best poetry in the world, than give the least suspicion of their loyalty. The short is, that they were diligent enough to make sure work; and to geld it so clearly in some places, that they took away the very manhood of it. I can only apply to them what Cassandra says somewhere in the play to Ptolomy

:3

To be so nice in my concerns for you;

To doubt where doubts are not; to be too fearful;

To raise a bugbear shadow of a danger,

And then be frighted, though it cannot reach you.

But since it concerns me to be as circumspect as they are, I have given leave to my bookseller to print the Life of Cleomenes, as it is elegantly and faithfully translated out of Plutarch by my learned friend, Mr. Creech; to whom the world has been indebted for his excellent version of Lucretius, and I particularly obliged in his translation of

་

3 In Act iii. sc. 1.

Horace. We daily expect Manilius from him,
an author worthy only of such hands; which,
having formerly revealed the secrets of nature to
us here on earth, is now discovering to us her
palace in the skies, and, if I might be allowed to
say it, giving light to the stars of heaven :

Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra
Processit longè flammantia mania mundi.s

But to return to Plutarch: you will find him
particularly fond of Cleomenes his character, who,
as he was the last of the Spartan heroes, so he
was, in my opinion, the greatest. Even his enemy,
Polybius, though engaged in the contrary faction,
yet speaks honourably of him; and especially of
his last action in Egypt. This author is also made
English, and will shortly be published for the
common benefit."

What I have added to the story is chiefly the love of Agathoclea, the King's mistress, whose name I have changed into Cassandra, only for the better sound; as I have also the name of Nica

The second edition of Creech's translation of Horace, published in 1684, is dedicated "To the very much esteemed John Dryden, Esqre."; of whom a very amiable character is given.

5 LUCRET. lib. i. v. 74, 75.

"The translation here alluded to, which was made by

Sir Henry Sheers, was published in 1699. A character Ze..

of Polybius and his writings, by our author, was pre-
fixed.

1692.

goras
into that of Conus, for the same reason.
Cratisiclæa, Pantheus, and Sosybius, are to be
found in the story, with the same characters which
they have in the tragedy. There is likewise men-
tion made of the son of Cleomenes, who had
resolution enough to throw himself headlong from
a tower, when he had heard of his father's ill
success; and for Cleora, whom I make the second
wife of Cleomenes, (for Ægyatis was dead before,)
you will find a hint of her in Plutarch; for he
tells us, that after the loss of the battle at Sellasia,
he returned to Sparta, and entering his own house
was there attended by a freeborn woman of Me-
galopolis.

The picture of Ptolomy Philopater is given by the fore-mentioned authors to the full. Both agree that he was an original of his kind; a lazy, effeminate, cowardly, cruel, and luxurious prince, managed by his favourite, and imposed on by his mistress. The son of Sosybius, whom I call Cleanthes, was a friend to Cleomenes; but Plutarch says, he at length forsook him. I have given him a fairer character, and made it only a seeming treachery which he practised. If any be so curious to enquire what became of Cassandra, whose fortune was left in suspence at the conclusion of the play, I must first inform them, that after the death of Cleomenes, (the hero of my poem,) I was obliged by the laws of the drama to let fall the curtain immediately; because the action was then concluded. But Polybius tells us, that she survived

el

James are n

1

el

Ptolomy, who reigned about twenty-seven years; that with her brother Agathocles, she governed Egypt in the minority of his son Ptolemy Epiphanes; and that finally, for oppressing of the people, both the brother and sister were slain in a popular insurrection.

There is nothing remaining but my thanks to the town in general, and to the fair ladies in particular, for their kind reception of my play; and though I cannot retract what I said before,that I was not much concerned in my own particular for the embargo which was laid upon it,— yet I think myself obliged, at the same time, to render my acknowledgments to those honourable persons who were instrumental in the freeing it. For as it was from a principle of nobleness in them, that they would not suffer one to want, who was grown old in their service, so it is from a principle of another sort that I have learned to possess my soul in patience, and not to be much disquieted with any disappointment of this

nature.

DEDICATION

OF

LOVE TRIUMPHANT,

or, Nature WILL PREVAIL.7

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

8

JAMES, EARL OF SALISBURY, &c. *

MY LORD,

THIS poem being the last which I intend

for the theatre, ought to have the same provision made for it, which old men make for their youngest child, which is commonly a favourite. They who

7 This tragi-comedy, which has no preface, was the last piece produced by our author for the stage. It was represented at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane, by their Majesties' Servants, early in 1694, in which year it was first printed. He was now about to undertake his great work, the translation of Virgil.

A contemporary writer, who appears to have been no great admirer of our author, whom he calls "huffing Dryden, thus speaks of this drama, in a letter, dated March the 22d, 1693-4, which I have given at length in the HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE: "The second play is Mr. Dryden's, called Love TRIUMPHANt, or NATURE WILL PREVAIL. It is a tragi-comedy, but in my opinion one of the worst he ever writ, if not the very