Chapter 56

MY DEAR LADY,

I gave you in my last my bold remarks upon a TRAGEDY-_The Distressed Mother_. I will now give you my shallow notions of a COMEDY--_The Tender Husband_.

I liked this part of the title; though I was not pleased with the other, explanatory of it; _Or--The Accomplished Fools_. But when I heard it was written by Sir Richard Steele, and that Mr. Addison had given some hints towards it, if not some characters--"O, dear Sir," said I, "give us your company to this play; for the authors of the Spectator cannot possibly produce a faulty scene."

Mr. B. indeed smiled; for I had not then read the play: and the Earl of F., his countess, Miss Darnford, Mr. B. and myself, agreed to meet with a niece of my lord's in the stage-box, which was taken on purpose.

There seemed to me to be much wit and satire in the play: but, upon my word, I was grievously disappointed as to the morality of it; nor, in some places, is--_probability_ preserved; and there are divers speeches so very free, that I could not have expected to meet with such, from the names I mentioned.

In short the author seems to have forgotten the moral all the way; and being put in mind of it by some kind friend (Mr. Addison, perhaps), was at a loss to draw one from such characters and plots as he had produced; and so put down what came uppermost, for the sake of custom, without much regard to propriety. And truly, I should think, that the play was begun with a design to draw more amiable characters, answerable to the title of _The Tender Husband_; but that the author, being carried away by the luxuriancy of a genius, which he had not the heart to prune, on a general survey of the whole, distrusting the propriety of that title, added the under one: with an OR, _The Accomplished Fools_, in justice to his piece, and compliment to his audience. Had he called it _The Accomplished Knaves_, I would not have been angry at him, because there would have been more propriety in the title.

I wish I could, for the sake of the authors, have praised every scene of this play: I hoped to have reason for it. Judge then, my dear lady, my mortification, not to be able to say I liked above one, the _Painter's scene_, which too was out of time, being on the wedding-day; and am forced to disapprove of every character in it, and the views of every one. I am, dear Madam, _your most obliged sister and servant_,

P.B.