To SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
Dear Sir,--By inscribing this slight performance to you, I do not mean
so much to compliment you as myself. It may do me some honour to
inform the public, that I have lived many years in intimacy with you. It
may serve the interests of mankind also to inform them, that the greatest
wit may be found in a character, without impairing the most unaffected
piety.
I have, particularly, reason to thank you for your partiality to this
performance. The undertaking a comedy not merely sentimental was
very dangerous; and Mr. Colman, who saw this piece in its various stages,
always thought it so. However, I ventured to trust it to the public; and,
though it was necessarily delayed till late in the season, I have every
reason to be grateful.