Gardiner, Lovelace, and Hills, in their Commendatory Verses, ascribe this Comedy to Fletcher; but more credible witnesses, the Prologue and Epilogue, mention it as a joint production, Its first publication was in the folio of 1647. The greatest applause was always bestowed on this play, and it used to be frequently performed, till modern refinement banished it from the Theatres, In 1749, some of the scenes were selected for a farce, and acted under the title of this Comedy,

DINANT, a Gentleman that formerly loved, | SAMPSON, a foolish Advocate, Kinsman to Ver

and still pretends to love Lamira.

CLZREMONT, a merry Gentleman, his Friend.
CHAMPERNEL, a lame old Gentleman, Hus-

band to Lamira.

PROVOST.
GENTLEMEN.

CLIENTS.

SERVANTS.

[taign.

SCENE, France.

ACT I.

For th' honour of our country, and our prince,
Pours itself out with prodigal expence
Upon our mother's lap, the earth that bred us,
For every trifle. And these private duels,
Which had their first original from the French,
And for which, to this day, we're justly cen-
sur'd,

Are banish'd from all civil governments:
Scarce three in Venice, in as many years;
In Florence they are rarer; and in all
The fair dominions of the Spanish king
They are ne'er heard of. Nay those neigh-
bour countries,

Which gladly imitate our other follies,
And come at a dear rate to buy them of us,
Begin now to detest them.

Din. Will you end yet?

[late kings,

Cler. And I have heard that some of our
For the lie, wearing of a mistress' favour,
A cheat at cards or dice, and such-like causes,
Have lost as many gallant gentlemen
As might have met the Great Turk in the field,

Or be engag'd thyself. This goodly calling Th' hast follow'd five-and-twenty years, and studied

The criticisms of contentions: and art thou
In so few hours transform'd? Certain, this
night

Th'hast had strange dreams, or rather visions,
Cler. Yes, sir,

Are you become a patron too? 'Tis a new one,

No more on't, burn it, give it to some orator.] Patron, here, has its Latin meaning, i. e. a pleader, or advocate; but the word speech, declamation, harangue, or something to that effect, must be understood, to make the following line sense; and it is highly probable that a whole line is lost, which might have been something like the following:

Are you become a patron too? How long

Have you been conning this speech? 'Tis a new one;

Seward.

Are you become a patron too? 'Tis a new one.] We suspect patron to be a corruption of pattern, a word which would give good sense to the passage, and comes very near that admitted into the text.

2 Words are but words.] After Cleremont has said this, which seems to assert that he would not miud being called a coward, nor make that a cause of fighting, Dinant goes on as if he had said directly the contrary; and perhaps a line may here be lost again to the following import:

Words are but words, but coward is a name

With this addition the whole context seems consonant to itself.

3 Stammel breeches.] i. e. Red breeches. Mr. Sympson has given an explanation of the word from Ben Jonson, more clear than what we have in dictionaries. Octavo edition, page 288.

Red-hood the first that does appear

In stammel; scarlet is too dear.'

It is highly probable that red breeches were in our Authors' time wore only by smarts, and were esteemed coxcomical. In that age of duelling, therefore, a sneer upon this topic might have produced bloodshed.