of adorning the Frontispiece of our Books with pompous Titles, as if we deriv'd from those not only Security but Fame to our Works: yet I can't but remem ber, that, among the Ancients, the Name of a learned Friend was of greater Confideration with the Writer, than the Dignity of a Man of Power; and that the Greatness of any Man in the Political State, according to them, did not raise his Authority in the Common-Wealth of Letters, above his real Merits in the Arts and Sciences, unless he ennobled it, by giving fuch Encouragement to them, as they very rarely in our Days meet with from the GREAT ONES. Being, therefore, to write on an Art, which has not been much cultivated in our Nation, either in the Practice or Theory; what I had most to wish for, on the Publication of this Effay, was the Approbation of One, to whom the Witty and the Learned allow fome Place in the POLITER STUDIES and FINE ARTS. An Addrefs of this Nature is not without the agreeable Vanity of recommending a Man to the World, as a Person skilful in the Matter, of which he treats; and the Merit of Mr. STEELE, in the Kingdom of the Muses, is too well known to the Beaux Efprits, not to secure me from the Fear of the Railery of Afcyltos on EncolA 4 pius, pius, in Petronius Arbiter---- Ut foris Canares Poetam laudafti; or of Manley on my Lord Plaufible-That rather than not flatter, be would flatter the Poets of the Age, whom no Body else would flatter. But I have chosen to address this Discourse to you, because the Art, of which it treats, is of your familiar Acquaintance, and the Graces of ACTION and UTTERANCE Come naturally under the Confideration of a Dramatic Writer. I flatter my self, that, as I am (as far as I know) the first, who in English has attempted this Subject, in the Extent of the Difcourfe before you, so I am apt to believe, that I have pretty well well exhausted the Matter; and laid down fuch General and Particular Rules, as may raise the Stage from the prefent Neglect it lies under, to that Efteem, which it drew from the most polite Nation, that ever was in the World, and that, which it will always deserve from Men of Senfe, when under a juft Regulation, and adorn'd, as it ought to be, with GOOD ACTORS and GOOD PLAYS. The former may be rais'd, I hope, from what I have deliver'd in the following Treatife, as the later from your Example, which may inspire our Authors with the Knowledge of Nature, and the Art of keeping her always in their View, adorn'd with that |