The propriety of addrefling thefe volumes to you will not, I believe, be contested; but, independent of your being the immediate fucceffor of Mr. Garrick, and a most eminent writer in dramatic poetry, the author of the most pleasing and fuccessful entertainment of the ftage which has ever been presented; befides too, your being endowed with many fhining qualities and amiable virtues, I confefs I had another motive for this dedication; gratitude was my strongest incentive to it; your kindness shewn to me at a time when I moft ftood in need of your friendship, can never be blotted from my remembrance. This This is a fubject which I could with delight enlarge upon; but I am convinced, from the constant pleasure you feel in conferring favours, you would rather do a thoufand generous actions than be told of one. ADVERTISEMENT. F this little book fhould by good chance IF afford an hour's amufement to the candid reader, he will owe that pleasure to Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON, who has long honoured me with his friendship and patronage. He prompted and encouraged me, juftly diffident as I was of my abilities, to write the life of David Garrick; a work which should comprehend A HISTORY OF THE STAGE, during his adminiftration of it, with characters and anecdotes of other actors, his contemporaries. To him I am indebted for the early part of Mr. Garrick's life. Dr. Johnson was familiarly acquainted with his nearest relations; and often had the pleasure, as he informs us himself in his Life of Edmund Smith, to meet him at the houfe of their common friend, Mr. Walmsley, register of Lichfield. To the fame excellent friend I am indebted for feveral diverting anecdotes in this narrative; and I heartily wish I could boaft of farther affiftance from one fo able to give it. A long acquaintance with the stage, and an earnest inclination to excel in the profeffion of acting, to which I was for many years attached, afforded me an opportunity to know much of plays and theatrical history. I can truly fay, that I have no where willingly mifreprefented either fact or character. Mistakes I may have fallen into; but I fhall not incur the charge of falfhood, for that implies an intention to deceive. To the great indulgence of the public I owe the rapid fale of the first edition of the Memoirs of David Garrick. In this fecond impreffion I have amended a few mistakes, which had escaped me with refpect to dates and facts. I have alfo endeavoured to remove fome inaccuracies of ftyle. |