A BOLD STROKE FOR A WIFE. A COMEDY, BY MRS. CENTLIVRE. ADAPTED FOR THEATRICAL REPRESENTATION, AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRES-ROYAL, DRURY-LANE AND COVENT GARDEN. REGULATED FROM THE PROMPT-BOOKS, "The Lines distinguished by inverted Commas, are omitted in the Representation." LONDON: Printed for the Proprietors, under the Direction of JOHN BELL, British Library, STRAND, Bookseller to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales MDCCXCI. ΤΟ HIS GRACE, PHILIP, DUKE AND MARQUIS OF WHARTON, &c. MY LORD, IT has ever been the custom of poets, to shelter productions of this nature under the patronage of the brightest men of their time; and 'tis observed, that the muses always met the kindest reception from persons of the greatest merit. The world will do me justice as to the choice of my patron; but will, I fear, blame my rash attempt, in daring to address your Grace, and offer at a work too difficult for our ablest pens, viz. an encomium on your Grace. I have no plea against such reflections, but the disadvantage of education, and the privilege of my sex. If your Grace discovers a genius so surprising in this dawn of life, what must your riper years produce! Your Grace has already been distinguished in a most peculiar manner, being the first young nobleman that ever was admitted into a house of peers before he reached the age of one and twenty: but your Grace's judgment and eloquence soon convinced that august assembly, that the excellent gifts of na |