A COMEDY, BY HENRY FIELDING, Esq. 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 MDCCXCI. TO HIS GRACE, CHARLES, DUKE OF RICHMOND AND LENOX. MY LORD, As there is scarce any vanity more general than that of desiring to be thought well received by the great, pardon me if I take the first opportunity of boasting the countenance I have met with from one who is an honour to the high rank in which he is born. The Muses, my Lord, stand in need of such protectors ; nor do I know under whose protection I can so properly introduce Moliere as that of your Grace, to whom he is as familiar in his own language as in ours. The pleasure which I may be supposed to receive from an extraordinary success in so difficult an undertaking must be indeed complete by your approbation; the perfect knowledge which your Grace is known to have of the manners, habits, and taste, of that nation where this play was derived, makes you the properest judge wherein I have judiciously kept up to, or departed from, the original. The theatre hath declared loudly in favour of The Miser, and you, my Lord, are to decide what share the translator merits in the applause.. I shall not grow tedious by entering into the usual style of Dedications, for my pen cannot accompany my |