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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36609	Cleomenes, the Spartan heroe a tragedy, as it is acted at the Theatre Royal / written by Mr. Dryden ; to which is prefixt The life of Cleomenes.	Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Southerne, Thomas, 1660-1746.; Plutarch. Kleomenēs. English.; Creech, Thomas, 1659-1700.	1692 (1692)	Wing D2254; ESTC R19821	71,103	117

my side to be ever esteem'd Your Lordship's most Thankful And most Obedient Servant JOHN DRYDEN PREFACE 'T Is now seven or eight Years since I design'd to write this Play of CLEOMENES and my Lord Falkland whose Name I cannot mention without Honour for the many Favours I have receiv'd from him is pleas'd to witness for me That in a French Book which I presented him about that time there were the Names of many Subjects that I had thought on for the Stage amongst which this Tragedy was one This was out of my Remembrance but my Lord on the occasion of stopping my Play took the Opportunity of doing me a good Office at Court by representing it as it was a Piece long ago design'd Which being judiciously treated I thought was capable of moving Compassion on the Stage The Success has justified my Opinion and that at a time when the World is running mad after Farce the Extremitie of bad Poetry or rather the Iudgment that is fallen upon Dramatique Writing Were I in the Humour I have sufficient cause to expose it in its true Colours but having for once escap'd I will forbear my Satyr and only be thankful for my Deliverance A great part of my good Fortune I must confess is owing to the Iustice which was done me in the Performance I can scarcely refrain from giving every one of the Actors their particular Commendations but none of them will be offended if I say what the Town has generally granted That Mrs. Barry always Excellent has in this Tragedy excell'd Herself and gain'd a Reputation beyond any Woman whom I have ever seen on the Theatre After all it was a bold Attempt of mine to write upon a single Plott unmix'd with Comedy which though it be the natural and true way yet is not to the Genius of the Nation Yet to gratifie the barbarous Party of my Audience I gave them a short Rabble-Scene because the Mobb as they call them are represented by Plutarch and Polybius with the same Character of Baseness and Cowardice which are here describ'd in the last Attempt of Cleomenes They may thank me if they please for this Indulgence for no French Poet would have allow'd them any more than a bare Relation of that Scene which debases a Tragedy to show upon the Stage For the rest some of the Mechanique Rules of Vnity are observed and others are neglected The Action is but one which is the Death of Cleomenes and every Scene in the Play is tending to the Accomplishment of the Main Design The Place is likewise one for 't is all in the compass of Alexandria and the Port of that City The time might easily have been reduc'd into the space of twenty four Hours if I wou'd have omitted the Scence of Famine in the Fifth Act but it pleas'd me to try how Spartans cou'd endure it and besides gave me the occasion of writing that other Scene betwixt Cleomenes and his suspected Friend and in such a Case 't is better to trespass on a Rule than leave out a Beauty As for other Objections I never heard any worth answering and least of all that Foolish One which is rais'd against me by the Sparks for Cleomenes not accepting the Favours of Cassandra They wou'd not have re●us'd a fair Lady I grant they wou'd not but let them grant me That they are not Hero's and so much for the Point of Honour A Man might have pleaded an Excuse for himself if he had been false to an Old Wife for the sake of a Young Mistress but Cleora was in the Flower of her Age and it was yet but Honey-moon with Cleomenes and so much for Nature Some have told me That many of the fair Sex complain for want of tender Scenes and soft Expressions of Love I will endeavour to make them some amends if I write again and my next Hero shall be no Spartan I know it will be here expected that I should write somewhat concerning the forbidding of my Play but the less I say of it the better And besides I was so little concern'd at it that had it not been on consideration of the Actors who were to suffer on my account I should not have been at all sollicitous whether it were play'd or no. No body can imagine that in my declining Age I write willingly or that I am desirous of exposing at this time of day the small Reputation which I have gotten on the Theatre The Subsistence which I had from the former Government is lost and the Reward I have f●om the Stage is so little that it is not worth my Labour As for the Reasons which were given for suspending the Play it seems they were so ill founded that my Lord Chamberlain no sooner took the pains to read it but they vanish'd and my Copy was restor'd to me without the least Alteration by his Lordship 'T is 〈◊〉 as it was acted and I dare assure you that here is no Parallel to be found 'T is neither Compliment nor Satyr but a plain Story more strictly followed than any which has appear'd upon the Stage 'T is true it had been garbled before by the Superiours of the Play-house and I cannot reasonably blame them for their Caution because they are answerable for any thing that is publickly represented And their Zeal for the Government is such that they had rather lose the best Poetry in the World than give the least Suspicion of their Loyalty The short is that they were diligent enough to make sure Work and to geld it so clearly in some places that they took away the very Manhood of it I can only apply to them what Cassandra says somewhere in the Play to Ptolomey To be so nice in my Concerns for you To doubt where Doubts are not to be too fearful To raise a Bug-bear Shadow of a Danger And then be frighted though it cannot reach you But since it concerns me to be as circumspect as they are I have given leave to my Bookseller to print the Life of Cleomenes as it is elegantly and faithfully translated out of Plutarch by my learned Friend Mr. Creech to whom the World has been indebted for his excellent Version of Lucretius and I particularly oblig'd in his Translation of Horace We daily expect Manilius from him an Author worthy only of such Hands which having formerly reveal'd the Secrets of Nature to us here on Earth is now discovering to us her Palace in the Skies and if I might be allow'd to say it giving Light to the Stars of Heaven Ergò vivida vis animi pervicit extra Processit longè flammantia maenia Mundi But to return to Plutarch you will find him particularly fond of Cleomenes his Character who as he was the last of the Spartan Heroes so he was in my Opinion the greatest Even his Enemy Polybius though engag'd in the contrary Faction yet speaks honourably of him and especially of his last Action in Egypt This Author is also