The Epistle dedicatory to the right honourable, the countess of Burlington.

Madam,

The noble character your Ladyship is deservedly mistress of and the continued favours you have shewn to that stage, which I have the honour to share your Ladyship's patronage on, has occasioned the trouble I am now giving you. And though the description of your Ladyship's virtues should be the employment of an abler pen, I could not but rejoice in the opportunity of being the first who should acquaint the public with those excellencies which your Ladyship is so communicative of and yet so industrious in concealing.

To do good, Madam, is the property of several ladies. But to do good and be unwilling to hear of it, to give assistance and relief to those that are in distress and withhold the knowledge of their benefactress from them, is a character few persons of quality can lay the same claim to, as the countess of Burlington.

But I forget those virtues I was just now commending in your Ladyship and at the same time that I am telling the world of the reservedness of your temper, in your desires to have your worth concealed, I am committing a fault against it, by giving your Ladyship the knowledge that I am partaker of that secret, which it is your Ladyship's pleasure should have no sharer but yourself. I shall therefore, Madam, forbear doing any farther violence to your modesty and only beg your Ladyship's protection for a play which stands ranked amongst the unfortunate, and whose author will have all imaginable reason to rejoice for its want of success, could its misfortunes endear it to your Ladyship's compassionate reception.

Love is the lottery, Madam, which begs your acceptance; and your Ladyship that has drawn its chiefest prize, in the noble Lord, your Ladyship's most excellent husband, will make amends for the blanks which its author has drawn in it, by giving it the honour of your Ladyship's perusal. And though the judgment your Ladyship shall make of it, will not (I'm afraid) run counter with what has been already given, yet it will be enough to take off from its censure with the public, that it is read by a lady, whose very perusal is a recommendation to that of others and whose judgment has that accuracy in it, as to permit her to read nothing almost, but what deserves the employment of her leisure.

This, Madam, cannot but lead me into the notice of your excellent endowments and force me to speak of those acquisitions of mind, which are as uncommon to persons of your sex and quality, as they are particular to yourself.

To be skilled in history, Madam, to be an accomplished Lady and an excellent Christian, to be a pattern of behaviour at the court and an example of devotion at the church, is as much beyond my expression, as it is beyond other ladies’ imitation. I shall therefore have said all that my wonder will permit me and more than your modesty would willingly suffer, by concluding your character with the addition of that of an incomparable wife, an affectionate mother, an indulgent mistress and an unwearied benefactress, and I shall join with the prayers of your noble lord, the tenderest of husbands, the wishes of your children, the living instances of the best of mother's perfections, the desires of your servants and the entreaties of the many numbers which would not be living, but by your goodness, if I shall pray that your Ladyship may long continue to be the glory of this age, as you will be the admiration of the next.

But that I may not detain your Ladyship any longer from those obliging offices which are so little practised by others and so much by yourself, I shall only ask leave to subscribe,

Madam,

Your Ladyship's most humble and most obedient servant,

Joseph Harris.