and farther, in the same speech:

I've heard that guilty creatures at a play
Have, by the very cunning of the scene,
Been so struck to the soul, that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions.

Prodigious! yet strictly just. But I shall not take up your valuable time with my remarks: only give ne leave just to observe, that he seems so firmly Dersuaded of the power of a well-written piece to Produce the effect here ascribed to it, as to make lamlet venture his soul on the event, and rather Just that, than a messenger from the other world, hough it afsumed, as he exprefses it, his noble Faer's form, and afsured him, that it was his spirit. 'll have, says Hamlet, grounds more relative;

-the play's the thing,

Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

Such plays are the best answers to them who ieny the lawfulness of the stage.

Considering the novelty of this attempt, I thought would be expected from me to say something in excuse; and I was unwilling to lose the opportu ity of saying something of the usefulness of tragedy general, and what may be reasonably expected rom the farther improvement of this excellent kind I poetry.

SIR,

I hope you will not think I have said too much of a art, a mean specimen of which I am ambitious ough to recommend to your favour and protec

A mind, conscious of superior worth, as ach despises flattery, as it is above it. Had found in myself an inclination to so contemptible vice, I should not have chosen Sir JOHN EYLES r my patron. And indeed the best written paneric though strictly true, must place you in a list uch inferior to that in which you have long

fixed by the love and esteem of your fellow-citizens, whose choice of you for one of their representatives in parliament, has sufficiently declared their sense of your merit. Nor hath the knowledge of your worth been confined to the city: the proprietors in the South-Sea Company, in which are included numbers of persons as considerable for their rank, fortune, and understanding, as any in the kingdom, gave the greatest proof of their confidence in your capacity and probity, by choosing you Sub-Governor of their Company, at a time when their affairs were in the utmost confusion, and their properties in the greatest danger. Neither is the court insensible of your importance. I shall not therefore, attempt a character so well known, nor pretend to add any thing to a reputation so well established.

Whatever others may think of a Dedication, wherein there is so much said of other things, and so little of the person to whom it is addrefsed, I have reason to believe that you will the more easily pardon it upon that very account.

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient, humble servant,

GEORGE LILLO.

PROLOGUE.

THE tragic muse, sublime, delights to show
Princes distress'd, and scenes of royal woe;
In awful pomp, majestic to relate

The fall of nations, or some hero's fate;
That scepter'd chiefs may, by example, know
The strange vicifsitudes of things below;
What dangers on security attend;
How pride and cruelty in ruin end:
Hence Providence supreme, to know, and own
Humanity adds glory to a throne.

In ev'ry former age, and foreign tongue,
With native grandeur thus the goddess sung.
Upon our stage, indeed, with wish'd succefs,
You've sometimes seen her in an humbler drefs;
Great only in distress, when she complains
In Southern's, Rowe's, or Otway's moving strains,
The brilliant drops that fall from each bright eye,
The absent pomp, with brighter gems supply.
Forgive us, then, if we attempt to show,
In artless strains, a tale of private woe.

A London 'Prentice ruin'd is our theme,

Drawn from the fam'd old song that bears his name.
We hope your taste is not so high to scorn
A moral tale esteem'd ere you were born;
Which, for a century of rolling years,

Has fill'd a thousand thousand eyes with tears.
If thoughtless youth to warn, and shame the age
From vice destructive, well becomes the stage,
If this example innocence insure,

Prevent our guilt, or by reflection cure;

If Milwood's dreadful crimes, and sad despair,
Commend the virtue of the good and fair;
Though art be wanting, and our numbers fail,
Indulge th' attempt, in justice to the tale.

Vol. IX.

G

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

Thorowgood, a Merchant.
Barnwell, Uncle to George.

George Barnwell.

Trueman, Friend to Barnwell.

Blunt.

Gaoler.

Maria, Daughter to Thorowgood.
Millwood, Mistress to Barnwell.
Lucy, her Maid.

Officers with their Attendants, and Footmen.

SCENE, London, and an adjacent Village.

GEORGE BARNWELL.

ACT I.

SCENE I. A Room in Thorowgood's House. Enter THOROWGOOD and TRUEMAN. True. SIR, the packet from Genoa is arrived. [Gives Letters.

Thor. Heaven be prais'd! The storm that threatened our royal mistrefs, pure religion, liberty, and laws, is for a time diverted. The haughty and revengeful Spaniard, disappointed of the loan on which he depended from Genoa, must now attend the slow returns of wealth from his new world, to supply his empty coffers, ere he can execute his proposed invasion of our happy island. By this means, time is gained to make such preparations on our part, as may, Heaven concurring, prevent his malice, or turn the meditated mischief on himself.

True. He must be insensible indeed, who is not affected when the safety of his country is concerned. Sir, may I know by what means?If I am not too bold

Thor. Your curiosity is laudable; and I gratify it with the greater pleasure, because from thence you may learn, how honest merchants, as such, may sometimes contribute to the safety of their country, as they do at all times to its happiness; that if hereafter you should be tempted to any action that has the appearance of vice or meannefs in it, upon reflecting on the dignity of our profefsion, you may, with honest scorn, reject whatever is unworthy o it.