The Bores | Page 3

most expos'd to these Insults.
For however usual and convenient this may be to a Writer, it must be
confess'd, MY LORD, it may be some degree of Persecution to a
_Patron_; Dedicators, as _Molière_ observes, being a Species of
_Impertinents_, troublesome enough. Yet the Translator of this Piece
hopes he may be rank'd among the more tolerable ones, in presuming to
inscribe to Your LORDSHIP the _Facheux of Molière_ done into
_English_; assuring himself that Your LORDSHIP will not think any
thing this Author has writ unworthy of your Patronage; nor discourage
even a weaker Attempt to make him more generally read and
understood.
Your LORDSHIP is well known, as an absolute Master, and generous
Patron of Polite Letters; of those Works especially which discover a
Moral, as well as Genius; and by a delicate Raillery laugh men out of
their Follies and Vices: could the Translator, therefore, of this Piece
come anything near the Original, it were assured of your Acceptance.
He will not dare to arrogate any thing to himself on this Head, before
so good a Judge as Your LORDSHIP: He hopes, however, it will
appear that, where he seems too superstitious a Follower of his Author,
'twas not because he could not have taken more Latitude, and have
given more Spirit; but to answer what he thinks the most essential part
of a Translator, to lead the less knowing to the Letter; and after better
Acquaintance, Genius will bring them to the Spirit.
The Translator knows your LORDSHIP, and Himself too well to
attempt Your Character, even though he should think this a proper
occasion: The Scholar--the Genius--the Statesman--the Patriot--the

Man of Honour and Humanity.--Were a Piece finish'd from these
Out-lines, the whole World would agree in giving it Your LORDSHIP.
But that requires a Hand--the Person, who presents This, thinks it
sufficient to be indulg'd the Honour of subscribing himself
My LORD, _Your Lordship's most devoted, most obedient, humble
servant,_
THE TRANSLATOR.
Thomas Shadwell, whom Dryden flagellates in his _Mac-Flecknoe_,
and in the second part of _Absalom and Achitophel_, and whom Pope
mentions in his _Dunciad_, wrote _The Sullen Lovers, or the
Impertinents_, which was first performed in 1668 at the Duke of York's
Theatre, by their Majesties' Servants.
This play is a working up of The Bores and _The Misanthrope_, with
two scenes from _The Forced Marriage_, and a reminiscence from
_The Love-Tiff_. It is dedicated to the "Thrice Noble, High and
Puissant Prince William, Duke, Marquis, and Earl of Newcastle,"
because all Men, who pretend either to Sword or Pen, ought "to shelter
themselves under Your Grace's Protection." Another reason Shadwell
gives for this dedication is in order "to rescue this (play) from the
bloody Hands of the Criticks, who will not dare to use it roughly, when
they see Your Grace's Name in the beginning." He also states, that "the
first Hint I received was from the Report of a Play of Molière's of three
Acts, called _Les Fascheux_, upon which I wrote a great part of this
before I read that." He borrowed, after reading it, the first scene in the
second act, and Molière's story of Piquet, which he translated into
Backgammon, and says, "that he who makes a common practice of
stealing other men's wit, would if he could with the same safety, steal
anything else." Shadwell mentions, however, nothing of borrowing
from The Misanthrope and The Forced Marriage. The preface was,
besides political difference, the chief cause of the quarrel between
Shadwell and Dryden; for in it the former defends Ben Jonson against
the latter, and mentions that--"I have known some of late so insolent to
say that Ben Jonson wrote his best playes without wit, imagining that

all the wit playes consisted in bringing two persons upon the stage to
break jest, and to bob one another, which they call repartie." The
original edition of The Sullen Lovers is partly in blank verse; but, in the
first collected edition of Shadwell's works, published by his son in 1720,
it is printed in prose. Stanford, "a morose, melancholy man, tormented
beyond measure with the impertinence of people, and resolved to leave
the world to be quit of them" is a combination of Alceste in _The
Misanthrope_, and Éraste in _The Bores_; Lovel, "an airy young
gentleman, friend to Stanford, one that is pleased with, and laughs at,
the impertinents; and that which is the other's torment, is his
recreation," is Philinte of _The Misanthrope_; Emilia and Carolina
appear to be Célimène and Eliante; whilst Lady Vaine is an
exaggerated Arsinoé of the same play. Sir Positive At-all, "a foolish
knight that pretends to understand everything in the world, and will
suffer no man to understand anything in his Company, so foolishly
positive, that he will never be convinced of