THE PROVOKED HUSBAND; OR, A JOURNEY TO LONDON; A COMEDY, IN FIVE ACTS; BY SIR J. VANBRUGH, AND C. CIBBER, Esq. AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRES ROYAL, DRURY LANE AND COVENT GARDEN. PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS FROM THE PROMPT BOOK. WITH REMARKS BY MRS. INCHBALD. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, REMARKS. The artist, who raised the famed structure at Blenheim, laid the foundation of this play. He died in the midst of his labour, and the dramatic edifice was erected by another. Sir John Vanbrugh, celebrated as an architect, and no less so as a dramatist, was descended from an ancient family in Cheshire, and born about the middle of the reign of King Charles the Second. He was a man of wit, yet a man of business; and without suffering any one of the many talents which he possessed to destroy the other, he made the most of every gift which Providence had bestowed on him, and left an example to poets-that affluence and the muses may dwell in the same habitation, provided the door is not shut against prudence and industry. Sir John, with all his wisdom and discretion, had still, in the decline of his life, some past deeds of which he repented; and that his contrition was sincere, his amendment appears to have given ample proof -his regret was, that he had ever written a licentious play; and he began to write this moral drama, "The Provoked Husband," in atonement for his former le vity. Heaven, it is hoped, accepted his good intention, though it forbade the completion of his pious desire. Colley Cibber, the author, actor, and manager, who finished this work, which the deceased Vanbrugh had commenced, has given an account of the above laudable design, which was communicated to him by the author, some little time previous to his death; when Cibber waited upon him to inquire åfter the progress he had made in composing his new comedy, which, as the manager of the theatre, he was impatient to have in his possession. Cibber relates, that Sir John had even carried his conscientious scruples so far, that he did not mean his gay, dissipated, woman of fashion should be pardoned at the end of the play; but that she should be repudiated by her husband, and all her honourable friends, as a proper warning to the unthinking wives of that inconsiderate period. Whether Vanbrugh had perceived any symptoms of approaching dissolution when he planned this catastrophe, is not said-but Colley Cibber, in perfect health and spirits when the departed author's manuscript was laid before him, felt more compassion for female frailty, and less zeal for the conversion of the female world, than to give such a severe example as the original author had intended, to the splendid rows of his side boxes. Cibber, to his honour, preserved Vanbrugh's moral, yet complied with his own feelings and taste.-By this artful lenity, the cause of morality was, perhaps, |