PHEDRA AND HIPPOLITUS, A TRAGEDY. To the Right Honourable CHARLES Lord HALIFAX. MY LORD, S foon as it was made known that your Lordship A was not difpleafed with this Play, my friends be gan to value themfelves upon the intereft they had taken in its fuccefs; I was touched with a vanity I had not before been acquainted with, and began to dream of nothing less than the immortality of my Work. And I had fufficiently fhewn this vanity in infcribing this Play to your Lordship, did I only confider you as one to whom fo many admirable pieces, to whom the praises of Italy, and the best Latin poem fince the Æneid, that on the peace of Ryfwick, are confecrated. But it had been intolerable prefumption to have addreffed it to you, my Lord, who are the niceft judge of poetry, were you not also the greatest encourager of it; to you who excel all the prefent age as a poet, did you not furpass all the preceding ones as a patron. For in the times when the Mufes were moft encouraged, the best writers were countenanced, but never advanced; they were admitted to the acquaintance of the greatest men, but that was all they were to expect. The bounty of the patron is no where to be read of but in the works of the Poets, whereas your Lordship's will fill those of the hiftorians. For what tranfactions can they write of, which have not been managed by fome who were recommended by your Lordship? 'Tis by your Lordship's means, that the universities have been real nurferies for the state; that the courts abroad are charmed by the wit and learning, as well as the fagacity, of our ministers; that Germany, Switzerland, Mufcovy, and even Turkey itfelf begins to relish the politeness of the English; that the poet's at home adorn that court which they formerly ufed only to divert; that abroad they travel, in a manner very unlike their predeceffor Homer, and with an equipage he could not bestow, even on the heroes he defigned to immortalize. And this, my Lord, fhews your knowledge of men as well as writings, and your judgment no less than your generofity. You have diftinguished between those who by their inclinations or abilities were qualified for the pleasure only, and those that were fit for the fervice of your country; you made the one eafy, and the other ufeful: you have left the one no occafion to wish for any preferment, and you have obliged the public by the promotion of the others. And now, my lord, it may feem odd that I should dwell dwell on the topic of your bounty only, when I might enlarge on fo many others; when I ought to take notice of that illuftrious family from which you are sprung and yet of the great merit which was neceffary to set you on a level with it, and to raise you to that house of Peers which was already filled with your relations. When I ought to confider the brightness of your wit in private converfation, and the folidity of your eloquence in public debates; when I ought to admire in you. the politeness of a courtier, and the fincerity of a friend; the openness of behaviour which charms all who addrefs themselves to you, and yet that hidden reserve which is neceffary for those great affairs in which you. are concerned. To pass over all these great qualities, my lord, and infilt only on your generofity, looks as if I folicited it for myself; but to that I quitted all manner of claim when I took notice of your lordship's great judgment in the choice of thofe you advance; fo that all at present my ambition aspires to is, that your lordship would be pleased to pardon this prefumption, and permit me to profefs myself with the moft profound refpect, Your lordship's most humble, and most obedient servant, EDM. SMITH. THE |