With its passing Fielding's career as a dramatic author practically closed. In his dedication of the _Historical Register_ to "the Publick," he had spoken of his desire to beautify and enlarge his little theatre, and to procure a better company of actors; and he had added--"If Nature hath given me any Talents at ridiculing Vice and Imposture, I shall not be indolent, nor afraid of exerting them, while the Liberty of the Press and Stage subsists, that is to say, while we have any Liberty left among us." To all these projects the "Licensing Act" effectively put an end; and the only other plays from his pen which were produced subsequently to this date were the "Wedding Day," 1743, and the posthumous _Good- Natured Man_, 1779, both of which, as is plain from the Preface to the _Miscellanies_, were among his earliest attempts. In the little farce of _Miss Lucy in Town_, 1742, he had, he says, but "a very small Share." Besides these, there are three hasty and flimsy pieces which belong to the early part of 1737. The first of these, _Tumble-Down Dick_; or, _Phaeton in the Suds_, was a dramatic sketch in ridicule of the unmeaning Entertainments and Harlequinades of John Rich at Covent Garden. This was ironically dedicated to Rich, under his stage name of "John Lun," and from the dedication it appears that Rich had brought out an unsuccessful satire on _Pasquin_ called _Marforio_. The other two were _Eurydice_, a profane and pointless farce, afterwards printed by its author (in anticipation of Beaumarchais) "as it was d--mned at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane;" and a few detached scenes in which, under the title of _Eurydice Hiss'd; or, a Word to the Wise_, its untoward fate was attributed to the "frail Promise of uncertain Friends." But even in these careless and half-considered productions there are happy strokes; and one scarcely looks to find such nervous and sensible lines in a mere _a propos_ as these from _Eurydice Hiss'd_:-- "Yet grant it shou'd succeed, grant that by Chance, Or by the Whim and Madness of the Town, A Farce without Contrivance, without Sense Should run to the Astonishment of Mankind; Think how you will be read in After-times, When Friends are not, and the impartial Judge Shall with the meanest Scribbler rank your Name; Who would not rather wish a _Butler's_ fame, Distress'd, and poor in every thing but Merit, Than be the blundering Laureat to a Court?"