I cannot yet take leave of the reader, without endeavouring to do justice to those principal actors, who have so evidently contributed to the support of this comedy: And I wish I could separate the praises due to them from the secret vanity of an author: For all I can say will still insinuate, that they could not have so highly excelled, unless the skill of the writer had given them proper occasion. However, as I had rather appear vain, than unthankful, I will venture to say of Mr. _Wilks_, that in the last act, I never saw any passion take so natural a possession of an actor, or any actor take so tender a possession of his auditors----Mr. _Mills_ too, is confess'd by every body, to have surprised them, by so far excelling himself----But there is no doing right to Mrs. _Oldfield_, without putting people in mind of what others, of great merit, have wanted to come near her----'Tis not enough to say, she _Here Out-did_ her usual _Excellence_. I might therefore justly leave her to the constant admiration of those spectators, who have the pleasure of living while she is an actress. But as this is not the only time she has been the life of what I have given the public, so perhaps my saying a little more of so memorable an actress, may give this play a chance to be read, when the people of this age shall be ancestors----May it therefore give emulation to our successors of the stage, to know, That to the ending of the year 1727, a cotemporary comedian relates, that Mrs. _Oldfield_ was, then, in her highest excellence of action, happy in all the rearly-found requisites, that meet in one person to complete them for the stage----She was in stature just rising to that height, where the _graceful_ can only begin to shew itself; of a lively aspect and a command in her mein, that like the principal figure in the finest paintings, first seizes, and longest delights the eye of the spectators. Her voice was sweet, strong, piercing, and melodious: her pronunciation voluble, distinct, and musical; and her emphasis always placed where the spirit of the sense, in her periods, only demanded it. If she delighted more in the Higher Comic, than in the Tragic strain, 'twas because the last is too often written in a lofty disregard of nature. But in characters of modern practised life, she found occasions to add the particular air and manner which distinguished the different humours she presented. Whereas in tragedy, the manner of speaking varies, as little as the blank verse it is written in----She had one peculiar happiness from nature, she looked and maintained the _agreeable_, at a time when other fine women only raise admirers by their understanding----The spectator was always as much informed by her eyes as her elocution; for the look is the only proof that an actor rightly conceives what he utters, there being scare an instance, where the eyes do their part, that the elocution is known to be faulty. The qualities she had _acquired_ were the _genteel_