Printed for BERNARD LINTOTT, at the _Cross-Keys_ between the Two _Temple-Gates_ in _Fleet-street_. * * * * * To The RIGHT HONOURABLE _JOHN_ Lord _SOMMERS_, Lord-President of Her HAJESTY's most Honourable Privy-Council. _May it please Your Lordship,_ As it's an Establish'd Custom in these latter Ages, for all Writers, particularly the Poetical, to shelter their Productions under the Protection of the most Distinguish'd, whose Approbation produces a kind of Inspiration, much superior to that which the _Heathenish_ Poets pretended to derive from their Fictitious _Apollo_: So it was my Ambition to Address one of my weak Performances to Your Lordship, who, by Universal Consent, are justly allow'd to be the best Judge of all kinds of Writing. I was indeed at first deterr'd from my Design, by a Thought that it might be accounted unpardonable Rudeness to obtrude a Trifle of this Nature to a Person, whose sublime Wisdom moderates that Council, which at this Critical Juncture, over-rules the Fate of all _Europe_. But then I was encourag'd by Reflecting, that _Lelius_ and _Scipio_, the two greatest Men in their Time, among the _Romans_, both for Political and Military Virtues, in the height of their important Affairs, thought the Perusal and Improving of _Terence_'s Comedies the noblest way of Unbinding their Minds. I own I were guilty of the highest Vanity, should I presume to put my Composures in Parallel with those of that Celebrated _Dramatist_. But then again, I hope that Your Lordship's native Goodness and Generosity, in Condescension to the Taste of the Best and Fairest part of the Town, who have been pleas'd to be diverted by the following SCENES, will excuse and overlook such Faults as your nicer Judgment might discern. And here, my Lord, the Occasion seems fair for me to engage in a Panegyrick upon those Natural and Acquired Abilities, which so brightly Adorn your Person: But I shall resist that Temptation, being conscious of the Inequality of a Female Pen to so Masculine an Attempt; and having no other Ambition, than to Subscribe my self, My Lord, Your Lordship's Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant, SUSANNA CENTLIVRE. PROLOGUE. By the Author of TUNBRIDGE-WALKS.