Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net [Illustration: PAINTED BY SINGLETON. PUBLISHED BY LONGMAN AND CO. ENGRAVED BY FITTLER. LADY AMARANTH. -- AH, THOU SLY AND DECEITFUL HYPOCRITE!] WILD OATS; OR, THE STROLLING GENTLEMEN; A COMEDY, IN FIVE ACTS; AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN. BY JOHN O'KEEFFE, ESQ. PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS FROM THE PROMPT BOOK. WITH REMARKS BY MRS. INCHBALD. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER ROW. SAVAGE AND EASINGWOOD, PRINTERS, LONDON. REMARKS. With a double respect for talents, and for misfortune, these remarks are begun. The present comedy is written by O'Keeffe, who saw not the traces of his pen as he marked the paper; whose days pass away, uncheered by the sun or any visible object; but whose mind supports with resignation his bitter calamity, and is enlightened by imagination, whilst his eyes are shut in utter darkness. Were each close imitator of an author's style punishable by law, like the perpetrator of other wrongs, Mr. O'Keeffe might have been an independent, though not a happy man; for that source of a new kind of mirth, termed by some exquisite nonsense, of which he was the first discoverer, made the town so merry, that, like good wine, he might have sold it at any price; but this rich juice of hilarity, polluted by the false spirit of imitation, at length gave a stupor to those, whom the beverage had before revived; and the pure and the adulterated became distasteful together. This comedy is the only attempt of the author to produce a drama above opera and farce. His productions, in the latter species of writing, are perfect compositions: nothing of the kind can be superior to his "Agreeable Surprise," and his "Son-in-Law." He has a number of other farces of little less attraction; such as "Peeping Tom."--Another class after that, and each possessing infinite fancy, whim, and novelty. Still success did not follow all his productions: a few years past he wrote very frequently, and sometimes too hastily.