In this state it was delivered to the theatre, with a request, or rather entreaty, that all further alteration, deemed necessary, should be made by the acting manager, or any other person competent to the business: to this request he received the following official answer from Mr. Kemble:—“That the play would be acted faithfully from the copy sent to the theatre”; and it was accordingly acted, literally, from the manuscript delivered to the house. This conduct was, as the Editor believes, unprecedented in the management of a theatre; and must warrant him in concluding, that, in the judgment of the acting manager, the play wanted no aid or alteration.
Be these matters as they may, this Piece is laid before the public, with such interpolations by the Editor, as he presumes it was the duty of the acting manager to have made previous to its representation.
The lines printed within the inverted commas were not in the playhouse copy, and consequently were not spoken.
The Editor feels, and here begs leave to acknowledge, his obligations to his friend, William Linley, Esq., for his skill in composing the three songs in this Piece, in which he is universally allowed to have shown much taste and judgment; he likewise professes himself much indebted to Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Powell, for their very spirited exertions and excellent acting on this occasion; and could he, with truth or justice, make the smallest acknowledgment to Mr. Kemble, and his fellow tragedian, Mr. Phillimore, he has little doubt but that, whoever may have been the author of the piece, it might still have been received, and might have promoted the interests of the theatre.
Norfolk Street, Strand, 1799.
PROLOGUE
INTENDED FOR VORTIGERN.
WRITTEN BY JAMES HENRY PYE, ESQ. P.L.
The cause, with learn’d investigation fraught,
Behold, at length, to this tribunal brought: