文档介绍："SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER"
"SHE STOOPS TO
CONQUER"
by OLIVER GOLDSMITH
EDY.
1
"SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER"
To SAMUEL JOHNSON, .
Dear Sir,--By inscribing this slight performance to you, I do not mean
so much pliment you as myself. It may do me some honour to
inform the public, that I have lived many years in intimacy with you. It
may serve the interests of mankind also to inform them, that the greatest
wit may be found in a character, without impairing the most unaffected
piety.
I have, particularly, reason to thank you for your partiality to this
performance. The undertaking edy not merely sentimental was
very dangerous; and Mr. Colman, who saw this piece in its various stages,
always thought it so. However, I ventured to trust it to the public; and,
though it was necessarily delayed till late in the season, I have every
reason to be grateful.
I am, dear Sir, your most sincere friend and admirer,
OLIVER GOLDSMITH.
2
"SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER"
PROLOGUE
BY DAVID GARRICK, ESQ.
Enter MR. WOODWARD, dressed in black, and holding a
handkerchief to his eyes.
Excuse me, sirs, I pray--I can't yet speak-- I'm crying now--and have
been all the week. "'Tis not alone this mourning suit," good masters: "I've
that within"--for which there are no plasters! Pray, would you know the
reason why I'm crying? ic Muse, long sick, is now a-dying! And
if she goes, my tears will never stop; For as a player, I can't squeeze out
one drop: I am undone, that's all--shall lose my bread-- I'd rather, but that's
nothing--lose my head. When the sweet maid is laid upon the bier, Shuter
and I shall be chief mourners here. To her a mawkish drab of spurious
breed, Who deals in sentimentals, will eed! Poor Ned and I are dead
to all intents; We can as soon speak Greek as sentiments! Both nervous
grown, to keep our spirits up. We now and then take down a hearty cup.
What shall we do? edy forsake us, They'll turn us out, and no one
else will take us. But why can