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PLAYS,
WRITTEN BY
Sir John Vanbrugh.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
Volume the First.
CONTAINING,
- The Relapse; Or, Virtue in Danger.
- The Provok'd Wife, with a new Scene.
- Æsop, in two Parts.
- The False Friend.
LONDON:
Printed for J. Rivington, T. Longman,T. Lowndes, S. Caslon, C. Corbett,S. Bladon, W. Nicoll, T. Evans,and M. Waller.
MDCCLXXVI.
AN
ACCOUNT
OF THE
LIFE and WRITINGS
OF THE
AUTHOR.
Sir John Vanbrugh, an eminent dramaticWriter, Son of Mr. Giles Vanbrugh, ofLondon, Merchant, was born in the Parish ofSt. Stephen's, Wallbrook, in 1666. The Familyof Vanbrugh were for many Years Merchantsof great Credit and Reputation, atAntwerp, and came into England in the reignof Queen Elizabeth, on account of the Persecutionfor Religion.
Sir John received a very liberal Education,and at the Age of nineteen, was sent by hisFather to France, where he continued some[Pg 4]Years: He became very eminent for hisPoetry, to which he discovered an early propension.And, pity it is, that this agreeableWriter had not discovered his Wit, withoutany Mixture of that Licentiousness, which,tho' it pleased, tended to corrupt the Audience.
The Relapse was the first Play our Authorproduced, but not the first he had written;for he had at that Time by him, all the Scenesof The Provok'd Wife; but being then doubtfulwhether he should ever trust it to theStage, he flung it by, and thought no moreof it: Why the last written Play was first acted,and for what Reason they were given to differentStages, what follows will explain.
Upon our Author's first Step into publicLife, when he was but an Ensign in theArmy, and had a Heart greatly above hisIncome, he happened somewhere at his WinterQuarters, upon a slender Acquaintancewith Sir Thomas Skipwith, to receive a particularObligation from him; and many Yearsafterwards, when Sir Thomas's Interest in aTheatrical Patent (which he had a largeShare in, though he little concerned himselfin the Conduct of it) was rising but veryslowly, Sir John thought that to give it a liftby a new Comedy, might be the handsomest[Pg 5]Re