



Produced by G. R. Young





"SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER"

by Oliver Goldsmith



She Stoops To Conquer; Or, The Mistakes Of A Night.

A Comedy.


To Samuel Johnson, LL.D.


Dear Sir,--By inscribing this slight performance to you, I do not mean
so much to compliment 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 a comedy 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.




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?
     The Comic 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,