Page:Osorio; a tragedy, as originally written in 1797 (IA cu31924105501831).pdf/198

 need of after-misrepresentation and calumny, as an additional sedative.

As an amusing anecdote, and in the wish to prepare future Authors, as young as I then was and as ignorant of the world, of the treatment they may meet with, I will add, that the person who by a twice conveyed recommendation (in the year 1797) had urged me to write a Tragedy: who on my own objection that I was utterly ignorant of all stage-tactics had promised that he would himself make the necessary alterations, if the piece should be at all representable; who together with the copy of the play (hastened by his means so as to prevent the full development of the characters) received a letter from the Author to this purport, "that conscious of his inexperience, he had cherished no expectations, and should therefore feel no disappointment from the rejection of the play; but that if beyond his hopes Mr. found in it any capability of being adapted to the stage, it was delivered to him as if it