Page:Poetical Works of the Right Hon. Geo. Granville.djvu/22

x to believe me always, with the utmoſt duty and ſubmiſſion, Yours,” &c.

We are not told whether his father yielded to his importunity, or whether he was preſented to his Majeſty; but if he really joined the army, it was without danger to his perſon, for the Revolution was effected in England without one drop of blood.

In 1696 his comedy called The She Gallants was acted at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln’s-Inn Fields. He afterwards altered this comedy, and publiſhed it among his other Works, under the title of Once a Lover and Always a Lover, which, as he obſerves in the preface, is a new building upon an old foundation.

“It appeared firſt under the name of The She Gallants, and, by the preface then prefixed to it, in ſaid to have been the child of a child. By taking it ſince under examination ſo many years after, the Author ftatters himſelf to have made a correct comedy of it; he found it regular to his hand; the ſcene conſtant to one place, the time not exceeding the bounds preſcribed, and the action entire. It remained only to clear the ground, and to plant, as it were, freſh flowers in the room of thoſe which were grown into weeds, or were faded by time; to retouch and vary the characters, enliven the painting, retrench the ſuperfluous, and animate the action, where it appeared the young Author ſeemed to aim at more than he had ſtrength to perform.”