DRAMATIC WORKS WITH MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOR BY THOMAS DAVIES SECOND EDITION IMPROVED. VOLUME THE FIRST CONTAINING MR. LILLO'S LIFE SILVIA OR THE COUNTRY BURIAL, AN OPERA GEORGE BARNWELL, a traGEDY THE LIFE OF SCANDERBEG THE CHRISTIAN HERO, A TRAGEDY London PRINTED FOR W. LOWNDES, 38, BEDFORD STREET ΤΟ DAVID GARRICK, Esq. 'SIR, PERMIT me to claim your patronage for the works of George Lillo, an author whose dramatic scene's are rich in plain sense and strong passion, in truth of character and sound moral. The world is indebted to this writer for the invention of a new species of dramatic poetry, which may properly be termed the inferior or lesser tragedy. Otway, Southern and Rowe had indeed taught the Tragic Muse a softer tone, and had lowered the buskin, to adapt it to characters beneath the rank of Kings, and Demigods; but still the persons of their Dramas, though less illustrious, were of the noble and elevated order. Lillo formed his plots from private histories, and his characters seldom rose higher than the middle class of life. In justification of his attempt to make Tragedy of more general use, Lillo has observed, in the dedication to Barnwell, that this species of "Dramatic Poetry "is so far from losing its dignity by being accommo"dated to the circumstances of the generality of man |