Shakespeare.
Printed for J. Bew, No. 28, Paternoster-Row.
[Price Two Shillings and Six-Pence.]
MADAM,
I am rather apprehensive that you will rank me among the Impertinents ofthe Age, in giving a performance which treats professedly of theTriumphs of Folly, the Sanction of Your Grace. But tho', in the toogreat quickness of apprehension, this may be the case; I have not theleast doubt[Pg ii] but, in some succeeding moments of coolness and candour,you will accompany me through this Address; and not suffer a condemningspirit to pass a final sentence upon me, without giving some littleattention to my justification.
I need not tell Your Grace, that, in former times, every Family ofDistinction was considered as incomplete in its establishment, if it didnot possess a certain whimsical Character called a Fool; who waseither to afford amusement to his witty Master by the real singularityof his Humour,—or to act as a foil to his foolish Lord by well-timeddisplays of affected Folly.—These appendages to Greatness have longbeen laid aside.—Indeed, the present Age, which is remarkable for itsrefinements, has, in the general methods of forming the Great, blendedthe two Characters;—and it does not seldom happen, as Your Grace verywell knows, that a Modern Man of Fashion serves his Company both astheir Host and their Buffoon. I cannot therefore, in justice, beconsidered as guilty of any impropriety in addressing this work to YourGrace, as it relates to a Personage, who has heretofore possessed, as itwere, a domestic union with the Great, by furnishing, from among herChildren, the chief Wits of their noble Houses.
Tho' it has changed its appearance, the connection has not ceased tosubsist; and Folly, though she extends her influence over all ranks andprofessions, still seems more particularly attached to the higher Ordersof Life.
Folly loves the Toilette of a Woman of Fashion!—It is her Altar.—Theenormity of its expences,—the frivolousness, to say no worse, of itsconversation,—and the time which is lost in attending its duties, areso many offerings to her honour. The love of display is inherent in hernature:—every place of[Pg iii] public amusement is, more or less, herdelight;—but an Opera is her favourite entertainment.—There, she notonly presides, but triumphs.—There, Sense, Taste, and Reason, liebeneath her Feet.
As she is now become your intimate companion, I will not mortify YourGrace with the history of her origin, and an account of her genealogy,which I am sure would greatly distress you. Believe me, Madam, I shouldbe sorry to give you a moment's mortification. My sincere desire is todo you good, by warning you of the danger which awaits such adisgraceful connection.
At your time of life it is not wholly unnatural that you should findsomething pleasant in the frolic