THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES. A COMEDY, BY HUGH KELLY, ESQ. ADAPTED FOR THEATRICAL REPRESENTATION, AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRES-ROYAL, DRURY-LANE AND COVENT-GARDEN. REGULATED FROM THE PROMPT-BOOKS, The Lines distinguished by inverted Commas, are omitted in the Representation." LONDON: Printed for the Proprietors, under the Direction of MDCCXCII. Lo THE author of the following performance cannot commit it to the press, without acknowledging the deepest sense of gratitude, for the uncommon marks of approbation with which he has been honoured by the public. Though he has chosen a title used by MOLIERE, he has neither borrowed a single circumstance from that great poet, nor, to the best of his recollection, from any other writer. His chief study has been, to steer between the extremes of sentimental gloom, and the excesses of uninteresting levity; he has some laugh, yet he hopes he has also some lesson; and, as fashionable as it has been lately for the wits, even with his friend Mr. Garrick at their head, to ridicule the comic muse, when a little grave, he must think that she degenerates into farce, where the grand business of instruction is neglected; and consider it as a heresy in criticism to say, that one of the most arduous tasks within the reach of literature should, when executed, be wholly without utility. The author having been presumptuous enough to assert, that he has not purloined a single sprig of bays from the brow of any other writer, he may, perhaps, be asked, if there are not several plays in the English language, which, before his, produced generals, lawyers, Irishmen, duels, masquerades, and mistakes? He answers, yes; and confesses moreover, that all the comedies before his, were composed not only of men and |