THE BRITISH DRAM A: A COLLECTION OF THE MOST ESTEEMED TRAGEDIES, COMEDIES, OPERAS, AND FARCES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. VOLUME I. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. M. POLOCK, 406 COMMERCE ST. INDEX TO THE FIRST VOLUME. TRAGEDIES. ARDEN of Feversham,illo Co. 615 She Stoops to Conquer Barbarossa, 196 The Beaux' Cato, Douglas, . 297 The Belle's Stratagem, PAGE PAGE A New Way to Pay Old Debts, 441 Conquer 393 791 532 156 The C Mis Crowley 730 586 16 681 170 . 630 Fatal Curiosity, Mo.Sale 5 The Country Girl, Gustavus Vasa, Netty Brook378 The Hypocrite, cisleft- Isabella, 1. Souther Oroonoko, | 219 The Inconstant, 77 The Jealous Wife, 567 The Man of the World, Chart & makhir. 49 South Percy, The Rivals 346 488 Ar loadly . 266 92 The Gamester, & 40 471 The The Mourning Bride, Congre 34 Ways and Means, FARCES. The Orphan, 424 Bon Ton ek 414 330 Fortune's Frolic, 313 Tancred and Sigismunda, Venice Preserved, Preserved y COMEDIES. A Bold Stroke for a Wife, Mm Cantlivre 69 FATAL CURIOSITY: A TRAGEDY, IN THREE ACTS. BY GEORGE LILLO. REMARKS. THE story of this piece is very simple and affecting, and is said to have been founded on a fact which happened on the western coast of England. The circumstance of a son, long absent from his parents, keeping himself, on his return to visit them, for some time unknown, is unforced; while at the same time their inducement, from the depth of distress and penury, to perpetrate his murder, for the sake of the treasures he had shown them, is productive of some very fine scenes of intermingled horror and tenderness. Mr. Lillo rendered the distresses of common and domestic life as interesting to the audience, as those of kings and heroes; and the ruin brought on private families by an indulgence of avarice, lust, &c. as the havoc made in states and empires by ambition, cruelty, cr tyranny. His George Barnwell, Fatal Curiosity, and Arden of Feversham, are all planned on common and well-known stories; yet they have always drawn tears from the audience, and even the critics have laid down their pens to take out the handkerchief. ACT I. Enjoys the sad prerogative above him, SCENE I.—A Room in OLD WILMOT's House. To think, and to be wretched.-What is life, Yet man, of jarring elements compos'd, To him that's born to die! or what that wisdom, Mere contradiction all! a tragic farce, Enter RANDAL. Where hast been, Randal? Ran. Not out of Penryn, Sir; but to the strand, To hear what news from Falmouth since the storm Who posts from change to change, from the first O. Wil. It was a dreadful one. hour Of his frail being till his dissolution, India A noble ship from |