"SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER" by OLIVER GOLDSMITH
SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER;
OR,
THE MISTAKES OF A NIGHT.
A COMEDY.
To SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
Dear Sir,--By inscribing this slight performance to you, I do not mean
so much to compliment you as myself. It may do me some honour to
inform the public, that I have lived many years in intimacy with you.
It may serve the interests of mankind also to inform them, that the
greatest wit may be found in a character, without impairing the most
unaffected piety.
I have, particularly, reason to thank you for your partiality to this
performance. The undertaking a comedy not merely sentimental was very
dangerous; and Mr. Colman, who saw this piece in its various stages,
always thought it so. However, I ventured to trust it to the public;
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