THE

Pretty Gentleman;

OR,

SOFTNESS of MANNERS

VINDICATED

From the falfe RIDICULE exhibited under the Character of

WILLIAM FRIBBL E, Esq.

First Printed in the Year 1747.

ΤΟ

Mr. GARRICK.

SIR,

S in the Wantonnefs of your petulant Fancy, you have fallen upon a Sett of Gentlemen, who cannot poffibly have given you any perfonal Provocation; I have thought proper to prefix your Name to this their Defence, and call upon you thus publickly to justify your Behaviour, if it be poffible. But furely, Sir, it must have been a fecret Admiration of their Elegant and Refined Manners, that called forth your Spleen, to turn into Ridicule thofe foft Accomplishments you defpaired to equal; and as a Comic Writer did by the Divine Socrates, mimic and burlesque upon the Stage what you had not the Face to imitate in real Life. But your Wit was as impotent as your Malice was strong. Your Farce was no fooner feen, than it was laughed at; you know, Sir, it was laughed at; moft prodigiously laughed at: A plain proof, that it was judged to be ridiculous,

very

Believe me, Sir, you have fallen moft miferably fhort in your Attempt. And how should it be otherwife? You pretend to exhibit a Reprefentation of The Pretty Gentleman, who are by no means an Adept in the Character! You! that are an entire Stranger to those fine Senfations, which are requifite to give a thorough Notion, and true Relifh of the Enjoyments it affords! How fhould you paint what Nature has not given you Faculties to feel? As far as She leads you by the Hand, you may, perhaps, fucceed: But to leave her behind, and tread thofe fecret Paths to which her Guidance never points; This, Mr. Garrick, This is far beyond the Power of your limited Genius.

So wishing you more fortunate in your next Effay, and wife enough never to expose yourfelf again to Derifion, by endeavouring to laugh out of Countenance a Character, which all fenfible Men look upon with Admiration and Aftonishment, I take leave to fubscribe myfelf, as much as I ought to be,

SIR,

Your Humble Servant,

PHILAUTUS

THE

Pretty Gentleman, &c.

T

HE Theatre is faid to be the proper School, for correcting the little Irregularities and Foibles of Mankind; and no Method is held more likely to check the Growth of Folly, than to bring it to full View in Scenes of humorous Reprefentation. But then the Comic Writer fhould be certain, that what he endeavoured to expofe, be really an Object of Ridicule; otherwise he not only offends against the Rules of the Drama, but the Precepts of Virtue.

I am led into thefe Reflections, by a late Performance exhibited on our Stage, wherein the Author attempts to laugh out of Countenance that mollifying Elegance which manifefts itself with fuch a bewitching Grace, in the refined Youths of this cultivated Age. It is in Defence of these injured Gentlemen that I have taken up my Pen; and how well qualified I am to execute fuch an Undertaking, the Reader will be convinced, if he has but Patience to peruse carefully the following Sheets.