ABSTRACT
The play was completed by July 1677 but not performed until late in the year. Milhous and Hume doubt the authenticity of the evidence for a performance on 12 December. It was D'. s last play for the King's Company at the Theatre Royal. It was dedicated to the Earl of Danby, and included a preface attacking the wits, particularly Rochester. For once may venture to do penance here: And since that plenteous autumn now is past, Whose grapes and peaches have indulged your taste, Take in good part from our poor poet's board Such rivelled fruits as winter can afford. Let Caesar's power the men's ambition move, But grace you him who lost the world for love. Poets, like disputants when reasons fail, have one sure refuge left, and that's to rail: 'Fop', 'coxcomb', 'fool' is thundered through the pit, and this is all their equipage of wit.
