playwright,
naively announcing:

"To attempt any thing in Vindication of the following Scenes, wou'd
cost me more Time than the Composing 'em took me up...

"This Tragedy was originally writ by Capt. Hurst, and by him deliver'd
to Mr. Rich, to be acted soon after the opening of the New House;[10]
but the Season being a little too far elaps'd for the bringing it on
then, and the Author oblig'd to leave the Kingdom, Mr. Rich became the
Purchaser of it, and the Winter following order'd it into Rehearsal:
but found it so unfit for Representation, that for a long time he laid
aside all thoughts of making any thing of it, till last January he
gave me the History of his Bargain, and made me some Proposals
concerning the new modelling it: but however I was prevail'd upon, I
cannot say my Inclination had much share in my Consent.... On Reading,
I found I had much more to do than I expected; every Character I was
oblig'd to find employment for, introduce one entirely new, without
which it had been impossible to have guessed at the Design of the
Play; and in fine, change the Diction so wholly, that, excepting in
the Parts of Alphonso and Isabella, there remains not twenty lines of
the Original."

The plot, which is too involved to be analyzed, centers about the
efforts of Alphonso to redeem his beloved Isabella from, the harem of
the Vizier Mustapha. Spaniards, Turks, keepers and inhabitants of the
harem, and a "young lady disguis'd in the habit of an Eunuch," mingle in
inextricable intrigue. Some of the worst absurdities and the most
bathetic lines occur in the parts of the two lovers for which Mrs.
Haywood disclaims responsibility, but even the best passages of the play
add nothing to the credit of the reviser. Her next dramatic venture was
produced after her novels had gained some vogue with the town, as the
Prologue spoken by Mr. Theophilus Cibber indicates.

"Criticks! be dumb tonight--no Skill display;
A dangerous Woman-Poet wrote the Play: ...
Measure her Force, by her known Novels, writ
With manly Vigour, and with Woman's wit.
Then tremble, and depend, if ye beset her,
She, who can talk so well, may act yet better."

The fair success achieved by "A Wife to be Lett: A Comedy," acted at
Drury Lane three times, commencing 12 August, 1723,[11] is said to have
been due largely to the curiosity of the public to see the author, who
by reason of the indisposition of an actress