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Judgment ripened, he grew himself ashamed of this Piece, and contributed all he could to suppress the Edition, so that, it having but an indifferent Sale, very few of them are in any body's Hands at present. His next Performance was a Comedy, wrote at the Age of Eighteen, which he offered to the Managers of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields House, but, they not entirely approving it, he could not get it acted immediately, but not long after, it was altered by Mr. Christopher Bullock, one of the Managers, and brought upon the Stage as his own, under the Title of WOMAN'S A RIDDLE, without any Manner of Benefit or Advantage to the distressed Author: This Play was represented with some Applause in the Year 1716, the Plot is taken from a Spanish Play called, La Dama Duende, and was Dedicated to the then Marquis of Wharton.
Two Years after this he got a Comedy upon the Stage in Drury-Lane, called, LOVE IN A VEIL, built likewise on a Spanish Plot, which he Dedicated to the Right Honourable George Lord Lansdown. This Play was indeed acted for his own Benefit, but it being very late in the Year, either May or June, the Profits of it hardly answer'd the Trouble he was at in writing and getting it acted: It brought him acquainted however with some Persons who were good Friends to him afterwards, particularly a cer-tain
