PROLOGUE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. THE fam'd Italian Muse, whose Rhymes | Your Country Neighbours, when their Grain advance Orlando, and the Paladins of France, Records that, when our Wit and Sense is flown, 'Tis lodg'd within the Circle of the Moon In Earthen Jars, which one, who thither soar'd, Set to his Nose, snufft up, and was restor❜d. What e're the Story be, the Moral's true; The Wit we lost in Town we find in you. Our Poets their fled Parts may draw from hence, And fill their windy Heads with sober Sense. When London Votes with Southwark's disagree, II Here may they find their long-lost Loyalty, Here busie Senates, to th' old Cause inclin'd, May snuff the Votes their Fellows left behind: grows dear, May come, and find their last Provision here; Whereas we cannot much lament our Loss, Who neither carried back nor brought one Cross. We look'd what Representatives wou'd bring, But they help'd us, just as they did the King. And tho the first was Sacrific'd before, Is forced to turn his Satire into Praise. PROLOGUE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. DISCORD and Plots, which have undone our | And that which was a Capon's tayl before departed, And of our Sisters all the kinder-hearted To Edenborough gone, or coached or carted.. With bonny Blewcap there they act all night For Scotch half-crown, in English Threepence hight. One Nymph, to whom fat Sir John Falstaff's lean, 10 There with her single Person fills the Scene. Another, with long Use and Age decay'd, Div'd here old Woman, and rose there a Maid. Our trusty Door-keepers of former time There strut and swagger in Heroique Rhyme. Tack but a copper Lace to drugget Suit, And there's a Heroe made without Dispute; FIRST PROLOgue to the Univ. of OXFORD, 1681. Text from the Miscellanies of 1693. Becomes a plume for Indian emperor. 30 20 It might perhaps a new Rebellion bring; Teag has been here, and to this learned Pit 30 And had their Country stampt upon their Face. When Strollers durst presume to pick your purse, We humbly thought our broken Troop not worse. How ill soe'er our Action may deserve, Oxford's a place where Wit can never sterve. SECOND PROLOGUE, 1681. Text from the Mişcellanies of 1684. PROLOGUE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. Tuo' Actors cannot much of Learning Of all who want it, we admire it most: We speak our Poet's Wit, and trade in Like those who touch upon the Golden Betwixt our Judges can distinction make, Mark if the Fools, or Men of Sense, rejoice; IO The ready Finger lays on every Blot; Knows what shou'd justly please, and what shou'd not. 20 Nature her self lyes open to your view, You judge by her what draught of her is true, Where Out-lines false, and Colours seem too Where Bunglers dawb, and where true Poets But by the sacred Genius of this Place, Our Poets hither for Adoption come, PROLOGUE. TO THE UNHAPPY FAVOURITE. SPOKEN TO THE KING AND THE QUEEN AT THEIR COMING TO THE HOUSE. WHEN first the Ark was landed on the And Heav'n had vowed to curse the Ground ΙΟ Who bring the Olive, and who Plant it here. Must England still the Scene of Changes be,) Tost and Tempestuous like our Ambient Sea? Must still our Weather and our Wills agree?) Without our Blood our Liberties we 21 have; Who that is Free, would fight to be a Slave? Or what can Wars to after Times Assure, Of which our Present Age is not secure? All that our Monarch would for us Ordain Is but t' injoy the Blessings of his Reign. Our Land's an Eden and the Main's our Fence, While we preserve our State of Innocence : That lost, then Beasts their Bruital Force employ, And first their Lord and then themselves destroy. 30 What Civil Broils have cost we knew too well; Oh! let it be enough that once we fell, And every Heart conspire, with every Tongue, Still to havesuch a King,and this King Long. EPILOGUE TO THE UNHAPPY FAVOURITE, OR THE EARL OF ESSEX. WE act by Fits and Starts, like drowning | Confess the truth, which of you has not laid Men, Four Farthings out to buy the To the upper Gallery. Democritus his Wars with Heraclitus? These are the Authors that have run us PROLOGUE. TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS UPON HIS FIRST APPEARANCE AT THE DUKE'S THEATRE SINCE HIS RETURN FROM SCOTLAND. IN those cold Regions which no Summers | The friends of Job, who rail'd at him before, chear, Came Cap in hand when he had three times When brooding darkness covers half the year, But when the tedious Twilight wears away II White Foxes stay with seeming Innocence; That crafty kind with day-light can dispense. Still we are throng'd so full with Reynard's PROLOGUE TO THE DUCHESS ON HER RETURN FROM SCOTLAND. WHEN factious Rage to cruel Exile drove Like Eden's Face when banish'd Man it Love was no more when Loyalty was gone, PROLOGUE TO HIS ROYAL Highness, 1682. 2 When] Editors till Christie give Where 33 rack Editors till Christie give tack Love could no longer after Beauty stay, As if the Sun and he had lost their II But now the illustrious Nymph, return'd again, Brings every Grace triumphant in her Train: The wondering Nereids, though they rais'd no Storm, Foreslow'd her Passage to behold her Form; PROLOGUE TO THE DUCHESS, 1682. Text from the Miscellanies of 1693. Some cried a Venus, some a Thetis past, And Envy did but look on her, and died. The Famine past, the Plenty still to come. 31 PROLOGUE AND EPILOGUE TO THE LOYAL BROTHER, OR THE PERSIAN PRINCE. PROLOGUE. POETS, like Lawful Monarchs, rul'd the Till Criticks, like Damn'd Whiggs, debauch'd Mark how they jump; Criticks wou'd regulate Our Theatres, and Whiggs reform our State; The Critick humbly seems Advice to bring, The critick all our Troops of friends discards; Guards are illegal that drive foes away, prey. Kings who Disband such needless Aids as these Are safe--as long as e're their Subjects please; And that would be till next Queen Besses night, 20 Which thus grave penny Chroniclers indite. There's not a Butcher's Wife but Dribs her And pities the poor Pageant from her heart; And with a civil congee does retire: There's Antichrist behind, to pay for all. The Loyal BrothER, 1682. The play is by Like Thief and Parson in a Tiburn-Cart. Southern. |