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 dis-
agree,
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 be-
hind:

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.
Yet we despair not; for we now lay forth 21
The Sybill's Books to those who know their
Worth;

And tho the first was Sacrific'd before,
These Volumes doubly will the price restore.
Our Poet bade us hope this Grace to find,
To whom by long Prescription you are kind.
Ile, whose undaunted Muse with Loyal Rage
Ilas never spar'd the Vices of the Age,
Ilere finding nothing that his Spleen can raise,

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
Age,

With the same ruine have o'erwhelmed the
Stage.

Our House has suffered in the common Woe,
We have been troubled with Scotch Rebels
too.

Our brethren are from Thames to Tweed)

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 Three-
pence 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.
But all his Subjects, to express the Care
Of Imitation, go, like Indians, bare ;
Lac'd Linen there would be a dangerous
Thing;

30

20

It might perhaps a new Rebellion bring;
The Scot who wore it wou'd be chosen King.
But why should I these Renegades describe,
When you yourselves have seen a lewder
Tribe ?

Teag has been here, and to this learned Pit
With Irish Action slandered English Wit;
You have beheld such barbarous Macs appear
As merited a second Massacre;
Such as like Cain were branded with Dis-
grace,

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
boast,

Of all who want it, we admire it most:
We love the Praises of a learned Pit,
As we remotely are ally'd to Wit.

We speak our Poet's Wit, and trade in
Ore,

Like those who touch upon the Golden
Shore;

Betwixt our Judges can distinction make,
Discern how much and why our Poems
take;

Mark if the Fools, or Men of Sense, rejoice;
Whether th' Applause be only Sound or
Voice.

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
faint,

Where Bunglers dawb, and where true Poets
Paint.

But by the sacred Genius of this Place,
By every Muse, by each Domestick Grace,
Be kind to Wit, which but endeavours well,
And, where you judge, presumes not to
excel.

Our Poets hither for Adoption come,
As Nations su'd to be made free of Rome: 30
Not in the suffragating Tribes to stand,
But in your utmost, last, Provincial Band.
If his Ambition may those Hopes pursue,
Who with Religion loves your Arts and you,
Oxford to him a dearer Name shall be,
Than his own Mother University.
Thebes did his green unknowing Youth in-

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
Shore,

And Heav'n had vowed to curse the Ground

ΙΟ

Who bring the Olive, and who Plant it here.
We have before our Eyes the Royal Dove,
Still Innocence is Harbinger to Love.
The Ark is open'd to dismiss the Train,
And people with a better Race the Plain.
Tell me, you Pow'rs, why should vain Mant

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,

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,
To hollow Caves the shivering Natives go,
Bears range abroad and hunt in tracks of
Snow;

But when the tedious Twilight wears away
And Stars grow paler at the approach of Day,
The longing crowds to frozen Mountains run,
Happy who first can see the glimmering Sun;
The surly Salvage Off-spring disappear;
And curse the bright Successor of the Year.
Yet though rough Bears in covert seek
defence,

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
The Queen of Beauty, and the Court of Love,
The Muses droop'd with their forsaken Arts,
And the sad Cupids broke their useless Darts.
Our fruitful Plains to Wilds and Deserts
turn'd,

Like Eden's Face when banish'd Man it
mourned:

Love was no more when Loyalty was gone,
The great Supporter of his awful Throne.

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,
But wander'd northward to the Verge of
Day,

As if the Sun and he had lost their
Way.

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,
But this was not so fair nor that so chaste.
Far from her Sight flew Faction, Strife, and
Pride,

And Envy did but look on her, and died.
Whate'er we suffer'd from our sullen Fate, 20
Her Sight is purchased at an easy rate :
Threegloomy Years against this Day were set,
But this one mighty Sum has clear'd the debt.
Like Joseph's Dream, but with a better
Doom;

The Famine past, the Plenty still to come.
For her the weeping Heavens become serene,
For her the Ground is clad in cheerful green,
For her the Nightingales are taught to sing,
And Nature has for her delay'd the Spring.
The Muse resumes her long-forgotten Lays,
And Love, restor'd, his ancient Realm sur-
veys,

31

PROLOGUE AND EPILOGUE TO THE LOYAL BROTHER, OR THE PERSIAN PRINCE.

PROLOGUE.

POETS, like Lawful Monarchs, rul'd the
Stage,

Till Criticks, like Damn'd Whiggs, debauch'd
our Age.

Mark how they jump; Criticks wou'd regulate

Our Theatres, and Whiggs reform our State;
Both pretend love, and both (Plague rot
'em) hate.

The Critick humbly seems Advice to bring,
The fawning Whigg Petitions to the King;
But ones Advice into a Satyr slides,
T'other's Petition a Remonstrance hides.
These will no Taxes give, and those no
Pence;
10
Criticks wou'd starve the Poet, Whiggs the
Prince.

The critick all our Troops of friends discards;
Just so the Whigg wou'd fain pull down the
Guards.

Guards are illegal that drive foes away,
As watchful Shepherds that fright beasts of

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.
Sir Edmond-berry first, in woful wise
Leads up the show, and Milks their Maudlin
Eyes.

There's not a Butcher's Wife but Dribs her
part,

And pities the poor Pageant from her heart;
Who, to provoke Revenge, rides round the
Fire,

And with a civil congee does retire:
But guiltless blood to ground must never
fall:

There's Antichrist behind, to pay for all.
The Punk of Babylon in Pomp appears,
A lewd Old Gentleman of seventy years;
Whose Age in vain our Mercy wou'd implore,
For few take Pity on an Old-cast Whore. 31
The Devil, who brought him to the shame,
takes part;

The Loyal BrothER, 1682. The play is by Like Thief and Parson in a Tiburn-Cart.
Sits cheek by jowl in black to chear his heart,

Southern.