PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES. PROLOGUE TO THE RIVAL LADIES. 'Tis much desir'd, you judges of the town 10 15 In this first charge, spend their poetic rage: 20 A SECOND PROLOGUE ENTERS. 2. Hold; would you admit For judges all you see within the pit? 1. Whom would he then except, or on what score? [made, 2. All who (like him) have writ ill plays before; For they, like thieves condemn'd, are hangmen To execute the members of their trade. All that are writing now he would disown, But then he must except-even all the town; All choleric, losing gamesters, who, in spite, Will damn to-day, because they lost last night; All servants, whom their mistress' scorn upbraids; All maudlin lovers, and all slighted maids; All, who are out of humour, or severe; All, that want wit, or hope to find it here. PROLOGUE TO THE INDIAN QUEEN. As the music plays a soft air, the curtain rises slowly, and discovers an Indian boy and girl sleeping under two plantain-trees; and, when the curtain is almost up, the music turns into a tune expressing an alarm, at which the boy awakes, and speaks: BOY. WAKE, wake, Quevira! our soft rest must And fly together with our country's peace! [cease, No more must we sleep under plantain shade, Which neither heat could pierce, nor cold invade; 5 Where bounteous nature never feels decay, As much as they can hope for by success?- Boy. By ancient prophecies we have been told, Our world shall be subdued by one more old ;And, see, that world already's hither come. QUE. If these be they, we welcome then our doom! Their looks are such, that mercy flows from thence, More gentle than our native innocence. Boy. Why should we then fear these, our eneThat rather seem to us like deities? [mies, QUE. By their protection, let us beg to live; They came not here to conquer, but forgive. If so, your goodness may your power express, And we shall judge both best by our success. EPILOGUE TO THE INDIAN QUEEN. SPOKEN BY MONTEZUMA. You see what shifts we are enforc'd to try, Shows may be found that never yet were seen, "Tis hard to find such wit as ne'er has been: You have seen all that this old world can do, At untaught nature with your practis'd wit: 'Tis a true voyage to the Indies lost: 9 15 But if you smile on all, then these designs, EPILOGUE TO THE INDIAN EMPEROR. To all and singular in this full meeting, 5 Ordains your judgment upon every cause, His censure farther than the song or dance. Phoebus gives them full privilege alone, their own. Last, for the ladies, 'tis Apollo's will, 20 They should have power to save, but not to kill: For love and he long since have thought it fit, Wit live by beauty, beauty reign by wit. PROLOGUE TO SIR MARTIN MARR-ALL. FOOLS, which each man meets in his dish each day, Are yet the great regalios of a play; In which to poets you but just appear, To prize that highest, which cost them so dear: Fops in the town more easily will pass; One story makes a statutable ass : But such in plays must be much thicker sown, Like yolks of eggs, a dozen beat to one. 5 |