Gallants! look here, this fool's-cap has an air, Goodly and smart, with ears of Issachar. yours, now mine. Let no one fool engross it, or confine, Of course resign'd it to the next that writ :) PROLOGUE DESIGNED FOR MR. D'URFEY'S GROWN old in rhyme, 'twere barbarous to discard Damnation follows death in other men ; But your damn'd poet lives, and writes again. Thames Street gives cheeses, Covent Garden fruits, Moorfields old books, and Monmouth Street old suits. Compare Epistle to Augustus, v. 419. 1 "C. Johnson in the Prologue to his Sultaness thus referred to this exit and the farce : 'Some wags have been, who boldly durst To club a farce by Tripartite indenture, Which attack procured him a place in First published in the Miscellanies, 1727. 5 Tom D'Urfey was born about the middle of the seventeenth century, his parents being of French extraction. He was a highly popular writer of farces under Charles II., but fell into destitution in his old age. Through Addison's influence one of his comedies, "The Plotting Sisters," was revived and acted for his benefit, and it is probable that this is the play to which Pope here refers. The proceeds must have been considerable, as D'Urfey appears to have been in fairly easy circumstances at his death in 1723. Compare Pope's letter to Cromwell, of April 10, 1710. Be kind, and make him in his wishes easy, Who in your own despite has strove to please ye. You modern wits, should each man bring his claim, If all your debts to Greece and Rome were paid. Believe him, he has known the world too long, Let ease, his last request, be of your giving, A PROLOGUE TO A PLAY FOR MR. DENNIS'S WHEN HE WAS OLD, BLIND, AND IN GREAT DISTRESS, A LITTLE As when that hero, who in each campaign Lay fortune-struck, a spectacle of woe! How chang'd from him who made the boxes groan, The fine figure of the Commander in that capital picture of Belisarius, at Chiswick, supplied the poet with this beautiful idea.-WAR BURTON. 2 Compare Dunciad, ii. 226 and note. 3 Alluding to Dennis's hatred of 5 10 15 20 the French, the dragonnades of Louis XIV., and the wooden shoes worn by the French peasantry. Dennis acquired his hatred of every thing French during his travels in 1680. EPILOGUE TO MR. ROWE'S JANE SHORE.' 5 10 15 DESIGNED FOR MRS. OLDFIELD. PRODIGIOUS this! the frail-one of our play The play may pass-but that strange creature, Shore, Just as a blockhead rubs his thoughtless skull, So from a sister sinner you shall hear, "How strangely you expose yourself, my dear!" Our sex are still forgiving at their heart; There are, 'tis true, who tell another tale, The godly dame, who fleshly failings damns, Faith, gallants, board with saints, and bed with sinners. He has a husband that will make amends, And sure such kind good creatures may be living. 1 Acted in 1713. 30 35 In days of old, they pardon'd breach of vows, Plu-Plutarch, what's his name that writes his life? In all the rest so impudently good; Faith, let the modest matrons of the town Come here in crowds, and stare the strumpet down.' 1 This Epilogue is one of the last written in the style that became fashionable after the Restoration. The corrupt taste of that period found a desirable flavour in witty indecency, particularly when it proceeded from the mouth of a woman. A comparison of the Prologues and 45 50 Epilogues, written even for serious plays, under Charles II., with Pope's own Prologue to Cato and with Johnson's very fine Prologues, is interesting as showing the gradual triumph of good sense and good manners over brazen licentiousness. |