EPILOGUE TO MR. ROWE'S

JANE SHORE.

DESIGNED FOR MRS. OLDFIELD.

6

PRODIGIOUS this! the Frail-one of our Play
From her own Sex fhould mercy find to-day!
You might have held the pretty head afide,
Peep'd in your fans, been serious, thus, and cry'd,
The Play may pass-but that strange creature, Shore,
I can't-indeed now-I fo hate a whore-
Juft as a blockhead rubs his thoughtless fkull,
And thanks his ftars he was not born a fool;
So from a fifter finner you fhall hear,
"How ftrangely you expofe yourself, my dear?"
But let me die, all raillery apart,

Our sex are still forgiving at their heart ;
t;
And, did not wicked custom so contrive,
We'd be the best, good-natur'd things alive.
There are, 'tis true, who tell another tale,
That virtuous ladies envy while they rail;
Such rage without betrays the fire within
In fome close corner of the foul, they fin;
Still hoarding up, moft fcandalously nice,
Amidft their virtues a referve of vice.
The godly dame, who fleshly failings damns,

Scolds with her maid, or with her chaplain crams.

II

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20

Would you enjoy foft nights and folid dinners?
Faith, gallants, board with faints, and bed with finners.
Well, if our Author in the Wife offends,
He has a Husband that will make amends:

He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving,
And fure fuch kind good creatures may be living.

• In days of old, they pardon'd breach of vows,
Stern Cato's felf was no relentlefs spouse:

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30

Plu-Flutarch, what's his name, that writes his life?
Tells us, that Cato dearly lov'd his Wife:
Yet if a friend, a night or fo, should need her,
He'd recommend her as a special breeder.

To lend a Wife, few here would scruple make, 35
But, pray, which of you all would take her back?
Tho' with the Stoic Chief our stage may ring,
The Stoic Husband was the glorious thing.

The man had courage, was a fage, 'tis true,
And lov'd his country,-but what's that to you?
Those strange examples ne'er were made to fit ye,
But the kind cuckold might inftru&t the City :
There, many an honest man may copy Cato,
Who ne'er faw naked fword, or look'd in Plato.
If, after all, you think it a difgrace,
That Edward's Mifs thus perks it in your face;

39

45

To

NOTES.

VER. 44. Who ne'er faw] A fly and oblique ftroke on the fuicide of Cato; which was one of the reafons, as I have been informed, why this epilogue was not spoken. WARTON.

VER. 46. Edward's Mifs] Sir Thomas More fays, fhe had one accomplishment uncommon in a woman of that time; she could read and write.

WARTON.

To fee a piece of failing flesh and blood,

In all the rest so impudently good;

Faith, let the modeft Matrons of the town

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Come here in crouds, and ftare the ftrumpet down.

THOMSON, in his Epilogue to Tancred and Sigifmunda, feverely cenfures the flippancy and gaiety of modern Epilogues, as contrary to those impreffions intended to be left on the mind by a well-written Tragedy. The laft new part Mrs. Oldfield took in tragedy was in Thomson's Sophonisba; and it is recorded that the fpoke the following line,

Not one base word of Carthage for thy foul,

in fo powerful a manner, that Wilkes, to whom it was addressed, was aftonished and confounded. Mrs. Oldfield was admitted to vifit in the best families. George II. and Queen Caroline, when Princess of Wales, condefcended fometimes to converfe with her at their levees. And one day the Princess asked her, if she was married to General Churchill?" So it is faid, may it please your Highness, but we have not owned it yet." Her Lady Betty Modifh and Lady Townly have never yet been equalled. She was univerfally allowed to be well bred, fenfible, witty, and gene. She gave poor Savage an annual penfion of fifty pounds; and it is ftrange that Dr. Johnfon feems rather to approve of Savage's having never celebrated his benefactress in any of his poems. WARTON.

rous.