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Let them be firft to flatter in fuccefs;

Duty can stay, but guilt has need to prefs;
Once, when true zeal the fons of God did call,
To make their folemn fhew at Heaven's Whitehall,
The fawning devil appear'd among the rest,
And made as good a courtier as the best.

The friends of Job, who rail'd at him before,
Came cap in hand when he had three times more.
Yet late repentance may, perhaps, be true;
Kings can forgive, if rebels can but fuc :
A tyrant's power in rigour is exprest;

The father yearns in the true prince's breast.

We grant, an o'ergrown Whig no grace can mend;
But most are babes, that know not they offend.
The croud, to restless motion still inclin'd,

Are clouds, that tack according to the wind.
Driven by their chiefs they ftorms of hailstones pour ;
Then mourn, and foften to a filent fhower.

O welcome to this much-offending land,

The prince that brings forgiveness in his hand!
Thus angels on glad messages appear :

Their firft falute commands us not to fear:
Thus heaven, that could constrain us to obey,
(With reverence if we might prefume to say)
Seems to relax the rights of sovereign sway :
Permits to man the choice of good and ill,
And makes us happy by our own free-will.

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XV.

PROLOGUE to the EARL of ESSEX.

[By Mr. J. BANK S, 1682.]

Spoken to the King and Queen at their coming to the Houfe.

HEN firft the ark was landed on the fhore,

WHEN

And heaven had vow'd to curfe the ground no

more;

When tops of hills the longing patriarch faw,
And the new scene of earth began to draw;
The dove was fent to view the waves decreafe,
And firft brought back to man the pledge of peace.
"Tis needless to apply, when those appear,

Who bring the olive, and who plant it here.
We have before our eyes the royal dove,

Still innocent as harbinger of love :
The ark is open'd to difmifs the train,

And people with a better race the plain.

Tell me, ye powers, why should vain man pursue,
With endless toil, each object that is new,
And for the feeming fubftance leave the true?
Why should he quit for hopes his certain good,
And loath the manna of his daily food?
Muft England fill the scene of changes be,
Toft and tempeftuous, like our ambient sea ?
Muft ftill our weather and our wills agree?
Without our blood our liberties we have:
Who that is free would fight to be a flave?

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Or,

Or, what can wars to after-times affure,
Of which our present age is not secure ?
All that our monarch would for us ordain,
Is but t'enjoy the bleffings of his reign.
Our land's an Eden, and the main's our fence,
While we preserve our state of innocence :
That loft, then beasts their brutal force employ,
And first their lord, and then themselves destroy.
What civil broils have coft, we know too well;
Oh! let it be enough that once we fell!
And every heart confpire, and every tongue,
Still to have fuch a king, and this king long.

XVI.

An EPILOGUE for the King's House.

WE

E act by fits and starts, like drowning men, But just peep up, and then pop down again. Let those who call us wicked change their sense; For never men liv'd more on Providence.

Not lottery cavaliers are half fo poor,

Nor broken cits, nor a vacation whore.
Not courts, nor courtiers living on the rents
Of the three laft ungiving parliaments :
So wretched, that, if Pharaoh could divine,
He night have fpar'd his dream of feven lean kine,
And chang'd his vifion for the Mufes nine.
The comet, that, they fay, portends a dearth,
Was bnt a vapour drawn from play-houfe earth:
R 4

}

Pent

Pent there fince our last fire, and, Lilly fays,
Forefhews our change of state, and thin third-days.
'Tis not our want of wit that keeps us poor;
For then the printer's prefs would fuffer more.
Their pamphleteers each day their venom spit ;
They thrive by treason, and we starve by wit.
Confefs the truth, which of you has not laid
Four farthings out to buy the Hatfield maid ?
Or, which is duller yet, and more would spite us,
Democritus's wars with Heraclitus ?

Such are the authors, who have run us down,
And exercis'd you critics of the town.

Yet these are pearls to your lampooning rhymes,
Y' abuse yourselves more dully than the times.
Scandal, the glory of the English nation,
Is worn to rags, and fcribbled out of fashion.
Such harmless thrufts, as if, like fencers wife,
They had agreed their play before their prize.
Faith, they may hang their harps upon the willows;
'Tis juft like children when they box with pillows.
Then put an end to civil wars for fhame;
Let each knight-errant, who has wrong'd a dame,
Throw down his pen, and give her, as he can,
The fatisfaction of a gentleman.

XVII. PROLOGUE

XVII.

PROLOGUE to the LOYAL BROTHER: or, The PERSIAN PRINCE.

[By Mr. SOUTHERNE, 1682.]

POETS, like lawful monarchs, rul'd the stage,
Till critics, like damn'd Whigs, debauch'd our age.
Mark how they jump: critics would regulate
Our theatres, and Whigs reform our state:
Both pretend love, and both (plague rot them!) hate.
The critic humbly seems advice to bring;
The fawning Whig petitions to the king:
But one's advice into a fatire flides;
T'other's petition a remonftrance hides.
Thefe will no taxes give, and those no pence;
Critics would ftarve the poet, Whigs the prince.
The critic all our troops of friends difcards;
Just so the Whig would fain pull down the guards.
Guards are illegal, that drive foes away,
As watchful fhepherds that fright beasts of prey.
Kings, who disband fuch needlefs aids as these,
Are fafe-as long as e'er their fubjects please :
And that would be till next queen Befs's night:
Which thus grave penny chroniclers indite.
Sir Edmund Bury first, in woful wife,

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;

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Who,

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