You 'll owe your ruin to your bulk :
Your foes already waiting stand,
To tear you like a founder'd hulk,
While you lie helpless on the sand.
Thus, when a whale hath lost the tide,
The coafters crowd to seize the spoil;
The monster into parts divide,
And ftrip the bones, and melt the oil.
Oh! may some western tempest sweep
These locufts whom our fruits have fed,
That plague directors to the deep,
Driv'n from the South-Sea to the Red.
May he, whom Nature's laws obey,
Who lifts the poor, and finks the proud,
"Quiet the raging of the fea,

"And still the madness of the crowd!"
But never shall our isle have reft,
Till those devouring swine run down,
(The devils leaving the poffeft,)
And headlong in the waters drown.

The nation then too late will find,
Computing all their cost and trouble,
Directors promises but wind,
South-Sea at beft a mighty bubble.

THE

THE DOG AND SHADOW.

RE cibum portans catulus dum spectat in undis,

Apparet liquido prædæ melioris imago: Dum speciofa diu damua admiratur, et alte Ad latices inhiat, cadit imo vortice præceps Ore cibus, nec non fimulachrum corripit una. Occupat ille avibus deceptis faucibus umbram; Illudit species, ac dentibus aëra mordet.

TO A

FRIEND,

Who had been much abused in many different LIBELS.

T

HE greatest Monarch may be stabb'd by night,
And fortune help the murderer in his flight;

The vileft ruffian may commit a rape,
Yet fafe from injur'd innocence escape;
And Calumny, by working under ground,
Can, unreveng'd, the greatest merit wound.

What's to be done? Shall Wit and Learning chuse
To live obfcure, and have no fame to lose?
By Cenfure frighted out of Honour's road,
Nor dare to use the gifts by Heaven bestow'd?
Or fearless enter in through Virtue's gate,
And buy distinction at the dearest rat: ?

VOL. I.

P

BILLET

BILLET to the COMPANY OF PLAYERS.

THE inclofed Prologue is formed upon the story of the Secretary's not fuffering you to act, unless you would pay him 3001. per annum; upon which you got a licence from the Lord Mayor to act as ftrollers.

The Prologue supposes, that, upon your being forbidden to act, a company of country-ftrollers came and hired the Play-house, and your cloaths, &c. to act in.

THE PROLOGUE.

:

OUR fet of strollers, wandering up and down,
Hearing the house was empty, came to town;
And, with a licence from our good Lord Mayor,
Went to one Griffith, formerly a player;
Him we perfuaded with a moderate bribe,
To fpeak to Elrington and all the tribe,
To let our company supply their places,
And hire us out their scenes, and cloaths, and faces.
Is not the truth the truth? Look full on me;
I am not Elrington, nor Griffith he.
When we perform, look sharp among our crew,
There's not a creature here you ever knew..
The former folks were servants to the king;.
We, humble ftrollers, always on the wing.

Now,

Now, for my part, I think upon the whole,
Rather than starve, a better man would stroll.

Stay, let me fee-Three hundred pounds a year,
For leave to act in town? 'Tis plaguy dear.
Now, here's a warrant; Gallants, please to mark,
For three thirteens and fix pence to the clerk.
Three hundred pounds! were I the price to fix,
The publick should bestow the actors fix.
A fcore of guineas, given under-hand,
For a good word or fo, we understand.
To help an honeft lad that 's out of place,
May cost a crown or fo; a common cafe :
And, in a crew, 'tis no injustice thought
To ship a rogue, and pay him not agroat....
But, in the chronicles of former ages,.
Who ever heard of fervants paying wages?
I pity Elrington with all my heart;
Would he were here this night to act my part!
I told him what it was to be a ftroller :
How free we acted, and had no comptroller :
In every town we wait on Mr. Mayor,
First get a licence, then produce our ware ;
We found a trumpet, or we beat a drum;
Huzza! (the school-boys roar) the players are come!
And then we cry, to spur the bumpkins on,
Gallants, by Tuesday next we must be gone.
I told him, in the smootheft way I could,
All this and more, yet it would do no good.
But Elrington, tears falling from his cheeks,
IIe that has thone with Betterton and Wilks,

To whom our country has been always dear,
Who chose to leave his dearest pledges here,
Owns all your favours, here intends to stay,
And, as a stroller, act in every play:
And the whole crew this resolution takes,
To live and die all strollers for your fakes :
Not frighted with an ignominious name,
For your difpleasure is their only shame.
A pox on Elrington's majestic tone !
Now to a word of business in our own.
Gallants, next Thursday night will be our last;
Then, without fail, we pack up for Belfast.
Lose not your time, nor our diversions miss,
The next we act shall be as good as this.

EPIGRAM.

REAT folks are of a

G

finer mold;

Lord! how politely they can scold! While a coarfe English tongue will itch, For whore and rogue; and dog and bitch.

PROLOGUE to a PLAY for the Benefit of the

DISTRESSED WEAVERS. By Dr. SHERIDAN.

G

Spoken by Mr. ELRINGTON. 1721.
REAT cry and little wool-is now become
The plague and proverb of the Weaver's loom:

No wool to work on, neither weft nor warp;
Their pockets empty, and their stomachs sharp.

Provok'd,