He faw the fpacious circuit all around,
With crowding woods and rifing cities crown'd.
But next the tiring-room furvey, and fee
Falle titles, and promifcuous quality,
Confus'dly fwarm, from heroes and from queens,
To thofe that fwing in clouds and fill machines.
Their various characters they chufe with art,
The frowning bully fits the tyrant's part :
Swoln cheeks and fwaggering belly make an hoft,
Pale meagre looks and hollow voice a ghoft;
From careful brows and heavy down-caft eyes,
Dull cits and thick-fcull'd aldermen arife:
The cornic tone, infpir'd by Congreve, draws
At
every word, loud laughter and applaufe:
The whining dame continues as before,
Her character unchang'd, and acts a whore.
Above the reft, the prince with haughty stalks
Magnificent in purple buskins walks :
The royal robes his awful shoulders grace,
Profufe of fpangles and of copper-lace :
Officious rafcals to his mighty thigh,
Guiltlefs of blood, th' unpointed weapon tye:
Then the gay glittering diadem put on,
Ponderous with brafs, and starr'd with Bristol ftone.
His royal confort next confults her glass,
And out of twenty boxes culls a face;
The whitening first her ghaftly looks befmears,
All pale and wan th' unfinish'd form appears;
Till on her cheeks the blufhing purple glows,
And a falfe virgin-modesty bestows.
Her ruddy lips the deep vermilion dyes;
Length to her brows the pencil's art supplies,
And with black bending arches fhades her eyes.
Well pleas'd at length the picture fhe beholds,
And spots it o'er with artificial molds ;
Her countenance compleat, the beaux fhe warms
With looks not hers; and, fpight of nature, charms.
Thus artfully their persons they disguise,
Till the laft flourish bids the curtain rife.
The prince then enters on the Stage in state;
Behind, a guard of candle-fnuffers wait:
There, fwoln with empire, terrible and fierce,
He shakes the dome, and tears his lungs with verfe:
His fubjects tremble; the fubmiffive pit,
Wrapt up in filence and attention, fit;
Till, freed at length, he lays afide the weight,
Of public bufiness and affairs of state:
Forgets his pomp, dead to ambitious fires,
And to fome peaceful brandy-fhop retires;
Where in full gills his anxious thoughts he drowns,
And quaffs away the care that waits on crowns.
The princess next her painted charms difplays,
Where every look the pencil's art betrays;
The callow 'fquire at diftance feeds his eyes,
And filently for paint and washes dies :
But if the youth behind the scenes retreat,
He fees the blended colours melt with heat,
And all the trickling beauty run in sweat.
The borrow'd visage he admires no more,
And nauseates every charm he lov'd before :
So the fam'd fpear, for double force renown'd,
Apply'd the remedy that gave the wound.
In tedious lifts 'twere endless to engage,
And draw at length the rabble of the Stage,
Where one for twenty years has given alarms,
And call'd contending monarchs to their arms;
Another fills a more important post,
And rifes every other night a ghost ;
Through the cleft Stage, his mealy face he rears,
Then stalks along, groans thrice, and disappears;
Others, with fwords and fhields, the foldier's pride,
More than a thousand times have chang'd their fide,
And in a thousand fatal battles dy'd.
Thus feveral perfons feveral parts perform;
Soft lovers whine, and blustering heroes ftorm.
The stern exafperated tyrants rage,
Till the kind bowl of poifon clears the Stage,
Then honours vanith, and diftinctions cease;
Then, with reluctance, haughty queens undress.
Heroes no more their fading laurels boast,
And mighty kings in private men are lost.
He, whom fuch titles fwell'd, fuch power made proud,
To whom whole realms and vanquish'd nations bow'd,
Throws off the gaudy plume, the purple train,
And in his own vile tatters ftinks again.
HILE haughty Gallia's dames, that spread
O'er their pale cheeks, an artful red,
Beheld this beauteous ftranger there
In native charms, divinely fair;
Confufion in their looks they fhow'd;
And with unborrow'd blushes glow'd.
"Ecce fpectaculum dignum, ad quod refpiciat, in"tentus operi fuo, Deus! Ecce par Deo dignum, "vir fortis cum malâ fortunâ compofitus! Non "video, inquam, quid habeat in terris Jupiter pul"chrius, fi convertere animum velit, quàm ut "spectet Catonem, jam partibus non femel fractis, "nihilominùs inter ruinas publicas erectum."
|