EPILOGUE TO THE INDIAN EMPEROUR. BY A MERCURY. TO all and fingular in this full meeting, Ladies and gallants, Phœbus fends ye greeting. To all his fons, by whate'er title known, Whether of court, or coffee-house, or town; From his moft mighty fons, whofe confidence 5 Is plac'd in lofty found, and humble fenfe, Even to his little infants of the time, Who write new fongs, and truft in tune and rhime: Be't known, that Phoebus (being daily grieved All proves, and moves, and loves, and honours too; All that appears high fenfe, and scarce is low. As for the coffee-wits, he fays not much; Their proper bufinefs is to damn the Dutch: 20 For the great dons of wit-- Phoebus gives them full privilege alone, To damn all others, and cry up their own. Laft, for the ladies, 'tis Apollo's will, They should have power to fave, but not to kill: For love and he long fince have thought it fit, 26 Wit live by beauty, beauty reign by wit. PROLOGUE ΤΟ SIR MARTIN MARR-ALL. FOOLS, which each man meets in his dish each day, Are yet the great regalios of a play ; But fuch in plays must be much thicker fown, 5 As men watch woodcocks gliding through a glade: And when they have enough for comedy, 10 For, gallants, you yourselves have found the PROLOGUE TO THE TEMPEST*. As when a tree's cut down, the fecret root Lives under ground, and thence new branches fhoot; So from old Shakspeare's honour'd duft, this day Springs up and buds a new-reviving play: Shakspeare, who (taught by none) did first impart To Fletcher wit, to labouring Jonfon art. 5 He, monarch-like, gave thofe, his fubjects, law; And is that nature which they paint and draw. Fletcher reach'd that which on his heights did grow, While Jonfon crept, and gather'd all below. 10 pen. • Bonarelli, in his Filli di Sciro, has introduced a fhepherdess in love with two perfons, like the alterations in the Tempeft. Dr. J. WARTON. The storm, which vanish'd on the neighbouring fhore, 15 Was taught by Shakspeare's Tempest first to roar. That innocence and beauty, which did smile 20 26 Which works by magic fupernatural things: One of our women to prefent a boy; And that's a transformation, you 30 will fay, Exceeding all the magic in the play. Let none expect, in the laft act, to find Her fex transform'd from man to womankind. Whate'er she was before the play began, All you fhall fee of her is perfect man. Or, if your fancy will be farther led To find her woman—it must be a-bed. 35 |