PROLOGUE

ΤΟ

CIRCE*.

[BY DR. DAVENANT, 1675.]

WERE you but half fo wife as you're fevere,
Our youthful poet should not need to fear:
To his green years your cenfures you would fuit,
Not blaft the bloffom, but expect the fruit.
The fex, that beft does pleasure understand, 5
Will always choose to err on t'other hand.
They check him not that's aukward in delight,
But clap the young rogue's cheek, and fet him
right.

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Thus hearten'd well, and flesh'd upon his prey, The youth may prove a man another day. Your Ben and Fletcher, in their first young flight,

Did no Volpone, nor no Arbaces write;

Circe was an Opera. Tragedy among the ancients was throughout accompanied with mufic.

Dr. J. WARTON.

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But hopp'd about, and fhort excurfions made
From bough to bough, as if they were afraid,
And each was guilty of fome Slighted Maid. 15.
Shakspeare's own mufe her Pericles first bore;
The prince of Tyre was elder than the Moor:
'Tis miracle to see a firft good play;
All hawthorns do not bloom on Christmas-day.
A flender poet must have time to grow,
And spread and burnish as his brothers do.
Who ftill looks lean, fure with fome pox is curft;
But no man can be Falftaff-fat at firit.
Then damn not, but indulge his rude effays,
Encourage him, and bloat him up with praise, 25
That he may get more bulk before he dies:
He's not yet fed enough for facrifice.
Perhaps, if now your grace you will not grudge,
He
may grow up to write, and you to judge.

EPILOGUE,

INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN SPOKEN BY

THE LADY HEN. MAR. WENTWORTH,

WHEN CALISTO WAS ACTED AT COURT.

As Jupiter I made

my

5

court in vain ; I'll now affume my native shape again. I'm weary to be fo unkindly us'd, And would not be a god, to be refus'd. State grows uneafy when it hinders love; A glorious burden, which the wife remove. Now, as a nymph, I need not fue, nor try The force of any lightning but the eye. Beauty and youth more than a god command; No Jove could e'er the force of these with

ftand.

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"Tis here that fovereign power admits dispute ;
Beauty sometimes is juftly abfolute.
Our fullen Cato's, whatfoe'er they fay,
Even while they frown and dictate laws, obey.

Ver. 1. As Jupiter] It was a fifter of the Dutchefs of Marlborough, a maid of honour, and afterwards Dutchess of Tirconnel, celebrated by Grammont, that acted in the Mafque of Califto at court, 1675. Dr. J. WARTON.

You, mighty fir, our bonds more eafy make, 15 And gracefully, what all must suffer, take: Above those forms the grave affect to wear; For 'tis not to be wife to be fevere.

True wisdom may fome gallantry admit,

And foften bufinefs with the charms of wit. 20 These peaceful triumphs with your cares you bought,

And from the midst of fighting nations brought. You only hear it thunder from afar,

And fit in peace the arbiter of war:

Peace, the loath'd manna, which hot brains de

spise,

You knew its worth, and made it early prize:
And in its happy leisure fit and fee
The promises of more felicity:

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Two glorious nymphs of your own godlike line, Whofe morning rays like noontide strike and

fhine:

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Whom you to fuppliant monarchs fhall dispose, To bind your friends, and to difarm your foes.

PROLOGUE

ΤΟ

AURENGEZEBE.

OUR author, by experience, finds it true,
"Tis much more hard to please himself than you;
And out of no feigned modefty, this day
Damns his laborious trifle of a play :

'Not that it's worfe than what before he writ, 5 But he has now another taste of wit;

1

And, to confefs a truth, though out of time,
Grows weary of his long-lov'd miftrefs, Rhime..
Paffion's too fierce to be in fetters bound,
And nature flies him like enchanted ground: 10
What verfe can do, he has performed in this,
Which he prefumes the moft correct of his ;
But spite of all his pride, a fecret shame
Invades his breaft at Shakspeare's facred name:
Aw'd when he hears his godlike Romans
rage, 15
He, in a juft despair, would quit the stage;
And to an age less polish'd, more unskill'd,
Does, with difdain, the foremost honours yield.
As with the greater dead he dares not strive,
He would not match his verse with those who

live:

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