PROLOGUE

TO

ALBION AND ALBANIUS.

FULL twenty years and more, our labouring

ftage

Has loft, on this incorrigible age:

Our poets, the John Ketches of the nation,
Have feem'd to lafh ye, even to excoriation; 4
But ftill no fign remains; which plainly notes,
You bore like heroes, or you bribed like Oates.
What can we do, when mimicking a fop,
Like beating nut-trees, makes a larger crop?
'Faith, we'll e'en fpare our pains! and, to con-

tent you, Will fairly leave

you.

your food;

Satire was once your phyfic, wit

One nourish'd not, and t'other drew no blood:
We now prefcribe, like doctors in despair,
The diet your weak appetites can bear.
Since hearty beef and mutton will not do,
Here's julep-dance, ptifan of fong and fhow:

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Give you ftrong fenfe, the liquour is too heady; You're come to farce,-that's affes milk,-already.

Some hopeful youths there are, of callow wit, Who one day may be men, if heaven think fit; Sound may ferve fuch, ere they to fenfe are grown,

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Like leading-ftrings, till they can walk alone. But yet, to keep our friends in countenance, know,

The wife Italians firft invented show;

Thence into France the noble pageant past: 25 'Tis England's credit to be cozen'd last. Freedom and zeal have chous'd you o'er and

o'er ;

Pray give us leave to bubble you once more
You never were fo cheaply fool'd before:
We bring you change, to humour your dif-

eafe;

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Change for the worse has ever used to please: Then, 'tis the mode of France; without whofe rules,

None must presume to fet up here for fools.
In France, the oldest man is always young,
Sees operas daily, learns the tunes fo long,
Till foot, hand, head, keep time with every
fong:
Each fings his part, echoing from pit and box,
With his hoarfe voice, half harmony, half

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pox.

Le plus grand roi du monde is always ringing, They fhow themfelves good fubjects by their finging:

On that condition, fet up every throat;

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You whigs may fing, for you have chang'd your

note.

Cits and citeffes, raife a joyful ftrain, "Tis a good omen to begin a reign;

Voices may help your charter to reftoring, 45

And get by finging, what you loft by roaring.

EPILOGUE

ΤΟ

ALBION AND ALBANIUS.

AFTER our Efop's fable shown to-day,
I come to give the moral of the play.

Feign'd Zeal, you faw, fet out the speedier

pace;

But the last heat, Plain Dealing won the race: Plain Dealing for a jewel has been known; 5 But ne'er till now the jewel of a crown.

When heaven made man, to fhow the work di

vine,

Truth was his image, ftamped upon the coin: And when a king is to a god refined,

On all he fays and does he stamps his mind: 10
This proves a foul without alloy, and pure;
Kings, like their gold, fhould every touch en-
dure.

To dare in fields is valour; but how few
Dare be fo throughly valiant,-to be true!
The name of great, let other kings affect:
He's great indeed, the prince that is direct.

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His fubjects know him now, and truft him

more

Than all their kings, and all their laws before. What fafety could their public acts afford? Thofe he can break; but cannot break his

word.

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So great a truft to him alone was due ;
Well have they trufted whom fo well they knew.
The faint, who walked on waves, fecurely trod,
While he believed the beck'ning of his God;
But when his faith no longer bore him out, 25
Began to fink, as he began to doubt.
Let us our native character maintain;
"Tis of our growth, to be fincerely plain.
To excel in truth we loyally may strive,
Set privilege against prerogative:

He plights his faith, and we believe him juft;
His honour is to promife, ours to truft.
Thus Britain's bafis on a word is laid,

As by a word the world itself was made.

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