20

Now, where are the fucceffors to my name?
What bring they to fill out a poet's fame?
Weak, fhort-liv'd iffues of a feeble age;
Scarce living to be chriften'd on the stage!
For humour farce, for love they rhime difpenfe,
That tolls the knell for their departed fenfe.
Dulness might thrive in any trade but this :
"Twould recommend to fome fat benefice.
Dulness, that in a playhouse meets difgrace, 25
Might meet with reverence in its proper place.
The fulfome clench, that nauseates the town,
Would from a judge or alderman go down,
Such virtue is there in a robe and gown!
And that infipid ftuff which here you hate, 30
Might fomewhere else be called a grave de-

bate;

Dulness is decent in the church and state.
But I forget that still 'tis understood,

Bad plays are beft decried by fhowing good.
Sit filent then, that
my pleas'd foul may
fee 35
A judging audience once, and worthy me;
My faithful scene from true records fhall tell,
How Trojan valour did the Greek excell;
Your great forefathers fhall their fame regain,
And Homer's angry ghost repine in vain.

40

PROLOGUE

ΤΟ

CESAR BORGIA.

[BY MR. N. LEE, 1680.]

THE unhappy man, who once has trail'd a

pen,

Lives not to please himself, but other men ;
Is always drudging, wastes his life and blood,
Yet only eats and drinks what you think good.
What praise foe'er the poetry deserve,
Yet every fool can bid the poet ftarve.
That fumbling letcher to revenge is bent,
Because he thinks himself or whore is meant:
Name but a cuckold, all the city swarms;
From Leadenhall to Ludgate is in arms:

10

Ver. 1. The unhappy man,] Lee had fo melodious a voice, and fuch pathetic elocution, that reading one of his own scenes to Major Mohun at a rehearsal, Mohun in the warmth of his admiration, threw down his part, and exclaimed, “Unless I were able to play it as well as you read it, to what purpose fhould I undertake it." Yet it is a very remarkable circumstance, that Lee failed as an actor in attempting to perform the character of Duncan in Macbeth, 1672. As did Otway in a play of Mrs. Afra Behn, entitled the Jealous Bridegroom. After this failure, the firft wrote his Alcibiades, and the last mentioned author his Nero. Dr. J. WARTON.

Were there no fear of Antichrift, or France,
In the bleft time poor poets live by chance.
Either you come not here, or, as you grace
Some old acquaintance, drop into the place,
Careless and qualmish with a yawning face :15
You sleep o'er wit, and by my troth you may;
Moft of talents lie another way.
your

You love to hear of fome prodigious tale,
The bell that toll'd alone, or Irish whale.
News is your food, and you enough provide, 20
Both for yourselves, and all the world befide.
One theatre there is of vaft refort,

Which whilome of Requefts was called the
Court;

But now the great Exchange of News 'tis hight,

And full of hum and buz from noon 'till night. Up ftairs and down you run, as for a race, 26 And each man wears three nations in his face.

So big you look, though claret you retrench, That, arm'd with bottled ale, you huff the French.

30

But all your entertainment still is fed
By villains in your own dull island bred.
Would you return to us, we dare engage
To fhew you better rogues upon the stage.
You know no poifon but plain ratsbane here;
Death's more refin'd, and better bred elfe-
where.

35

They have a civil way in Italy,

By smelling a perfume to make

A trick would make you lay your fnuff-box by. Murder's a trade, fo known and practis'd there, That 'tis infallible as is the chair.

40

But, mark their feaft, you fhall behold fuch

pranks;

The pope fays grace, but 'tis the devil gives

thanks.

PROLOGUE

TO

SOPHONISBA, AT OXFORD, 1680.

THESPIS, the first professor of our art, At country wakes, fung ballads from a cart. this true, if Latin be no trefpafs, "Dicitur et plauftris vexiffe Poemata Thef

To

prove

pis."

But Æfchylus, fays* Horace in fome page, Was the first mountebank that trod the ftage:

5

*Succeffit vetus his Comoedia, etc. i. e. Comedy began to be cultivated and improved from the time that tragedy had obtained its end, oxe Thr iaulñs qúow, under Æfchylus. There is no reafon to fuppofe, with fome critics, that Horace meant to date its origin from hence. The fuppofition is, in truth, contradicted by experience and the order of things. For, as a celebrated French writer obferves, "Le talent d'imiter, qui nous eft naturel, nous porte plutôt à la comedie, qui roule fur des chofes de notre connoiffance, qu'à la Tragedie, qui prend des fujets plus éloignés de l'ufage commun; et en effect, en Grèce auffi bien qu'en France, la Comedie eft l'aînée de la tragedie." [Hift. du Theat. Franc. par M. de Fontenelle.] The latter part of this affertion is clear from the piece referred to; and the other, which refpects Greece, feems countenanced by Ariftotle himself [wp wont. x. E.] 'Tis true, comedy, though its rife be every where, at leaft, as early as that of tragedy, is perfected much later. Menander, we know, appeared long after Æfchylus. And, though the French tragedy, to speak with Ariftotle, oxe Th ians quo in the hands of Corneille, this cannot be faid of their comedy, which was forced to wait for a Moliere, before it arrived at that pitch of perfection. But then this is owing to