EPILOGUE

ΤΟ

MITHRIDATES, KING OF PONTUS.

BY MR. N. LEE, 1678.

YOU'VE feen a pair of faithful lovers die: And much you care; for most of you will

cry,

"Twas a juft judgment on their constancy. For, heaven be thank'd, we live in such an age, When no man dies for love, but on the stage: 5

Ver. 5. When no man dies for love,] One of the most remarkable differences betwixt ancient and modern tragedy arifes from the prevailing cuftom of defcribing only thofe diftreffes that are occationed by the paffion of love: a paffion, which from the univerfality of its dominion, may juftly claim a large fhare in reprefentations of human life: but which, by totally engroffing the theatre, hath contributed to degrade that noble fchool of virtue into an academy of effeminacy. When Racine perfuaded the celebrated Arnauld to read his Phædra, " Why," faid that fevere critic to his friend," have you falfified the manners of Hippolitus, and reprefented him in love?" "Alas!" replied the poet, "without that circumftance, how would the ladies and the beaux have received my piece?" And it may well be imagined, that to gratify fo confiderable and important a part of his audience, was the powerful motive that induced Corneille to enervate even the matchlefs and affecting ftory of Edipus, by the frigid and impertinent epifode of Thefeus's paffion for Dirce. Shakspeare has thewn us, by his Hamlet, Macbeth, and Cæfar, and above all by his Lear, that very interefting tragedies may be

And e'en thofe martyrs are but rare in plays;
A curfed fign how much true faith decays.
Love is no more a violent defire;

'Tis a meer metaphor, a painted fire.
In all our fex, the name examin'd well,
'Tis pride to gain, and vanity to tell.
In woman, 'tis of fubtle interest made:
Curfe on the punk that made it first a trade!
She first did wit's prerogative remove,

10

And made a fool prefume to prate of love. 15
Let honour and preferment go for gold;

But glorious beauty is not to be fold :
Or, if it be, 'tis at a rate fo high,
That nothing but adoring it should buy.
Yet the rich cullies may their boasting spare ;
They purchase but fophifticated ware.
'Tis prodigality that buys deceit,

Where both the giver and the taker cheat.

21

Men but refine on the old half-crown way; 24 And women fight, like Swiffers, for their pay.

written, that are not founded on gallantry and love; and that Boileau was mistaken, when he affirmed

de l'amour la fenfible peinture,

Eft pour aller au cœur la route la plus fure.

The fincft pictures of love in all antiquity are the Phædra, Medea, Simatha, fecond Idyllium of Theocritus, and the Dido of Virgil; all of thefe pictures are of the effects of love in wo men; no defcription of it in men, fo capital and fo ftriking, has been given. The tenth eclogue of Virgil is but feeble in com parifon of these mentioned above.

Dr. J. WARTON.

PROLOGUE

ΤΟ

CEDIPUS.

WHEN Athens all the Grecian state did

guide,

5.

And Greece gave laws to all the world befide;
Then Sophocles with Socrates did fit,
Supreme in wifdom one, and one in wit:
And wit from wifdom differed not in those,
But as 'twas fung in verfe, or faid in profe,
Then, Edipus, on crowded theatres,
Drew all admiring eyes and lift'ning ears:
The pleafed fpectator fhouted every line,
The nobleft, manlieft, and the best design!
And every critic of each learned age,
By this juft model has reform'd the stage.
Now, fhould it fail, (as heaven avert our fear)
Damn it in filence, left the world should hear.
For were it known this poem did not please, 15
You might fet up for perfect favages:
Your neighbours would not look on you as men,
But think the nation all turned Picts again.
Faith, as you manage matters, 'tis not fit 19
You should fufpect yourselves of too much wit:

Drive not the jeft too far, but fpare this piece; And, for this once, be not more wife than Greece.

26

See twice! do not pell-mell to damning fall,
Like true-born Britons, who ne'er think at all:
Pray be advised; and though at Mons you won,
On pointed cannon do not always run.
With fome respect to ancient wit proceed;
You take the four firft councils for your
But, when you lay tradition wholly by,
And on the private spirit alone rely,
You turn fanatics in your poetry.

If, notwithstanding all that we can fay,

creed.

30

You needs will have your penn'orths of the play,

And come refolved to damn, because you pay, Record it, in memorial of the fact,

The first play buried fince the woollen act.

35

EPILOGUE

TO

CEDIPUS.

WHAT Sophocles could undertake alone,
Our poets found a work for more than one;
And therefore two lay tugging at the piece,
With all their force, to draw the ponderous
mafs from Greece;

A weight that bent even Seneca's strong muse, 5
And which Corneille's fhoulders did refuse.
So hard it is the Athenian harp to ftring!
So much two confuls yield to one just king.
Terror and pity this whole poem fway;
The mightiest machines that can mount a play.
How heavy will thofe vulgar fouls be found, 11
Whom two fuch engines cannot move from
ground!

When Greece and Rome have fmil'd upon this birth,

You can but damn for one poor spot of earth: And when your children find your judgment

fuch,

15

They'll fcorn their fires, and with themfelves

born Dutch;