University of Virginia Library

EPILOGUE.

Well , then be you his Judges; what pretence
Made them roar out, this Play would give offence?
Had he the Pope's Effigies meant to burn,
And kept for sport his Ashes in an Urn?
To try if Reliques would perform at Home
But half those Miracles they do at Rome:
More could not have been said, nor more been done,
To damn this Play about the Court and Town;
Not if he had shown their Philters, Charms and Rage,
Nay conjur'd up Pope Jone to please the Age,
And had her Breeches search'd upon the Stage.
First, then he brings a scandal on the Gown,
And makes a Priest both Leacher and Buffoon:
Why, was no Fool, yet ever made a Flamen,
But dulness quite entail'd upon the Lay men;
Or was it ever heard in Rome before,
That any Priest was question'd for his Whore?
Yet more, the horrid Chair, the Mid night show—
He says 'twas done two hundred Years ago:
He only points their ways of murdering then;
If you must damn, spare the Historian's Pen,
And damn those Rogues that act 'em o're again.
But Dominicks, Franciscans, Hermits, Fryars,
Shall breed no more a Race of Zealous Lyars;
Villains, who for Religion's Propagation,
Come here disguis'd in ev'ry mean Vocation,
And sit in Stalls to spy upon the Nation.
Old Emissaries shall their Trade forbear,
Spread no more Savoy Reliques, Bones and Hair,
Shall sell no more like Baubles in a Fair:
Monks under ground shall cease to earth like Males,
And Father Lewis leave his lurking-holes;
Get no more Thirty Pounds for a blind Story,
Of freeing a Welch Soul from Purgatory.
Jesuits in Rome shall quite forswear their Function,
And not for Gold give Whores the Extreme Unction:
High English Whores, that have all Vices past,
Shall cease to turn true Catholicks at last,
When Poets write, tho by exactest Rules,
And are not judg'd by Knaves, and damn'd by Fools.