University of Virginia Library

EPILOGUE.

When Infant Wit was in its tender years,
And kind Spectators us'd their Hands and Ears;
When nought to Plays did a large Audience draw
But Pleasure, and to laugh at what they saw;
That was the Golden Age, for Poets then
Were in the Ranck of the uncommon Men:
But now the Times are so Reform'd and Wise,
The Satyrs Wholsome Relish you despise,
And like great School-boys to their Lessons kept,
You think your selves too big now to be Whipt.
But since the Ladies your Examples are,
Regale for once on Common Lenten Fare;
Our Author too, the Roman Vote does wish,
And hope they'll not cry down the Lenten Dish,
Because at present they're confin'd to Fish:
All Poets nat'rally on their side appear,
Do what they can, the Times are so severe,
The Muses keep strict Lent all round the Year.
Pray spare ill Nature now, and let me say,
That I have courted ye to like a Play,
I may serve you as much another way.
Writers sometimes may Interest want,
But something's in a Female Supplicant,
The Learned tell us, that can never fail
To move the kindly Nature of the Male:
Our Tragick Scenes are not obscurely laid,
But that a Moral use may well be made;
For in this Glass ye all without mistaking,
May see the dangerous Crime of Cuck old-making.