The Works, In Verse and Prose, of Leonard Welsted ... Now First Collected. With Historical Notes, And Biographical Memoirs of the Author, by John Nichols |
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PROLOGUE to SOUTHERN'S
Money's the Mistress, 1725.
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 | The Works, In Verse and Prose, of Leonard Welsted |  |
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PROLOGUE to SOUTHERN'S Money's the Mistress, 1725.
From the dull beaten road resolv'd to stray,This Author, for the subject of his Play,
Does every sect and every nation chuse:
French, Spaniards, Moors, and unbelieving Jews!
So subtle chemists to import are known,
From different climates, medicines for their own:
This is his scheme—But much, he fears, at length,
Is wasted of his fire and wonted strength.
The suns decay; the brightest lustre wanes;
Nor is he all he was in former reigns:
Then was his day to court th' inconstant stage;
Enfeebled now, and diffident with age,
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O! last defend, who first inspir'd his Muse!
In your soft service he has pass'd his days,
And glory'd to be born for woman's praise:
Depress'd at length, and in your cause decay'd,
The good old man to Beauty bends for aid;
That Beauty he has taught so oft to moan!
That never let Imoinda weep alone,
And made his Isabella's griefs its own!
Ere you arose to life, ye blooming train;
Ere time brought forth our pleasure and our pain;
He melted hearts, to Monarchs' vows deny'd!
And soft'ned to distress unconquer'd pride:
O! then protect, in his declining years,
The man that fill'd your mothers' eyes with tears!
The last of Charles's Bards! The living name,
That rose, in that Augustan age, to fame!
And you, his Brother-authors, bravely dare
To join to-night the squadrons of the Fair;
With zeal protect your veteran Writer's page,
And save the Drama's Father in his age:
Nor let the wreath from his grey head be torn;
For half a century with honour worn!
His merits to your tribe to mind recall;
Of some the Patron, and a Friend to all!
In him the Poets' Nestor ye defend!
Great Otway's Peer, and greater Dryden's Friend.
| The Works, In Verse and Prose, of Leonard Welsted | |