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EPILOGUE. Written by Mr. Budgell of the Inner-Temple. Spoken by Mrs. Oldfield.


EPILOGUE. Written by Mr. Budgell of the Inner-Temple. Spoken by Mrs. Oldfield.

I hope you'll own that with becoming Art
I've play'd my Game, and topp'd the Widow's Part;
My Spouse, poor Man! could not live out the Play,
But dy'd commodiously on Wedding-Day,
While I his Relict made at one bold Fling
My self a Princess, and young Sty a King.
You Ladies who protract a Lover's Pain,
And hear your Servants sigh whole Years in vain;
Which of you all would not on Marriage venture,
Might she so soon upon her Jointure enter?
'Twas a strange Scape! had Pyrrhus liv'd till now
I had been finely hamper'd in my Vow.
To dye by ones own Hand, and fly the Charms
Of Love and Life in a young Monarch's Arms!
'Twere an hard Fate—e'er I had undergone it
I might have took one Night—to think upon it.
But why you'll say was all this Grief exprest
For a first Husband, laid long since at Rest?
Why so much Coldness to my kind Protector?
—Ah Ladies! had you known the good Man Hector!