A Collection Of Poems By John Whaley |
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A Prologue to the Fair Penitent, Perform'd by the Young Gentlemen of Norwich School. |
 | A Collection Of Poems |  |
A Prologue to the Fair Penitent, Perform'd by the Young Gentlemen of Norwich School.
Methought I heard some rigid Reas'ner say
What! shall these Boys be tutor'd by a Play?
What can they learn from the fantastick Scene,
The idle droppings of some Scribbler's Pen?
How cou'd it e're possess their Master's Heart
To bid his Scholars play the Strolers Part?
To change the learned Academic Grove
For gaudy Scenes, and trifling Tales of Love?
What! shall these Boys be tutor'd by a Play?
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The idle droppings of some Scribbler's Pen?
How cou'd it e're possess their Master's Heart
To bid his Scholars play the Strolers Part?
To change the learned Academic Grove
For gaudy Scenes, and trifling Tales of Love?
Grave Nonsense this! Sprung from the Pedant Rules,
And precepts of some Modern Stoick Schools;
Precepts to learned Athens never known,
And which a Roman Sage had blush'd to own;
Like Sophocles might Socrates have Thought,
And like Euripides great Plato wrote.
Fill'd with Morality their Pieces Shine,
And Virtue's Dictates flow in ev'ry Line.
And precepts of some Modern Stoick Schools;
Precepts to learned Athens never known,
And which a Roman Sage had blush'd to own;
Like Sophocles might Socrates have Thought,
And like Euripides great Plato wrote.
Fill'd with Morality their Pieces Shine,
And Virtue's Dictates flow in ev'ry Line.
Nor less was Rome with moral Precepts charm'd,
By tuneful Terence into Musick warm'd:
Witness the Scenes which ye so late beheld,
With sprightly Wit, and solid Virtue fill'd:
Scenes which strict Cato not refus'd to hear,
Which struck with rapture Godlike Scipio's Ear;
Scenes with such Language, Sense, and Strength replete
As Tully's Self was proud to imitate.
By tuneful Terence into Musick warm'd:
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With sprightly Wit, and solid Virtue fill'd:
Scenes which strict Cato not refus'd to hear,
Which struck with rapture Godlike Scipio's Ear;
Scenes with such Language, Sense, and Strength replete
As Tully's Self was proud to imitate.
Our Stage with Lessons great as these is fraught,
By learned Johnson and bold Shakespear Taught.
What e'er has Law, or peevish Collier said
That can with Justice Addison upbraid?
When honest Wycherley employs his Pen,
Who not more Virtuous grows from ev'ry Scene?
Taught by just Steel, in Virtue's Paths we tread,
Vice flies at his Rebuke, and hides her guilty Head.
By learned Johnson and bold Shakespear Taught.
What e'er has Law, or peevish Collier said
That can with Justice Addison upbraid?
When honest Wycherley employs his Pen,
Who not more Virtuous grows from ev'ry Scene?
Taught by just Steel, in Virtue's Paths we tread,
Vice flies at his Rebuke, and hides her guilty Head.
Nor do we owe less Pleasure and Delight
To him, whose Art compos'd our Scenes to Night.
What English Heart for Freedom not declares,
When on its side the Tartar Emp'ror Wars,
When his great Soul, and gen'rous Actions show,
The diff'rence 'twixt a Bourbon, and Nassau?
To him, whose Art compos'd our Scenes to Night.
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When on its side the Tartar Emp'ror Wars,
When his great Soul, and gen'rous Actions show,
The diff'rence 'twixt a Bourbon, and Nassau?
To Night in humbler, yet as moving Strains,
A wretched Fair of Virtue lost complains:
Who can unmov'd such real Anguish hear?
Who can refuse Calista's Woes a Tear?
Yet all must own the Sentence just, tho' hard,
And guilty Love but met its full reward.
Her Sorrows then, ye blooming Fair, approve,
For they will stop th'attempts of lawless Love,
Tho' Beauty great as yours shou'd each Lothario move.
A wretched Fair of Virtue lost complains:
Who can unmov'd such real Anguish hear?
Who can refuse Calista's Woes a Tear?
Yet all must own the Sentence just, tho' hard,
And guilty Love but met its full reward.
Her Sorrows then, ye blooming Fair, approve,
For they will stop th'attempts of lawless Love,
Tho' Beauty great as yours shou'd each Lothario move.
| A Collection Of Poems | |