 | Xerxes |  |
THE PROLOGUE. Spoken by Mr. Batterton.
Long have we strove, with Passion and Grimace,To show you Vice and Vertue's diff'ring Face:
Vertue's Reward has woo'd you to its Charms;
And Vice expos'd, shou'd laugh you from its Arms.
Vertue we vainly offer to your Taste;
Tir'd with Instruction, and Agog for Jest,
T'abhor the wholesome Plainness of the Feast.
In vain on Pois'nous Vice wou'd Satyr trample;
For what you shou'd contemn, is your Example:
In vain we wear the Buskin, or the Sandal;
Your judging false makes our Instruction Scandal.
The Wise provok'd to wrong her Husband's Bed,
Was meant his Cure, by punishing his Head:
But you from hence, not kind, but jealous grow;
Think all Wives false, when Usage makes 'em so:
Reform the Brute, you keep the Woman true.
The Powder'd Fop, for Drawling Speech, and Dress,
Expos'd, shall laugh: But then so likes his Face,
He dresses in the Stage's Looking-Glass.
The High-kept Miss, when shewn the Fate of Jilting,
Smiles! Gets a new Spark—sets Fools a Tilting.
A second Time she's warn'd, and so improves,
Till in due Time about the Pit she roves,
Reduc'd to Doily's Stuff, no Stays, and dirty Gloves.
Thus ev'n sage Collier too might be accus'd,
If what h'as writ's through Ignorance abus'd.
Girls may read him, not for the Truth he says,
But to be pointed to the Bawdy Plays:
Far be't to think such his Intention was.
Inflame Diseases, which it meant to heal:
Now, though Men die, Physick has Vertue still.
Wou'd you but come with Minds attentive bent
To laugh at Follies, Vices to resent;
Warn'd by the Dangers painted, wou'd you learn
To shun abroad what's here the Wise Man's Scorn;
Calm would be then the Zealot's hasty Rage;
And good Men, Fearless, might support the Stage:
Then, as at Athens, to learn Vertue's Rules,
Crowds might we hope for from deserted Schools,
To see our Labours, by just Laws allow'd;
And Publick Treasures pay for Publick Good:
Like them encourag'd, we like them might write;
Athenian Hearers rais'd Athenian Wit.
In favour then of us, begin to day
To make a just Construction of a Play:
So shall the impious Xerxes Terrour move
The chaste Tamira's Tears from Ruin'd Love.
His first Attempt for Vertue you approv'd;
But now, fair Nymphs, by nobler Passion mov'd,
Our Author has to your just Praise design'd
A brighter Image of your Sexes Mind.
| Xerxes | |