The Poems of Edmund Waller Edited by G. Thorn Drury |
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TO MR. KILLIGREW,
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The Poems of Edmund Waller | ||
192
TO MR. KILLIGREW,
UPON HIS ALTERING HIS PLAY, “PANDORA,” FROM A TRAGEDY INTO A COMEDY, BECAUSE NOT APPROVED ON THE STAGE.
Sir, you should rather teach our age the wayOf judging well, than thus have changed your play;
You had obliged us by employing wit,
Not to reform Pandora, but the pit;
For as the nightingale, without the throng
Of other birds, alone attends her song,
While the loud daw, his throat displaying, draws
The whole assembly of his fellow-daws;
So must the writer, whose productions should
Take with the vulgar, be of vulgar mould;
Whilst nobler fancies make a flight too high
For common view, and lessen as they fly.
The Poems of Edmund Waller | ||