The works of John Dryden Illustrated with notes, historical, critical, and explanatory, and a life of the author, by Sir Walter Scott |
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EPILOGUE TO A TRAGEDY CALLED TAMERLANE, 1681.
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| XIV, XV. |
 | The works of John Dryden |  |
354
EPILOGUE TO A TRAGEDY CALLED TAMERLANE, 1681.
BY CHARLES SAUNDERS.
Ladies, the beardless author of this dayCommends to you the fortune of his play.
A woman-wit has often graced the stage,
But he's the first boy-poet of our age.
Early as is the year his fancies blow,
Like young Narcissus peeping through the snow.
Thus Cowley blossomed soon, yet flourished long;
This is as forward, and may prove as strong.
Youth with the fair should always favour find,
Or we are damned dissemblers of our kind.
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'Tis but the pit-a-pat of two young hearts.
Should hag and grey-beard make such tender moan,
Faith, you'd even trust them to themselves alone,
And cry, “Let's go, here's nothing to be done.”
Since love's our business, as 'tis your delight,
The young, who best can practise, best can write.
What though he be not come to his full power?
He's mending and improving every hour.
You sly she-jockies of the box and pit,
Are pleased to find a hot unbroken wit;
By management he may in time be made,
But there's no hopes of an old battered jade;
Faint and unnerved, he runs into a sweat,
And always fails you at the second heat.
| The works of John Dryden | |