 | The Lovers Progres |  |
94
Prologue.
A story , and a known one, long since writ,Truth must take place, and by an able wit,
Foule mouth'd detraction daring not deny
To give so much to Fletchers memory;
If so, some may object, why then do you
Present an old piece to us for a new?
Or wherefore will your profest writer be
(Not tax'd of theft before) a Plagary?
To this he answers in his just defence,
And to maintaine to all our Innocence,
Thus much, though he hath travel'd the same way,
Demanding, and receiving too the pay
For a new Poem, you may find it due,
He having neither cheated us, nor you;
He vowes, and deeply, that he did not spare
The utmost of his strengths, and his best care
In the reviving it, and though his powers
Could not as he desired, in three short howers
Contract the Subject, and much lesse expresse
The changes, and the various passages
That will he look'd for, you may heare this day
Some Scænes that will confirme it is a play,
He being ambitious that it should be known
What's good was Fletchers, and what ill his owne.
| The Lovers Progres | |