University of Virginia Library

THE EPILOGUE, Spoken by Mr. Dogged, who Acts Thorneback.

You , Gallants, your own Pictures love to view,
And some, we hope, are here drawn pretty true.
Old ugly Beaus, in me your selues behold,
You get young Women, only by your Gold;
For Women fancy nothing else that's Old.
Yet your Opinions of your selves are great,
No Man so Old, to out-live Self-Conceit.
But you, young Beaus, be not too proud and vain;
Beaus without Money, seldom Women gain.
A giddy Shittlecock, indeed, may catch
A Female Fool, for Nature made the Match;
Like will to like: But Women that have Wit,
Only good Settlements, and Joyntures get.
And Beaus, if Fools, then do not get their Hearts,
Though they be Fools of Honour, Fools of Parts;
Such as you see in Lovely, here display'd;
Though swinging Beaus, they're swinging Cuckolds made.
And common Women (every Mortal knows)
Think Guineys are the only tempting Beaus;
They will not stake, before they draw a Prize,
And they see Benefitted Tickets rise.
Till then, they cry—Sir, I the thought abhor—
—I'm not the Woman, which you take me for.
But when the little shining round-fac'd Rogues,
Call'd Guineys, peep—Ah! how a Jilt Collogues.
Then on her Cullies she begins to Sken;
She pats their Cheeks, and calls 'em—Pretty Men.—
Wit is—(whatever Gallants you suppose)
A needful thing, in making perfect Beaus.
How to make men, Pythag'ras did devise,
And Women have no finger in the Pyes.
Troth, from that Cookery Women shou'd be barr'd,
For Men are very oft by Women Marr'd.
Beaus have sometimes a very insipid taste,
For Women have the raising of the Paste.
Wit (past dispute) to make a Man compleat,
Is one Ingredient, in his strange receipt.
Sirs, if much Wit did not to day appear,
Forgive it; all things now are scarce and dear;
None more than Wit, Some foreign Lands complain
Of Famine; we are so supply'd with Grain,
Store of most kinds ('tis said) is sent from hence;
I doubt we cannot spare one grain o' Sence.
But on our Heroes now such Planets smile,
Wisdom, and Wit, will once more grace this Isle.