 | The Double Distress |  |
EPILOGUE.
Spoken by Miss Porter.
The
Graver Bus'ness of the Day being past,
Perhaps you may expect to laugh at last;
That Epilogue shall bow, and break a Jest.
Faith we would please you in our own Defence,
But wish your Pleasures were ally'd to Sense.
We wish your Wits would suffer Reformation,
That Shrug, Grimace, and Farce were out of Fashion:
Satyr, they say, did once become the Stage
But now w'have justly damn'd its useless Rage,
Since Fools and Knaves are Names unknown in this good Age.
This Play does no malicious Stories tell
Of Arts by which the Wise buy Stock, and sell.
Perhaps you may expect to laugh at last;
That Epilogue shall bow, and break a Jest.
Faith we would please you in our own Defence,
But wish your Pleasures were ally'd to Sense.
We wish your Wits would suffer Reformation,
That Shrug, Grimace, and Farce were out of Fashion:
Satyr, they say, did once become the Stage
But now w'have justly damn'd its useless Rage,
Since Fools and Knaves are Names unknown in this good Age.
This Play does no malicious Stories tell
Of Arts by which the Wise buy Stock, and sell.
For once be every Vice and Folly safe,
Censure shall have no cause to day to laugh:
But pray repay the Poet his good Nature,
Since 'tis at my Request he spares his Satyr.
If not—He knows such monstrous things of some,
Vices scarce known to Old or Modern Rome,
That if you damn the Play, let half the Town
Look to be publish'd in the next Lampoon.
Censure shall have no cause to day to laugh:
But pray repay the Poet his good Nature,
Since 'tis at my Request he spares his Satyr.
If not—He knows such monstrous things of some,
Vices scarce known to Old or Modern Rome,
That if you damn the Play, let half the Town
Look to be publish'd in the next Lampoon.
| The Double Distress | |