 | The Tragedy of Julius Caesar |  |
PROLOGUE to the Alteration of JULIUS CÆSAR.
Hope
to mend Shakespear! or to match his Style!
'Tis such a Jest, would make a Stoick smile.
Too fond of Fame, our Poet soars too high;
Yet freely owns he wants the Wings to fly:
So sensible of his presumptuous Thought,
That he confesses while he does the Fault:
This to the Fair will no great wonder prove,
Who oft in Blushes yield to what they love.
'Tis such a Jest, would make a Stoick smile.
Too fond of Fame, our Poet soars too high;
Yet freely owns he wants the Wings to fly:
So sensible of his presumptuous Thought,
That he confesses while he does the Fault:
This to the Fair will no great wonder prove,
Who oft in Blushes yield to what they love.
Of greatest Actions, and of noblest Men,
This Story most deserves a Poet's Pen.
For who can wish a Scene more justly fam'd,
When Rome and mighty Julius are but nam'd?
That State of Heroes, who the World had brav'd!
That wondrous Man, who such a State inslav'd!
Yet loth he was to take so rough a way,
And after govern'd with so mild a Sway,
At distance now of sev'nteen hundred Years,
Methinks a lovely Ravisher appears;
Whom, tho' forbid by Virtue to excuse,
A Nymph might pardon, and could scarce refuse.
This Story most deserves a Poet's Pen.
For who can wish a Scene more justly fam'd,
When Rome and mighty Julius are but nam'd?
That State of Heroes, who the World had brav'd!
That wondrous Man, who such a State inslav'd!
Yet loth he was to take so rough a way,
And after govern'd with so mild a Sway,
At distance now of sev'nteen hundred Years,
Methinks a lovely Ravisher appears;
Whom, tho' forbid by Virtue to excuse,
A Nymph might pardon, and could scarce refuse.
| The Tragedy of Julius Caesar | |