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PROLOGUE, By WILLIAM WHITEHEAD, Esq; Spoken by Mr. REDDISH.
Critics
be dumb—to-night a lady sues,
From soft Italia's shores, an English muse;
Tho' fate there binds her in a pleasing chain,
Sends to our stage the offspring of her brain:
True to her birth she pants for British bays,
And to her country trusts for genuine praise.
From infancy well read in tragic lore,
She treads the path her father trod before;
To the same candid judges trusts her cause,
And hopes the same indulgence and applause.
No Salick Law here bars the female's claim,
Who pleads hereditary right to fame.
From soft Italia's shores, an English muse;
Tho' fate there binds her in a pleasing chain,
Sends to our stage the offspring of her brain:
True to her birth she pants for British bays,
And to her country trusts for genuine praise.
From infancy well read in tragic lore,
She treads the path her father trod before;
To the same candid judges trusts her cause,
And hopes the same indulgence and applause.
No Salick Law here bars the female's claim,
Who pleads hereditary right to fame.
Of love and arms she sings, the mighty two,
Whose powers uniting must the world subdue;
Of love and arms! in that heroic age,
Which knew no poet's, no historian's page;
But war to glory form'd th'unletter'd mind,
And chivalry alone taught morals to mankind;
Nor taught in vain, the youth who dar'd aspire
To the nice honours of a lover's fire,
Observ'd with duteous care each rigid rule,
Each stern command of labour's patient school;
Was early train'd to bear the sultry beams
Of burning suns, and winter's fierce extremes;
Was brave, was temperate: to one idol fair
His vows he breath'd, his wishes center'd there:
Honour alone could gain her kind regard,
Honour was virtue, beauty it's reward.
And shall not British breasts, in beauty's cause,
Adopt to-night the manners which she draws?
Male writers we confess are lawful prize,
Giants and monsters that but rarely rise!
With their enormous spoils your triumphs grace,
Attack, confound, exterminate the race;
But when a lady tempts the critic war,
Be all knights errant, and protect the fair.
Whose powers uniting must the world subdue;
Of love and arms! in that heroic age,
Which knew no poet's, no historian's page;
But war to glory form'd th'unletter'd mind,
And chivalry alone taught morals to mankind;
Nor taught in vain, the youth who dar'd aspire
To the nice honours of a lover's fire,
Observ'd with duteous care each rigid rule,
Each stern command of labour's patient school;
Was early train'd to bear the sultry beams
Of burning suns, and winter's fierce extremes;
Was brave, was temperate: to one idol fair
His vows he breath'd, his wishes center'd there:
Honour was virtue, beauty it's reward.
And shall not British breasts, in beauty's cause,
Adopt to-night the manners which she draws?
Male writers we confess are lawful prize,
Giants and monsters that but rarely rise!
With their enormous spoils your triumphs grace,
Attack, confound, exterminate the race;
But when a lady tempts the critic war,
Be all knights errant, and protect the fair.
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