University of Virginia Library

PROLOGUE,

The Tragedy we represent to Day
Is but a Grafting upon Shakespear's Play,
In whose Original we may descry,
Where Master-strokes in wild Confusion lye,
Here brought to as much Order as we can
Reduce those Beauties upon Shakespear's Plan;
And from his Plan we dar'd not to depart,
Least Nature should be lost in Quest of Art:
And Art had been attain'd with too much Cost,
Had Shakespear's Beauties in the Search been lost.
As Philomel, whom Heav'n and Phœbus teach,
Has Notes which Birds, that Man instructs, ne'er reach.
“So Shakespear, Fancy's sweetest Child,
“Warbles his Native Wood-Notes wild.

Milton.

While ev'ry Note takes the rapt Heroe's Heart,
And ev'ry Note's victorious over Art.
Then what is ours, to Night, excuse for Shakespear's Part.
You chiefly, who are truly Britons nam'd,
Whose Breasts are with your Country's Love inflam'd,
Whose martial Toils as long as Time shall live,
Whose Conquests Credit to old Fables give:
Conquests which more renown'd by Age shall grow,
To which ev'n late Posterity shall owe
The noblest History the World can show;
You in our just Defence must sure engage,
And shield us from the Storms of Factious Rage.
In the same Cause in which each Champion fights,
In the same noble Cause our daring Poet writes.
For as when Britain's Rebel Sons of late
Combin'd with Foreign Foes t'invade the State,
She to your Valour and your Conduct owes,
That she subdued and crush'd her num'rous Foes:
We shew, to Night, such Treasons to prevent,
That their Guilt's follow'd by their Punishment,
That Heav'n's the Guardian of our Rightful Cause,
And watches o'er our Sov'reign and our Laws.