He who in impious times undaunted stood, And 'midst rebellion durst be just and good; Whose arms asserted, and whose sufferings more Confirm'd the cause for which he sought before,...
CLARENDON had law and sense, Clifford was fierce and brave; Bennet's grave look was a pretence, And Danby's matchless impudence Help'd to support the knave.
In days of old, there lived, of mighty fame, A valiant prince, and Theseus was his name: A chief, who more in feats of arms excell'd, The rising nor the setting sun beheld....
A plain-built[1] house, after so long a stay, Will send you half unsatisfied away; When, fallen from your expected pomp, you find A bare convenience only is design'd. You, who each day can theatres behold,...
So shipwreck'd passengers escape to land, So look they, when on the bare beach they stand, Dropping and cold, and their first fear scarce o'er, Expecting famine on a desert shore....
Full twenty years and more, our labouring stage Has lost on this incorrigible age: Our poets, the John Ketches of the nation, Have seem'd to lash ye, even to excoriation:...
To say, this comedy pleased long ago, Is not enough to make it pass you now. Yet, gentlemen, your ancestors had wit; When few men censured, and when fewer writ. And Jonson, of those few the best, chose this...
As needy gallants in the scrivener's hands, Court the rich knave that gripes their mortgaged lands, The first fat buck of all the season's sent, And keeper takes no fee in compliment:...
Our author, by experience, finds it true, 'Tis much more hard to please himself than you; And out of no feign'd modesty, this day Damns his laborious trifle of a play;...
Were you but half so wise as you're severe, Our youthful poet should not need to fear: To his green years your censures you would suit, Not blast the blossom, but expect the fruit....
The unhappy man, who once has trail'd a pen, Lives not to please himself, but other men; Is always drudging, wastes his life and blood, Yet only eats and drinks what you think good....
The judge removed, though he's no more my lord, May plead at bar, or at the council board: So may cast poets write; there's no pretension To argue loss of wit from loss of pension....
Sure there's a dearth of wit in this dull town, When silly plays so savourily go down; As, when clipt money passes, 'tis a sign A nation is not over-stock'd with coin. Happy is he who, in his own defence,...
True wit has seen its best days long ago; It ne'er look'd up, since we were dipp'd in show: When sense in doggerel rhymes and clouds was lost, And dulness flourish'd at the actors' cost....
When Athens all the Grecian state did guide, And Greece gave laws to all the world beside; Then Sophocles with Socrates did sit, Supreme in wisdom one, and one in wit:...
Fools, which each man meets in his dish each day, Are yet the great regalios of a play; In which to poets you but just appear, To prize that highest, which cost them so dear:...