PROLOGUE.
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hen Athens all the Grecian slate 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:And wit from wisdom differed not in those,But as 'twas sung in verse, or said in prose.Then, OEdipus, on crowded theatres,Drew all admiring eyes and list'ning ears:The pleased spectator shouted every line,The noblest, manliest, and the best design!And every critic of each learned age,By this just model has reformed the stage.Now, should it fail, (as heaven avert our fear!)Damn it in silence, lest the world should hear.For were it known this poem did not please,You might set up for perfect savages:Your neighbours would not look on you as men,But think the nation all turned Picts again.Faith, as you manage matters, 'tis not fitYou should suspect yourselves of too much wit:Drive not the jest too far, but spare this piece;And, for this once, be not more wise than Greece.See twice! do not pell-mell to damning fall,Like true-born Britons, who ne'er think at all:Pray be advised; and though at Mons[1] you won,On pointed cannon do not always run.With some respect to ancient wit proceed;You take the four first councils for your creed.But, when you lay tradition wholly by,And on the private spirit alone rely,You turn fanatics in your poetry.If, notwithstanding all that we can say,You needs will have your penn'orths of the play,And come resolved to damn, because you pay,Record it, in memorial of the fact,The first play buried since the woollen act. Footnote:1. On the 17th of August, 1678, the Prince of Orange, afterwardsWilliam III. marched to the attack of the French army, whichblockaded Mons, and lay secured by the most formidableentrenchments. Notwithstanding a powerful and well-servedartillery, the duke of Luxemburgh was forced to abandon histrenches, and retire with great loss. The English and Scottishregiments, under the gallant earl of Ossory, had their full sharein the glory of the day. It is strongly suspected, that the Princeof Orange, when he undertook this perilous atchievement, knew thata peace had been signed betwixt France and the States, though theintelligence was not made public till next day. Carleton says, thatthe troops, when drawn up for the attack, supposed the purpose wasto fire a _feu-de-joie_ for the conclusion of the war. Theenterprize, therefore, though successful, was needless as well asdesperate, and merited Dryden's oblique censure.
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