1 Yet ev❜n these heroes, mifchievously gay,
Lords of the street, and terrors of the way;
Flush'd as they are with folly, youth and wine,
Their prudent infults to the poor confine;
Afar they mark the flambeau's bright approach,
And shun the shining train and golden coach.

m In vain these dangers paft, your doors you close,
And hope the balmy bleffings of repose:
Cruel with guilt, and daring with defpair,
The midnight murd'rer bursts the faithless bar;
Invades the facred hour of filent reft,

And plants, unfeen, a dagger in your breast.

n Scarce can our fields, fuch crowds at Tyburn die, With hemp the gallows and the fleet fupply.

Propose your schemes, ye fenatorian band,

Whose ways and means fupport the finking land;
Left ropes be wanting in the tempting spring,
To rig another convoy for the k-g.

Sed, quamvis improbus annis,

Atque mero fervens, cavet hunc, quem coccina læna
Vitari jubet, et comitum longiffimus ordo,
Multum præterea flammarum, atque ænea lampas.
Nec tamen hoc tantum metuas: nam qui fpoliet te
Non deerit: claufis domibus, &c.

n Maximus in vinclis ferri modus: ut timeas ne
Vomer deficiat, ne marræ et farcula defint.

A fingle jail, in ALFRED's golden reign,
Could half the nation's criminals contain ;
Fair Juftice then, without conftraint ador'd,
Held high the steady scale, but deep'd the sword;
No fpies were paid, no fpecial juries known,

Bleft

age ! but ah! how diff'rent from our own! » Much could I add, but fee the boat at hand,

The tide retiring calls me from the land:
Farewel!-When youth, and health, and fortune spent,
Thou fly'st for refuge to the wilds of Kent
And tir'd like me with follies and with crimes,
In angry numbers warn'ft fucceeding times;
Then fhall thy friend, nor thou refuse his aid,
Still foe to vice, forfake his Cambrian fhade;
"In virtue's caufe once more exert his rage,
Thy fatire point, and animate thy page.

• Felices proavorum atavos, felicia dicas
Secula, quæ quondam fub regibus atque tribunis
Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam.
P His alias poteram, & plures fubnectere caufas :
Sed jumenta vocant.

-Ergo vale noftri memor: & quoties te
Roma tuo refici properantem reddet Aquino,

Me quoque ad Eleufinam Cererem, veftramque Dianam
Convelle a Cumis: fatirarum ego, ni pudet illas,
Adjutor gelidos veniam caligatus in agros.

PRO

PROLOGUE

SPOKEN BY

Mr. GAR RICK.

At the Opening of the Theatre in DRURY-LANE 1747.

By the Same.

WHEN learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foes

First rear'd the stage, immortal SHAKESPEAR rofe;

Each change of many-colour'd life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new:
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting Time toil'd after him in vain :
His pow'rful strokes prefiding Truth impress'd,
And unrefifted paffion ftorm'd the breast.

Then JOHNSON came, instructed from the school, To please in method, and invent by rule;

His ftudious patience, and laborious art,
By regular approach affail'd the heart;
Cold approbation gave the ling'ring bays,

For those who durft not cenfure, fcarce could praife.
A mortal born, he met the general doom,

But left, like Egypt's kings, a lafting tomb.
The wits of Charles found easier ways to fame,
Nor wifh'd for JOHNSON's art, or SHAKESPEAR's flame;
Themselves they studied, as they felt they writ;
Intrigue was plot, obfcenity was wit.
Vice always found a sympathetic friend,
They pleas'd their age, and did not aim to mend.
Yet bards like these afpir'd to lasting praise,
And proudly hop'd to pimp in future days.

Their caufe was gen'ral, their fupports were strong,
Their flaves were willing, and their reign was long;
'Till shame regain'd the post that sense betray'd,
And Virtue call'd oblivion to her aid.

Then crush'd by rules, and weaken'd as refin'd,
For years the pow'r of tragedy declin'd;
From bard to bard the frigid caution crept,
'Till declamation roar'd, while paffion flept.
Yet ftill did Virtue deign the stage to tread,
Philofophy remain'd, though Nature fled.

But

But forc'd at length her ancient reign to quit,
She faw great Fauftus lay the ghost of Wit:
Exulting Folly hail'd the joyful day,
And pantomime and fong confirm'd her fway.
But who the coming changes can prefage,
And mark the future periods of the stage?
Perhaps if skill could diftant times explore,
New Behns, new Durfeys, yet remain in store.
Perhaps, where Lear has rav'd, and Hamlet dy'd,
On flying cars new forcerers may ride.

Perhaps (for who can guess th' effects of chance?)
Here Hunt may box, or Mahomet may dance.
Hard is his lot, that here by Fortune plac'd,
Muft watch the wild viciffitudes of tafte ;
With every meteor of caprice must play,
And chace the new-blown bubbles of the day.
Ah! let not cenfure term our fate our choice;
The stage but echoes back the public voice,
The drama's laws the drama's patrons give,
For we that live to please, muft please, to live.
Then prompt no more the follies you decry,
As tyrants doom their tools of guilt to die;
'Tis yours this night to bid the reign commence
Of refcu'd nature and reviving fense;

To