Micuit argenti letalia pondera vivi;
Cogeret ut celerem vis geminata necem.
Dividat haec si quis, faciunt discreta venenum:
Antidotum sumet, qui sociata bibet.
Ergo inter sese dum noxia pocula certant,
Cessit letalis noxa salutiferae.
Protinus et vacuos alvi petiere recessus
Lubrica dejectis qua via nota cibis.
Quam pia cura deum! prodest crudelior uxor,
Et quum fata volunt, bina venena juvant._
PROLOGUE
SENT TO THE AUTHOR BY AN UNKNOWN HAND, AND PROPOSED TO BE SPOKEN BY
MRS MOUNTFORD, DRESSED LIKE AN OFFICER[1].
Bright beauties, who in awful circle sit,
And you, grave synod of the dreadful pit,
And you the upper-tire of pop-gun wit,
Pray ease me of my wonder, if you may;
Is all this crowd barely to see the play;
Or is't the poet's execution-day?
His breath is in your hands I will presume,
But I advise you to defer his doom,
Till you have got a better in his room;
And don't maliciously combine together,
As if in spite and spleen you were come hither;
For he has kept the pen, tho' lost the feather[2].
And, on my honour, ladies, I avow,
This play was writ in charity to you;
For such a dearth of wit who ever knew?
Sure 'tis a judgment on this sinful nation,
For the abuse of so great dispensation;
And, therefore, I resolve to change vocation.
Pages:
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351