Triumphant Nassau here we find,
And with him bright Maria join'd;
There Anna, great as when the sent
Her armies through the continent,
Ere yet her Hero was difgrac'd:

O may fam'd Brunswick be the laft,
(Though heav'n should with my wish agree,
And long preserve thy art in thee)
The laft, the happieft British King,
Whom thou shalt paint, or I fhall fing!

Wife Phidias, thus his skill to prove,
Through many a God advanc'd to Jove,
And taught the polish'd rocks to fhine
With airs and lineaments divine;

Till Greece amaz'd, and half-afraid,
Th' affembled deities furvey'd.

Great Pan, who wont to chase the fair,
And lov'd the spreading oak, was there;

Old Saturn too with upcaft eyes
Beheld his abdicated skies;

And mighty Mars, for war renown'd,

In adamantine armour frown'd;

By him the childless goddess rofe,

Minerva, ftudious to compose

Her twifted threads; the web the ftrung,

And o'er a loom of marble hung:

Thetis

Thetis the troubled ocean's Queen,

Match'd with a mortal, next was feen,

Reclining on a funeral urn,

Her fhort-liv'd darling fon to mourn.
The laft was he, whofe thunder flew
The Titan-race, a rebel crew,
That from a hundred hills ally'd

In impious leagues their King defy'd.
This wonder of the fculptor's hand
Produc'd, his art was at a stand:

For who would hope new fame to raise,
Or risk his well-establish'd praife,

That, his high genius to approve,

Had drawn a GEORGE, or carv'd a Jove !

PROLOGUE

L

ΤΟ

PHEDRA and HIPPOLITUS.

Spoken by Mr. WILKS.

ONG has a race of heroes fill'd the stage,

That rant by note, and through the gamut rage;

In fongs and airs exprefs their martial fire,

Combat in trills, and in a feuge expire;

While lull'd by found, and undisturb'd by wit,
Calm and ferene you indolently fit:

And from the dull fatigue of thinking free,

Hear the facetious fiddles repartee:

Our home-fpun authors must forfake the field,
And Shakespear to the foft Scarletti yield.

To your new tafte the Poet of this day

Was by a friend advis'd to form his play;

Had Valentini, mufically coy,

Shun'd Phædra's arms, and scorn'd the proffer'd joy: It had not mov'd your wonder to have seen

An eunuch fly from an enamour'd Queen:

How

How would it please, should fhe in English speak,
And could Hippolitus reply in Greek?

But he a stranger to your modish way,

By your old rules must stand or fall to-day,

And hopes you will your foreign taste command,
To bear, for once, with what

you

understand.

Prologue to the TENDER HUSBAND.

Spoken by Mr. WILKS.

N the firft rife and infancy of farce,

IN

When fools were many, and when plays were scarce,

The raw unpractis'd authors could, with eafe,

A young and unexperienc'd audience please ;

No fingle character had e'er been shewn,

But the whole herd of fops was all their own;
Rich in originals, they fet to view,

In every piece, a coxcomb that was new.

But now our British theatre can boast Drolls of all kinds, a vast unthinking host!

Fruitful of folly and of vice, it fhews

Cuckolds, and cits, and bawds, and pimps, and beaux;

Rough country knights are found of every shire;

Of every fashion gentle fops appear;

And punks of different characters we meet,
As frequent on the stage as in the pit,

Our modern wits are forc'd to pick and cull,
And here and there by chance glean up a fool:

A Comedy written by Sir RICHARD STEELE.

Long