صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

EPILOGUE.

GALLANTS, by all good signs it does appear,
That sixty-seven's a very damning year,
For knaves abroad, and for ill poets here.

Among the muses there's a general rot,
The rhiming monsieur, and the Spanish plot :
Defy or court, all's one, they go to pot.

The ghosts of poets walk within this place,
And haunt us actors wheresoe'er we pass,
In visions bloodier than King Richard's was.

For this poor wretch, he has not much to say,
But quietly brings in his part o'th' play,
And begs the favour to be damned to-day.

He sends me only like a sheriff's man here,
To let you know the malefactor's near,
And that he means to die, en cavalier.

For, if you should be gracious to his pen, The example will prove ill to other men, And you'll be troubled with them all again.

AN

EVENING'S LOVE;

OR, THE

MOCK ASTROLOGER.

A

COMEDY.

TO HIS GRACE,

WILLIAM,

DUKE OF NEWCASTLE*,

ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S

MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL, AND OF THE MOST NOBLE order of the GARTER, &c.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR GRACE,

AMONGST those few persons of wit and honour, whose favourable opinion I have desired, your own virtue, and my great obligations to your grace, have justly given you the precedence. For what could be more glorious to me, than to have acquired some part of your esteem, who are admired and honoured

*William Cavendish, duke of Newcastle, distinguished himself in the civil wars of Charles I. He might have possessed himself of Hull, had the king more carly resolved on an open rupture with the parliament. When the war broke out, he levied an army of 8000 men, secured the northern counties for the king, and raised the siege of York. The invasion of the Scots prevented his farther success; but he defeated the parliamentary forces in several actions, and shewed all the talents of a great soldier. After the loss of the battle of Marston Moor, which Prince Rupert hazarded in opposition to his advice, he left England in disgust, and did not return till the Restoration. He was much respected when abroad, and acquired the favour of many princes, and, amongst others, of Don

VOL. III.

« السابقةمتابعة »