PROLOGUE
SPOKEN BY MR. REDDISH
Critics, hark forward! noble game and new;
A fine West Indian started full in view:
Hot as the soil, the clime, which gave him birth,
You'll run him on a burning scent to earth;
| Yet don't devour him in his hiding place; | 5 |
Bag him, he'll serve you for another chase;
For sure that country has no feeble claim,
Which swells your commerce, and supports your fame.
And in this humble sketch, we hope you'll find
| Some emanations of a noble mind; | 10 |
Some little touches, which, though void of art,
May find perhaps their way into the heart.
Another hero your excuse implores,
Sent by your sister kingdom to your shores;
| Doomed by religion's too severe command, | 15 |
To fight for bread against his native land:
A brave, unthinking, animated rogue,
With here and there a touch upon the brogue;
Laugh, but despise him not, for on his lip
| His errors lie; his heart can never trip. | 20 |
Others there are -- but may we not prevail
To let the gentry tell their own plain tale?
Shall they come in? They'll please you, if they can;
If not, condemn the bard -- but spare the man.
| For speak, think, act, or write in angry times, | 25 |
A wish to please is made the worst of crimes;
Dire slander now with black envenomed dart,
Stands ever armed to stab you to the heart.Rouse, Britons, rouse, for honor of your isle,
| Your old good humor; and be seen to smile. | 30 |
You say we write not like our fathers -- true,
Nor were our fathers half so strict as you,
Damned not each error of the poet's pen,
But judging man, remembered they were men.
| Awed into silence by the times' abuse, | 35 |
Sleeps many a wise, and many a witty muse;
We that for mere experiment come out,
Are but the light-armed rangers on the scout:
High on Parnassus' lofty summit stands
| The immortal camp; there lie the chosen bands! | 40 |
But give fair quarter to us puny elves,
The giants then will sally forth themselves;
With wit's sharp weapons vindicate the age,
And drive ev'n Arthur's magic from the stage.
____________________-721-
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: British Dramatists from Dryden to Sheridan.
Contributors: George Henry Nettleton - Editor, Arthur Eillicot Case - Editor.
Publisher: Boston ; Houghton Mifflin company,..
Place of publication: Boston; New York.
Publication year: 1939.
Page number: 721.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may
not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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