PROLOGUE+

ΤΟ

Mr. ADDISON's Tragedy

OF

CAT O.

T

O wake the foul by tender strokes of art,

To raise the genius, and to mend the heart, To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold, Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold: For this the Tragic Muse first trod the stage, 5 Commanding tears to stream thro' ev'ry age; Tyrants no more their favage nature kept, And foes to virtue wonder'd how they wept. Our author fhuns by vulgar fprings to move The hero's glory, or the virgin's love; In pitying love, we but our weakness show, And wild Ambition well deferves its woe.

+ This Prologue, and the Epilogue which follows, are the most perfect models of this fpecies of writing, both in the ferious and the ludicrous way,

Here tears shall flow from a more gen'rous cause, Such tears as Patriots shed for dying Laws: He bids your breasts with ancient ardour rise, 15 And calls forth Roman drops from British eyes. Virtue confefs'd in human shape he draws, What Plato thought, and godlike Cato was : No common object to your fight displays, But what with pleasure Heav'n itself furveys, 20 A brave man struggling in the ftorms of fate, And greatly falling with a falling ftate. While Cato gives his little Senate laws, What bofom beats not in his Country's cause? Who fees him act, but envies ev'ry deed? Who hears him groan, and does not wish to bleed? Ev'n when proud Cæfar 'midst triumphal cars, The spoils of nations, and the pomp of wars, Ignobly vain, and impotently great, Show'd Rome her Cato's figure drawn in ftate; 30 As her dead Father's rev'rend image past, The pomp was darken'd, and the day o'ercast; The Triumph ceas'd, tears gufh'd from ev'ry eye; The world's great Victor pass'd unheeded by ; Her laft good man dejected Rome ador'd, And honour'd Cæfar's lefs than Cato's fword.

NOTES.

25

35

VER. 20. But what with pleasure] This alludes to a famous paffage of Seneca, which Mr. Addifon afterwards used as a motto to his play, when it was printed.

Britons, attend: be worth like this approv❜d, And show, you have the virtue to be mov'd. With honeft fcorn the first fam'd Cato view'd

Rome learning arts from Greece, whom the fub

40

du'd ; Your scene precariously fubfifts too long On French tranflation, and Italian fong. Dare to have sense yourselves; affert the stage, Be justly warm'd with your own native rage: Such Plays alone should win a British ear, As Cato's felf had not difdain'd to hear.

NOTES.

45

VER. 46. As Cato's felf, etc.] This alludes to that famous ftory of his coming into the Theatre, and going out again.

EPILOGUE

то

Mr. Rowe's JANE SHORE.

PR

Defigned for Mrs. OLDFIELD.

Rodigious this! the Frail-one of our Play From her own Sex fhould mercy find to-day! You might have held the pretty head afide, Peep'd in your fans, been serious, thus, and cry'd, The Play may pass----but that strange creature, Shore,

I can't---indeed now---I fo hate a whore--

5

Just as a blockhead rubs his thoughtless skull,
And thanks his ftars he was not born a fool;
So from a fifter finner you shall hear,
"How strangely you expose yourself, my dear ?"
But let me die, all raillery apart,

Our sex are still forgiving at their heart;
And, did not wicked custom so contrive,
We'd be the beft, good-natur'd things alive.

II

There are, 'tis true, who tell another tale, 15 That virtuous ladies envy while they rail;

20

Such rage
without betrays the fire within;
In fome close corner of the foul, they fin;
Still hoarding up, moft fcandaloufly nice,
Amidst their virtues a referve of vice.
The godly dame, who fleshly failings damns,
Scolds with her maid, or with her chaplain crams.
Would you enjoy foft nights and folid dinners?
Faith, gallants, board with faints, and bed with
finners.

Well, if our Author in the Wife offends, 25
He has a Husband that will make amends:
He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving,
And fure fuch kind good creatures may be living.
In days of old, they pardon'd breach of vows,
Stern Cato's felf was no relentless spouse: 30
Plu---Plutarch, what's his name, that writes his
life?

Tells us, that Cato dearly lov'd his Wife :

Yet if a friend, a night or fo, fhould need her,
He'd recommend her as a special breeder.
To lend a wife, few here would fcruple make, 35
But, pray, which of you all would take her back?
Tho' with the Stoic Chief our stage may ring,
The Stoic Husband was the glorious thing.