THE
PROLOGUE
TO HIS
MAJESTY
At the first PLAY presented at the Cock-pit in
WHITEHALL;
Being part of that Noble Entertainment which Their MAJESTIES received Novemb. 19.
from his Grace the Duke of ALBEMARLE.
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GReatest of Monarchs, welcome to this place
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Which Majesty so oft was wont to grace
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Before our Exile, to divert the Court,
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And ballance weighty Cares with harmless sport,
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This truth we can to our advantage say,
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They that would have no KING, would have no Play:
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The Laurel and the Crown together went,
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Had the same Foes, and the same Banishment:
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The Ghosts of their great Ancestors they fear'd,
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Who by the art of conjuring Poets rear'd,
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Our HARRIES & our EDWARDS long since dead
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Still on the Stage a march of Glory tread:
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Those Monuments of Fame (they thought) would stain
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And teach the People to despise their Reign:
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Nor durst they look into the Muses Well,
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Least the cleer Spring their ugliness should tell;
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Affrighted with the shadow of their Rage,
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They broke the Mirror of the times, the Stage;
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The Stage against them still maintain'd the War,
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When they debauch'd the Pulpit and the Bar.
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Though to be Hypocrites, be our Praise alone,
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'Tis our peculiar boast that we were none.
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What er'e they taught, we practis'd what was true,
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And something we had learn'd of honor too,
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When by Your Danger, and our Duty prest,
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We acted in the Field, and not in Jest;
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Then for the Cause our Tyring-house they sack't,
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And silenc't us that they alone might act;
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And (to our shame) most dext'rously they do it,
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Out-act the Players, and out-ly the Poet;
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But all the other Arts appear'd so scarce,
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Ours were the Moral Lectures, theirs the Farse:
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This spacious Land their Theater became,
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And they Grave Counsellors, and Lords in Name;
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Which these Mechanicks Personate so ill
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That ev'n the Oppressed with contempt they fill,
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But when the Lyons dreadful skin they took,
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They roar'd so loud that the whole Forrest shook;
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The noise kept all the Neighborhood in awe,
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Who thought 'twas the true Lyon by his Pawe.
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If feigned Vertue could such Wonders do,
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What may we not expect from this that's true!
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But this Great Theme must serve another Age,
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To fill our Story, and adorne our Stage.
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