The Double-Dealer | Page 5

MR. CONGREVE,?ON HIS COMEDY CALLED THE DOUBLE-DEALER.
Well then, the promised hour is come at last;?The present age of wit obscures the past.?Strong were our sires; and as they fought they writ,?Conqu'ring with force of arms and dint of wit.?Theirs was the giant race, before the flood;?And thus, when Charles returned, our empire stood.?Like Janus he the stubborn soil manured,?With rules of husbandry the rankness cured,?Tamed us to manners, when the stage was rude,?And boist'rous English wit with art indued.?Our age was cultivated thus at length;?But what we gained in skill we lost in strength.?Our builders were with want of genius curst;?The second temple was not like the first:?Till you, the best Vitruvius, come at length,?Our beauties equal, but excel our strength.?Firm Doric pillars found your solid base,?The fair Corinthian crowns the higher space;?Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.?In easy dialogue is Fletcher's praise:?He moved the mind, but had no power to raise.?Great Johnson did by strength of judgment please?Yet doubling Fletcher's force, he wants ease.?In diff'ring talents both adorned their age;?One for the study, t'other for the stage.?But both to Congreve justly shall submit,?One matched in judgment, both o'er-matched in wit.?In him all beauties of this age we see,?Etherege his courtship, Southern's purity,?The satire, wit, and strength of manly Wycherly.?All this in blooming youth you have achieved,?Nor are your foiled contemporaries grieved;?So much the sweetness of your manners move,?We cannot envy you, because we love.?Fabius might joy in Scipio, when he saw?A beardless consul made against the law,?And join his suffrage to the votes of Rome;?Though he with Hannibal was overcome.?Thus old Romano bowed to Raphael's fame,?And scholar to the youth he taught became.
O that your brows my laurel had sustained,?Well had I been deposed if you had reigned!?The father had descended for the son,?For only you are lineal to the throne.?Thus when the state one Edward did depose,?A greater Edward in his room arose.?But now, not I, but poetry is cursed;?For Tom the Second reigns like Tom the First.?But let 'em not mistake my patron's part,?Nor call his charity their own desert.?Yet this I prophesy: Thou shalt be seen?(Though with some short parenthesis between)?High on the throne of wit; and seated there,?Not mine (that's little) but thy laurel wear.?Thy first attempt an early promise made;?That early promise this has more than paid.?So bold, yet so judiciously you dare,?That your least praise is to be regular.?Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought,?But genius must be born, and never can be taught.?This is your portion, this your native store,?Heav'n, that but once was prodigal before,?To Shakespeare gave as much; she could not give him more.
Maintain your post: that's all the fame you need;?For 'tis impossible you should proceed.?Already I am worn with cares and age,?And just abandoning th' ungrateful stage:?Unprofitably kept at heav'n's expense,?I live a rent-charge on his providence.?But you, whom every muse and grace adorn,?Whom I foresee to better fortune born,?Be kind to my remains; and oh, defend,?Against your judgment, your departed friend!?Let not th' insulting foe my fame pursue;?But shade those laurels which descend to you:?And take for tribute what these lines express:?You merit more; nor could my love do less.
JOHN DRYDEN.
PROLOGUE--Spoken by Mrs. Bracegirdle.
Moors have this way (as story tells) to know?Whether their brats are truly got or no;?Into the sea the new-born babe is thrown,?There, as instinct directs, to swim or drown.?A barbarous device, to try if spouse?Has kept religiously her nuptial vows.
Such are the trials poets make of plays,?Only they trust to more inconstant seas;?So does our author, this his child commit?To the tempestuous mercy of the pit,?To know if it be truly born of wit.
Critics avaunt, for you are fish of prey,?And feed, like sharks, upon an infant play.?Be ev'ry monster of the deep away;?Let's have a fair trial and a clear sea.
Let nature work, and do not damn too soon,?For life will struggle long e'er it sink down:?And will at least rise thrice before it drown.?Let us consider, had it been our fate,?Thus hardly to be proved legitimate:?I will not say, we'd all in danger been,?Were each to suffer for his mother's sin:?But by my troth I cannot avoid thinking,?How nearly some good men might have 'scaped sinking.?But, heav'n be praised, this custom is confined?Alone to th' offspring of the muses kind:?Our Christian cuckolds are more bent to pity;?I know not one Moor-husband in the city.?I' th' good man's arms the chopping bastard thrives,?For he thinks all his own that is his wives'.
Whatever fate is for this play designed,?The poet's sure he shall some comfort find:?For if his muse has played him false, the worst?That can befall him, is, to be divorced:?You husbands judge, if that be to be cursed.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
MEN.
MASKWELL, a villain; pretended friend to Mellefont, gallant to Lady Touchwood, and in love with Cynthia,--Mr. Betterton
LORD