The First of April

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Title: The First of April
Or, The Triumphs of Folly: A Poem Dedicated to a Celebrated Duchess.
By the author of The Diaboliad.
Author: William Combe
Release Date: August 4, 2006 [EBook #18988]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIRST
OF APRIL ***
Produced by David Edwards, Taavi Kalju and the Online
Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
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from scanned images of public domain
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Print project.)
THE
FIRST OF APRIL:
OR, THE
TRIUMPHS
OF

FOLLY:
A
POEM.
DEDICATED TO A
CELEBRATED DUTCHESS.
BY THE AUTHOR OF THE DIABOLIAD.
0. DOST THOU CALL ME FOOL, BOY?-- ALL THY OTHER
TITLES THOU HAST GIVEN AWAY THAT THOU WAST
BORN WITH!--
SHAKESPEARE.
LONDON:
Printed for J. Bew, No. 28, Paternoster-Row.
MDCCLXXVII.
[Price Two Shillings and Six-Pence.]
DEDICATION
TO A
CELEBRATED DUTCHESS.
MADAM,
I am rather apprehensive that you will rank me among the Impertinents
of the Age, in giving a performance which treats professedly of the
Triumphs of Folly, the Sanction of Your Grace. But tho', in the too
great quickness of apprehension, this may be the case; I have not the
least doubt but, in some succeeding moments of coolness and candour,
you will accompany me through this Address; and not suffer a

condemning spirit to pass a final sentence upon me, without giving
some little attention to my justification.
I need not tell Your Grace, that, in former times, every Family of
Distinction was considered as incomplete in its establishment, if it did
not possess a certain whimsical Character called a _Fool_; who was
either to afford amusement to his witty Master by the real singularity of
his Humour,--or to act as a foil to his foolish Lord by well-timed
displays of affected Folly.--These appendages to Greatness have long
been laid aside.--Indeed, the present Age, which is remarkable for its
refinements, has, in the general methods of forming the Great, blended
the two Characters;--and it does not seldom happen, as Your Grace
very well knows, that a Modern Man of Fashion serves his Company
both as their _Host_ and their _Buffoon_. I cannot therefore, in justice,
be considered as guilty of any impropriety in addressing this work to
Your Grace, as it relates to a Personage, who has heretofore possessed,
as it were, a domestic union with the Great, by furnishing, from among
her Children, the _chief Wits_ of their noble Houses.
Tho' it has changed its appearance, the connection has not ceased to
subsist; and FOLLY, though she extends her influence over all ranks
and professions, still seems more particularly attached to the higher
Orders of Life.
FOLLY loves the Toilette of a Woman of Fashion!--It is her
Altar.--The enormity of its expences,--the frivolousness, to say no
worse, of its conversation,--and the time which is lost in attending its
duties, are so many offerings to her honour. The love of display is
inherent in her nature:--every place of public amusement is, more or
less, her delight;--but an _Opera_ is her favourite entertainment.--There,
she not only presides, but triumphs.--There, Sense, Taste, and Reason,
lie beneath her Feet.
As she is now become your intimate companion, I will not mortify
Your Grace with the history of her origin, and an account of her
genealogy, which I am sure would greatly distress you. Believe me,
Madam, I should be sorry to give you a moment's mortification. My
sincere desire is to do you good, by warning you of the danger which

awaits such a disgraceful connection.
At your time of life it is not wholly unnatural that you should find
something pleasant in the frolic gaiety of your Friend; and the
Flatterers, who are alike under her influence, may find something
graceful in the manners which she might communicate to you: but in
the Mirror of Wisdom, the highest beauties of FOLLY appear but as
foul deformities; and she is there seen in her natural appearance,
attended by Vice, Contempt, and Misery.
_The Prosperity of Fools_, says the Wise Man, _shall destroy them_.
The influence of FOLLY is more dangerous, as the station it possesses
is more exalted; and as the means of doing good are more enlarged
among the Rich and Great, that time is the more to be lamented which
they consume in frivolous pursuits and empty pleasures.
Without intruding upon your recollection the more awful obligations
attendant upon your station in the world,