And presently occurs the familiar passage-- Let those find fault whose wit's so very small, They've had to show that they can think at all. Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls must dive below. Fops may have leave to level all they can, As pigmies would be glad to lop a man. Half wits are fleas, so little and so light, We scarce could know they live, but that they bite. Another prologue begins-- They who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write, Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite; A playhouse gives them fame; and up then starts From a mean fifth-rate wit, a man of parts. The more important critics are described as-- A jury of the wits who still stay late, And in their club decree the poor play's fate; Their verdict back is to the boxes brought, Thence all the town pronounces it their thought. "The little Hectors of the pit" are also spoken of, and there is mention of "Fop-corner," the prototype of "Fop's-alley" of later years. Now, "a kind, hearty pit" is prayed for, and now, in a prologue delivered before the University of Oxford, stress is laid upon the advantages of "a learned pit." It may be noted, too, that the prologues of Dryden, apart from their wit, and overlooking, if that can possibly be managed, their distressing grossness, are invaluable for the accurate and minute pictures they present of English life, manners, costumes, and character in the reign of Charles II. In right of the many quotations it has supplied to literature and conversation, Dr. Johnson's prologue spoken by Garrick upon the opening of Drury Lane Theatre, in 1747, may claim to be considered the most famous production of its class. It is not, in truth, however, a prologue as prologues are ordinarily understood, but rather an address, written to suit special circumstances, and having no connection with any particular play. Boswell describes it as "unrivalled for just and manly criticism on the whole range of the English stage, as well as for poetic excellence," and records that it was during the season often called for by the audience. Johnson's prologue to his friend Goldsmith's comedy of "The Good-natured Man" was certainly open to the charge brought against it of undue solemnity. The first lines-- Press'd with the load of life the weary mind Surveys the general toil of human kind--