Wide Habitation of the Sons of Men, Wherein the seeds of vice and virtue lie Mix’d, like the undigested Elements Ere Chaos lost his kingdom; where blind Chance With Passion holds divided anarchy; O! who can rightly scan thee, or describe? Subject ill suited to a Virgin’s Muse, That cannot praise, and is to blame untaught: Wherefore from this unprofitable theme She turns, leaving unsung its argument; Save that with careless hand her lute she strikes Lightly, nor hoping that the myrtle wreath Shall crown her unpremeditated lay. [16] This was among the subjects for a Prize Poem, given out by Sir John and Lady Miller at Bath Easton. THE BRITISH THEATRE. WRITTEN IN 1775. When first was rear’d the British Stage, Rude was the scene and weak the lay; The Bard explored the sacred Page, And holy Mystery form’d his Play. Th’ affections of the mortal breast In simple Moral next he sung, Each Vice[17] in human shape he drest, And to each Virtue[17] gave a tongue. Then ’gan the Comic Muse unfold In coarser jests her homely art: Of Gammer Gurton’s[18] loss she told, And laugh’d at Hodge’s awkward smart. Come from thy wildly-winding stream, First-born of Genius, SHAKSPEARE, come! The listening World attends thy theme, And bids each elder Bard[19] be dumb: For thou, within the human Mind Fix’d, as on thy peculiar throne, Sitt’st like a Deity inshrined; And either Muse is all thine own! Yet shall not Time’s rough hand destroy The scenes by learned Jonson writ; Nor shall Oblivion e’er enjoy The charms of Fletcher’s courtly wit: And still in matchless beauty live The numbers of that Lyric Strain Sung gayly to the Star of Eve By Comus and his jovial Train. Here sunk the Stage:—and dire alarms The Muse’s voice did overwhelm; For wounded Freedom call’d to arms, And Discord shook the embattled Realm. But Peace return’d; and with her came (Alas! how changed!) the tuneful Pair: Thalia’s eye should blench with shame, And her sad Sister weep to hear How the mask’d[20] Fair, in Charles’s reign, Her lewd and riotous Fancy fed At Killigrew’s debauchful scene, While hapless Otway pined for Bread. Thus the sweet Lark shall sing unheard, And Philomel sit silent by; While every vile and chattering bird Torments the grove with ribald cry. And see what witless Bards presume With buskin’d fools to rhyme and rage; While Mason’s idle Muse is dumb, And weary Garrick quits the Stage. [17] Personification of the passions in the moralities. [18] Gammer Gurton’s Needle is the oldest English comedy; the distress of it arises from the loss of the needle, which at last is discovered in her man Hodge’s breeches. [19] There were no plays of any note before Shakspeare. [20] The custom of that time, for fear of hearing indecencies, otherwise too gross to be supported.