* * * * * * * * * THE STEP-MOTHER. PERSONS REPRESENTED. PROLOGUE. LACHES. PHIDIPPUS. PAMPHILUS. PARMENO. SOSIA. BOY, _and other Servants._ SOSTRATA. MYRRHINA. BACCHIS. PHILOTIS. SYRA. NURSE, _Servants to Bacchis, etc._ SCENE, ATHENS. PROLOGUE. This play is call'd the STEP-MOTHER. When first It was presented, such a hurricane, A tumult so uncommon interven'd, It neither could be seen nor understood: So taken were the people, so engag'd By a rope-dancer!--It is now brought on As a new piece: and he who wrote the play Suffer'd it not to be repeated then, That he might profit by a second sale. Others, his plays, you have already known; Now then, let me beseech you, know this too. ANOTHER PROLOGUE. I come a pleader, in the shape of prologue: Let me then gain my cause, and now grown old. Experience the same favor as when young; Who then recover'd many a lost play, Breath'd a new life into the scenes, and sav'd The author and his writings from oblivion. Of those which first I studied of Caecilius, In some I was excluded; and in some Hardly maintain'd my ground. But knowing well The variable fortunes of the scene, I was content to hazard certain toil For an uncertain gain. I undertook To rescue those same plays from condemnation, And labor'd to reverse your sentence on them; That the same Poet might afford me more, And no ill fortune damp young Genius in him. My cares prevail'd; the plays were heard; and thus Did I restore an Author, nearly lost Through the malevolence of adversaries, To study, labor, and the Poet's art. But had I at that time despis'd his plays, Or labor'd to deter him from the task, It had been easy to have kept him idle, And to have scar'd him from attempting more: For my sake, therefore, deign to hear with candor The suit I mean to offer to you now.