spoke a Prologue to the play, attributed to Garrick. Colman’s Epilogue was spoken by the characters. The receipts on this occasion were £47. The third performance, May 25th, consisted of “_Speed the Plough_,” and the afterpiece of “_High Life below Stairs_.” Receipts £24. The late J. F. M. Dovaston, Esq., who had taken much interest in these performances, wrote a Prologue to “_The Heir at Law_,” and it was intended that he should enact the part of Lord Duberly, and deliver his own witty effusion. Some differences, however, arose, and he did not therefore take any part in the performances. Although the total receipts amounted to the handsome sum of £147 12s. 6d., yet the expense of scenery, &c., exhausted nearly all the fund, and the original design, of establishing a Public Library, failed. Mr. Dovaston’s Prologue is given in his volume of Poems, published in 1825. It forms part of the literary history of Oswestry, and we therefore make no apology for transferring it to our pages:— “PROLOGUE, “To a Play for the Benefit of a PUBLIC LIBRARY; spoken in the character of Lord Duberly (formerly Old Daniel Dowlas, the Grocer). Oswestry Theatre, 1822. “THOUGH here I struts, a lord so great and gay, I was but tallow-chandler t’other day; I’ve riches, dress, good dinners, rank, and station, But what are all these without headication? If I dines out, and says but aye or no, Sir, As sure as figs is figs—out peeps the Grocer. I sees as clear as is in glass or varnish, Wealth without larnin is—but tawdry tarnish: Poor men, of Manners, Sense, and Wit all handy, Are to Society—bright Sugar-candy; While ev’n in Senate, Bar, Church, Tabernacle, Brass without Brains is—Brimstone without Treacle. “I to the Playhouse goes, to see their vainery, And (tho’ enraptured with their fine new Scenery) I knows not what their wit or weeping takes there, Nor what they means by SHERIDAN or SHAKSPEARE. “We’ve got no Books—and this our show’s all brib’ry To ax good-natur’d folks to fill our LIBREY. We gives books to the poor—and all approves them; Then why not by example shew we loves them? “Knowledge, in this world’s counting-house’s mass, Is good store candle, mould, or brilliant gas, To keep our day-book faithful; which, when furl’d, Will post us fitter for a future world.”