A comedy, which should the knowing take, That our dull poet, in despair to please, Does humbly beg, by me, his writ of ease. 'Tis a land-tax, which he's too poor to pay; You therefore must some other impost lay. 40 Would you but change, for serious plot and verse, This motley garniture of fool and farce, Nor scorn a mode, because 'tis taught at home, Which does, like vests, our gravity become, Our poet yields you should this play refuse: As tradesmen, by the change of fashions, lose, With some content, their fripperies of France, In hope it may their staple trade advance. * * * * * IX. PROLOGUE. SPOKEN THE FIRST DAY OF THE KING'S HOUSE ACTING AFTER THE FIRE OF LONDON. So shipwreck'd passengers escape to land, So look they, when on the bare beach they stand, Dropping and cold, and their first fear scarce o'er, Expecting famine on a desert shore. From that hard climate we must wait for bread, Whence even the natives, forced by hunger, fled. Our stage does human chance present to view, But ne'er before was seen so sadly true: You are changed too, and your pretence to see Is but a nobler name for charity. 10 Your own provisions furnish out our feasts, While you the founders make yourselves the guests. Of all mankind beside fate had some care, But for poor Wit no portion did prepare, 'Tis left a rent-charge to the brave and fair. You cherish'd it, and now its fall you mourn, Which blind unmanner'd zealots make their scorn, Who think that fire a judgment on the stage, Which spared not temples in its furious rage. But as our new-built city rises higher, 20 So from old theatres may new aspire, Since fate contrives magnificence by fire. Our great metropolis does far surpass Whate'er is now, and equals all that was: Our wit as far does foreign wit excel, And, like a king, should in a palace dwell. But we with golden hopes are vainly fed, Talk high, and entertain you in a shed: Your presence here, for which we humbly sue, Will grace old theatres, and build up new. 30 * * * * * X. EPILOGUE TO THE SECOND PART OF THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA.