Our poet, something doubtful of his fate, Made choice of me to be his advocate, Relying on my knowledge in the laws; And I as boldly undertook the cause. I left my client yonder in a rant, Against the envious, and the ignorant, Who are, he says, his only enemies: But he condemns their malice, and defies The sharpest of his censurers to say, Where there is one gross fault in all his play. The language is so fitted for each part, The plot according to the rules of art, And twenty other things he bid me tell you; But I cried, e'en go do't yourself for Nelly.[A] Reason with judges, urged in the defence Of those they would condemn, is insolence; I therefore wave the merits of his play, And think it fit to plead this safer way. If when too many in the purchase share, Robbing's not worth the danger nor the care; The men of business must, in policy, Cherish a little harmless poetry, All wit would else grow up to knavery. Wit is a bird of music, or of prey; Mounting, she strikes at all things in her way. But if this birdlime once but touch her wings, On the next bush she sits her down and sings. I have but one word more; tell me, I pray, What you will get by damning of our play? A whipt fanatic, who does not recant, Is, by his brethren, called a suffering saint; And by your hands should this poor poet die, Before he does renounce his poetry, His death must needs confirm the party more, Than all his scribbling life could do before; Where so much zeal does in a sect appear, 'Tis to no purpose, 'faith, to be severe. But t'other day, I heard this rhyming fop Say,--Critics were the whips, and he the top; For, as a top spins more, the more you baste her, So, every lash you give, he writes the faster. [Footnote A: The epilogue appears to have been spoken by Nell Gwynn.] PROLOGUE, SPOKEN BY MRS BOUTELL TO THE MAIDEN QUEEN, IN MAN'S CLOTHES. _The following prologue and epilogue occur in the "Covent-Garden Drollery" a publication which contains original copies of several of Dryden's fugitive pieces. They appear to have been spoken upon occasion of the male characters in "The Maiden Queen" being represented by female performers. From our author's connection both with the play and with Mrs Reeves, who spoke the epilogue, it is probable he wrote both that and the prologue; and therefore (although not much worth preserving) we have here added them. From the reference to Ravenscroft's play of "The Citizen turned Gentleman," in the last line of the epilogue, it would seem the prologue and epilogue were written and spoken in 1672_.