9. The quarrel betwixt OEdipus and the prophet, who announces his guilt, is imitated from a similar scene in the OEdipus Tyrannus. 10. Borrowed from Shakespeare; And lean-looked prophets whisper fearful change. _Richard II._ EPILOGUE. What Sophocles could undertake alone, Our poets found a work for more than one; And therefore two lay tugging at the piece, With all their force, to draw the ponderous mass from Greece; A weight that bent even Seneca's strong muse, And which Corneille's shoulders did refuse. So hard it is the Athenian harp to string! So much two consuls yield to one just king. Terror and pity this whole poem sway; The mightiest machines that can mount a play. How heavy will those vulgar souls be found, Whom two such engines cannot move from ground! When Greece and Rome have smiled upon this birth, You can but damn for one poor spot of earth; And when your children find your judgment such, They'll scorn their sires, and wish themselves born Dutch; Each haughty poet will infer with ease, How much his wit must under-write to please. As some strong churl would, brandishing, advance The monumental sword that conquered France; So you, by judging this, your judgment teach, Thus far you like, that is, thus far you reach. Since then the vote of full two thousand years Has crowned this plot, and all the dead are theirs, Think it a debt you pay, not alms you give, And, in your own defence, let this play live. Think them not vain, when Sophocles is shown, To praise his worth they humbly doubt their own. Yet as weak states each other's power assure, Weak poets by conjunction are secure. Their treat is what your palates relish most, Charm! song! and show! a murder and a ghost! We know not what you can desire or hope, To please you more, but burning of a Pope.[1] Footnote: 1. The burning a Pope in effigy, was a ceremony performed upon the anniversary of queen Elizabeth's coronation. When parties ran high betwixt the courtiers and opposition, in the latter part of Charles the II. reign, these anti-papal solemnities were conducted by the latter, with great state and expence, and employed as engines to excite the popular resentment against the duke of York, and his religion. The following curious description of one of these tumultuary processions, in 1679, was extracted by Ralph, from a very scarce pamphlet; it is the ceremony referred to in the epilogue; and it shall be given at length, as the subject is frequently alluded to by Dryden. [Illustration: The Solemn Mock Procession of the POPE, Cardinals, Jesuits, Friars, &c. Through the CITY OF LONDON November 17.th 1679. London Published January 1808 by William Miller, Albemarle Street. Dryden Works to face Vol 6th page 223]