[Footnote 56: Alluding to the vulgar proverb, "One who is born under a three-penny planet will never be worth a groat."] [Footnote 57: There would probably occur to the audience of the period, some recollection of the manner in which King James had been treated by Sunderland.] [Footnote 58: Meaning, that the courtiers, although their eyes be as fatal as those of basilisks, are not subject to the fate of that fabulous serpent, which died if a man beheld it first.] [Footnote 59: Our author uses the same old word, for a scramble, in the prologue to "The Widow Ranter." Bauble and cap no sooner are thrown down, But there's a _muss_ of more than half the town. It occurs frequently in old authors, and particularly in the well known passage in "Anthony and Cleopatra." ----Of late, when I cried ho! Like boys unto a _muss_, kings would start forth, And cry, your will?] [Footnote 60: This old English word, for a Christmas masquerading frolic, is still used in some parts of England.] [Footnote 61: See the lines in the prologue, He dies,--at least to us and to the stage, And what he has, he leaves this noble age.] PROLOGUE, SONG, SECULAR MASQUE, & EPILOGUE, WRITTEN FOR _THE PILGRIM_. REVIVED FOR DRYDEN'S BENEFIT, IN 1700. Our Author's connection with the Theatre only ended with his life. The pieces, which follow, have reference to the performance of "The Pilgrim," a play of Beaumont and Fletcher, which was revived in 1700. Vanburgh, a lively comic writer, who seems to have looked up to Dryden with that veneration which was his due, added some light touches of humour, to adapt this play to the taste of the age. The aged poet himself furnished a Prologue and Epilogue, a Song, and Secular Masque; and, with these additions, the piece was performed for the benefit of Dryden. It seems dubious, whether the kind intentions of Vanburgh and the players actually took effect in favour of our author himself, or in that of his son. It is certain, that, if he did not die before the representation, he did not survive it many weeks, as the play[62] was not published till after his death. But his lamp burned bright to the close. The Prologue and Epilogue, written within a few weeks of his death, equal any thing of the kind which he ever produced. He combats his two enemies, Blackmore and Collier, with his usual spirit; but with manliness concedes, that they had attacked him in one vulnerable and indefensible particular, where he lay open, less from any peculiar depravity in his own taste, than from compliance with the general licence of the age.