By ROBERT DODSLEY, Author of _The Art of Charming_. [Illustration: _First Edition._] _LONDON:_ Printed for LAWTON GILLIVER, at _Homer's Head_, against St. _Dunstan's_ Church, in _Fleet-street_. 1735. EPILOGUE. _Well, Heav'n be prais'd, this dull grave Sermon's done. (For faith our Author might have call'd it one) I wonder who the Devil he thought to please! Is this a Time o' Day for Things like these? Good Sense and honest Satire now offend; We're grown too wise to learn, too proud to mend. And so divinely wrapt in Songs and Tunes, The next wise Age will all be----Fiddlers Sons. And did he think plain Truth wou'd Favour find? Ah! 'tis a Sign he little knows Mankind! To please, he ought to have a Song or Dance, The Tune from_ Italy, _the Caper_ France: _These, these might charm----But hope to do't with Sense! Alas, alas, how vain is the Pretence! But, tho' we told him,----Faith, 'twill never do.-- Pho, never fear, he cry'd, tho' grave, 'tis new: The Whim, perhaps, may please, if not the Wit. And, tho' they don't approve, they may permit. If neither this nor that will intercede, Submissive bond, and thus for Pardon plead._ _"To gen'rous Few, to you our Author sues His first Essay with Candour to excuse. 'T has Faults, he owns, but, if they are but small, He hopes your kind Applause will hide them all."_ Dramatis Personae. _MEN._ Master of the Shop, Mr. _Chapman_. 1 } Mr. _Bridgewater_. 2 } Gentleman, Mr. _Wignell_. 3 } Mr. _Hallam_. 4 } Mr. _Hale_. Beau. Mr. _Neale_. 1 } Old Man, Mr. _James_. 2 } Mr. _Hippisley_. _WOMEN._ 1 } Mrs. _Bullock_. 2 } Lady, Miss _Norsa_. 3 } Mrs. _Mullart_. 4 } Miss _Bincks_. THE TOY-SHOP. SCENE _a Parlour._ _A Gentleman and two Ladies, drinking Tea._ _Gent._ And you have never been at this extraordinary Toy-shop, you say, Madam? _1 La._ No, Sir: I have heard of the Man, indeed; but most People say, he's a very impertinent, silly Fellow. _Gent._ That's because he sometimes tells them of their Faults. _1 La._ And that's sufficient. I should think any Man impertinent that should pretend to tell me of my Faults, if they did not concern him. _Gent._ Yes, Madam. But People that know him take no Exceptions. And really, tho' some may think him impertinent, in my Opinion, he's very entertaining. _2 La._ Pray, who is this Man you're talking of? I never heard of him. _Gent._ He's one who has lately set up a Toy-shop, Madam, and is, perhaps, the most extraordinary Person in his Way that ever was heard of. He is a general Satyrist, yet not rude nor ill-natur'd. He has got a Custom of moralizing upon every Trifle he sells, and will strike a Lesson of Instruction out of a Snuff-box, a Thimble, or a Cockle-shell.