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Show PROLOGUE: Spoken by Mr. W I L K S. \A7Hen Strife difturb s, or Sloth corrupts an Age, - " Keen Satyr is the Bufinefs of the Stage. When the Plain-Dealer writ, he lafh'd thofe Crimes Which then infefled moft the modifh Times : But now, when FaUion fleeps, and Sloth is fled, And all our Touth in Atlive Fields are bred ; When thro' G R E A T B R I T A I N ' ; fair extenfive Round, The Trumps of Fame, the Notes of U N I O N found; When A N N A's Scepter points the Laws their Courfe, And Her Example gives her Precepts Force : There fcarce is room for Satyr ; all our Lays Muft be, or Songs of Triumph, or of Praife: But as in Grounds beft cultivated, Tares And Poppies rife among the Golden Ears ; Our Products Jo, fit for the Field or School, Muft mix with Nature's Favourite Plant -aFool; A Weed that has to twenty Summer s ran, Shoots up in Stalk, and Vegetates to Man. Simpling our Author goes from Field to Field, An d culls fuch Fools, as may Diver/ion yield; And, thanks to Nature, there's no want of thofe, For Rain, or Shine, the thriving Coxcomb grows. Follies, to Night we fhew, ne'er lafh'd before, Tet,fuch as Nature fhews you e'ry Hour; Nor can the Piilure's give, a jufl Offence, For Fools are made for Jefts to Men of Senfe; Dramatis |