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Show PROLOGU OU R Authors have, in mofl their late Effays, Prologu'd their own, by damning other Plays • Made great Harangues to teach you what was fit To pafs for Humour, and go down for Wit. Athenian Rules muft form an Englifh Piece, And Drury-Lane comply with ancient Greece. Exactnefs only, fuch as Terence writ, Muft pleafe our mafqu'd Lucretias in the Pit. Our Touthful Author fwears, he cares not a Pin For Voffius, Scaliger, Hedelin, or Rapin : He leaves to learned Pens fuch labour d Lays, Tou are the Rules by which he writes his Plays. From mufty Books let others take their View, He hates dull Reading, but he fludies Tou. Firfl, from you Beaux, his Leffon is Formality, And in your Footmen there,- mofl nice Morality*, To pleafure them his Pegafus mufl fly, Becaufe they fudge, and lodge, three Stories high. From the Front-Boxes he has pick'd his Stile, And learns, without a Blufh, to make 'em Smile; A Leffon only taught us by the Fair; A waggifh Allion but a modefl Air. Among his Friends here in the Pit, he reads Some Rules that every modifh Writer needs. He learns from every Covent-Garden Critick's Face, The modern Forms, of Action, Time, and Place. The Atlion he's afham'd to name, d'ye fee, The Time is Seven, the Place is N u m b e r Three. The Mafques he only reads by paffant Looks, He dares not venture far into their Books. Thus then the Pit and Boxes are his Schools, Tour Air, your Humour, his Dramatick Rules. Let Criticks cenfure then, and hifs like Snakes, He gains his Ends, if his light Fancy takes St. James'; Beaux, and Covent-Garden Rakes. |