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PROLOGUE For the First Part of DON QUIXOTE:
Spoken by Mr. Betterton.
IN hopes the Coming Scenes your Mirth will raise
To you, the Just pretenders to the Bays;
The Poet humbly thus a Reverence pays.
And you, the Contraries, that hate the Pains
Of Labour'd Sence, or of Improving Brains:
That feel the Lashes in a well-writ Play,
He bids perk up and smile, the Satyr sleeps to Day.
Our Sancho bears no Rods to make ye smart;
Proverbs, and Merry Jokes▪ are all his Part.
The Modish Spark may Paint, and lie in Paste,
Wear a huge Steinkirk twisted to his Waste;
And not see here, how foppish he is Dress'd.
The Country Captain; that to Town do's come,
From his Militia Troop, and Spouse at home,
To beat a London-Doxies Kettle-Drum:
One, who not onely th' whole Pit can prove,
That she for Brass Half-crown has barter'd Love:
But the Eighteen-penny Whore-masters above,
With his Broad Gold may Treat his Pliant Dear,
Without being shown a Bubbled Coxcomb here.
Grave Dons of Bus'ness, may be Bulker's Cullies,
And Crop-ear'd Prentices set up for Bullies,
And not one Horse-whip Lash here, flaug their Follies;
Nay, our hot Blades, whose Honour was so small,
They'd not bear Arms, because not Colf neis all:
That wish the French may have a mighty Slaughter;
But wish it safely,╌on this side o'th' Water.
Yet when the King returns, are all prepar'd,
To beg Commissions in the Standing-Guard;
Even these, the Sons of Shame and Cowardice,
Will 'scape us now, tho' 'tis a cursed Vice.
Our Author has a famous Story chose,
Whose Comick Theme no Person do's expose,
But the Knights-Errant; And pray where are those?
There was an Age, when Knights with Launce and Shield,
Would Right a Ladies Honour in the Field:
To punish Ravishers, to Death would run;
But those Romantick Days╌alas, are gon;
Some of our Knights now, rather would make one,
Who finding a young Virgin, by Disaster,
Ty'd to a Tree, would rather tie her faster.
Yet these must 'scape too; so indeed must al▪
Court-Cuckold-makers now not Jest do's maul;
Nor the horn'd Herd within yon City-Wall.
The Orange-Miss, that here Cajoles the Duke,
May sell her Rotten Ware without rebuke.
The young Coquet, whose Cheats few Fools can dive at,
May Trade, and th' Old, Tope Kniperkin in private.
The Atheist too, on Laws Divine may Trample,
And the Plump Jolly Priest get Drunk for Church-Example.