A Prelude to THORNY-ABBEY.
HA! ha! I'me come now at last, or at first, which you will: for I am first here. D'ye call't a Tragedy? so they tell me it is, and that no fools must be in Tragedies: for they are se∣rious matters, forsooth. But I say there may, and there must be fools in Tragedies, and you call them Tragedies, or there will be no Tragedies. And I tell you more, they are all fools in the Tragedy; and you are fools, that come to see the Tragedy; and the Poet's a fool, who made the Tragedy, to tell a Story of a King and a Court, and leave a fool out on't; when in Pacy's, and Sommers's and Patche's, and Archer's times, my venerable Predecessours, a fool was alwayes the Principal Verb; and, as I sup∣pose, was so too long b•fore that; and, as I sup∣pose, when Thorny buil• his Abbey •oo; I, and as I suppose, we shall by his good leave, or with∣out it, continue so still to the end of the Chapter. But, now I talk of the Principal Verb, I have a part to say to you, if the Prompter would come to tell me, when I am out.
We're to present you — (Ha! ha! he thinks I have pigs in my belly.)
Si•rah! go on▪ We're to present you —
I won't have't non-sence We're to present you— but I'le hav't I am to present you —
And what are you to present them, I pray?
A fool's head: are not you? a Pick-pocket, quoth he; a Prologue you mean.
Why? I was sure, it began with a P. And though you will have it a Prologue, I say, it is a Pick-pocket too, I and a Pick-pocket Prologue too: for ask um, if all their pockets be'nt the worse for it.
