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EPILOGUE.
NOW Lady Mothers, you who frown to Day,
Will be thought like the Lady of this Play;
You'll not condemn your selves, but like bad Faces,
Loath the Reflections, and abhor true Glasses:
But know all, by these Presents; there's no way
But Gentleness, to make ripe Girls obey:
Us'd ill, if they have Beauty, Wit, or Sence;
They will rebel in their own just Defence.
You in your selves, from Grandam Eve shou'd find,
The true Perverseness of a Womans Mind,
To what is most forbidden, most inclin'd;
What sharply to your Daughters you deny,
You fire their Curiosities to try:
They think when strictly kept from all Mankind,
There's much more in't than afterwards they find.
Your selves, go Flanting to all publick Places,
Exposing all you can, your Feeble Graces,
Darting weak Rays from your Autumnal Faces.
Heav'n knows true Languishing of Eyes you show,
When e're you mince, and simper at a Beaux;
High Dresses, and rich Pettieoats will tell us,
That all your Ornaments you wear at Fellows;
Like Woodcocks, or like Teagues pursu'd, you hide
Your Heads, and think your Body's unespy d;
Your Daughters find you out, and will obey,
What e're they see you do; not hear you say.
The Gawdy Mother hates the Daughters sight,
Whose dazling Beams Eclipse her glimmering Light;
She must the Visitants but seldom see,
And when admitted to the Company,
With down cast Looks she enters, and affraid,
She sneaks like an offending Chamber-maid:
VVith toss'd up Head, she must be snub'd and chidden,
And Mothers dear Delights to her forbidden;
This begets Scorn, how can one stand in awe,
Of a vain Tawdry, Amorous Mamma.
Of these the Poet must despair to Day,
They will be mortal Foes to him and's Play.
VVhile these frail Dames the Author does expose,
The Lustre of the Good, that clearly shews,
From them a Plaudit must not be deny'd,
The VVitty, Fair ones, must be on our side,
So much their Power by him is magnify'd.
VVe show you how your vigorous Beams t'exert,
Young vicious men to Conquer and Convert:
Firm to our selves we always have a way,
To make the fiercest Beast, VVild man, obey.