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EPILOGUE

ΤΟ

THE SISTER

WHAT! five long acts—and all to make us wiser!

Our authoress sure has wanted an adviser.

Had she consulted me, she should have made
Her moral play a speaking masquerade:
Warm'd up each bustling scene, and in her rage
Have emptied all the green-room on the stage:

From The Sister: a comedy. By Mrs. Charlotte Lennox. 1769. This comedy was acted at Covent-garden theater on the 18th of February, 1769. It was not repeated. The epilogue was spoken by Mrs. Bulkley, who had personated Miss Autumn. — Charlotte Ramsay, a native of America, came to England in early life; married a Mr. Lennox; and devoted herself to authorship. She was much esteemed by Johnson, Garrick, and other persons of eminence. The most remarkable of her numerous works are: The Female Quixote, a clever novel; the Memoirs of Sully, a standard translation; and The Sister, an amusing closet-drama. This ingenious woman, who deserved all the honors and emoluments of literature, died in reduced circumstances, in 1804.

My life on 't, this had kept her play from sinking;

Have pleas'd our eyes, and sav'd the pain of thinking. Well, since she thus has shown her want of skill, What if I give a masquerade?—I will.

But how? ay, there's the rub! [pausing]—I've got

my cue:

The world's a masquerade; the maskers, you, you, you.

[To boxes, pit, and gallery.

Lud! what a group the motley scene discloses―

False wits, false wives, false virgins, and false spouses!

Statesmen with bridles on; and, close beside them,

Patriots, in party-color'd suits, that ride them.
There Hebes, turn'd of fifty, try once more

To raise a flame in Cupids of three score.
These in their turn, with appetites as keen,
Deserting fifty, fasten on fifteen.

Miss, not yet full fifteen, with fire uncommon,

Flings down her sampler, and takes up the woman;
The little urchin smiles, and spreads her lure,
And tries to kill, ere she's got power to cure.
Thus 'tis with all their chief and constant care

Is to seem every thing but what they are.

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Yon broad, bold, angry spark, I fix my eye on,

Who seems to have robb'd his vizor from the lion;

Who frowns, and talks, and swears, with round parade,
Looking, as who should say, Dam'me! who's afraid?
[Mimicking.

Strip but his vizor off, and sure I am
You'll find his lionship a very lamb.

Yon politician, famous in debate,

Perhaps, to vulgar eyes, bestrides the state;
Yet, when he deigns his real shape to assume,
He turns old woman, and bestrides a broom.
Yon patriot, too, who presses on your sight,
And seems to every gazer all in white,

If with a bribe his candor you attack,

He bows, turns round, and whip- the man's a black! Yon critic, too- but whither do I run?

If I proceed, our bard will be undone !

Well then, a truce, since she requests it too:

Do you spare her, and I'll for once spare you.

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PROLOGUE

ΤΟ

ZOBEIDE.

In these bold times, when learning's sons explore The distant climate, and the savage shoreWhen wise astronomers to India steer,

And quit for Venus many a brighter here—

From Zobeide. Atragedy. [By Joseph Cradock, esq.] 1771. —The manuscript prologue was accompanied by this note: Mr. Goldsmith presents his best respects to Mr. Cradock, has sent him the prologue, such as it is. He can not take time to make it better. He begs he will give Mr. Yates the proper instructions; and so, even so, he commits him to fortune, and the public." - Zobeide was first acted at Covent-garden theater on the 11th of December, 1771. The prologue was spoken by Mr. Quick, in the character of a sailor. - Line 3. When wise astronomers, etc. Lieut. Cook, who had been sent out in 1768 to observe the transit of Venus at Otaheite, cast anchor in the Downs on the 12th of July, 1771. The astronomers alluded to are Cook and Green; the botanists, Banks and Solander. Line 11. With Scythian The scene of the tragedy is Scythia. — Joseph Cradock, a native of Leicester, was educated at Cambridge. He left the university without graduating; but, in 1765, was created A.M. per literas regias.

stores.

While botanists, all cold to smiles and dimpling,
Forsake the fair, and patiently go simpling -

When every bosom swells with wondrous scenes,
Priests, cannibals, and hoity-toity queens-

Our bard into the general spirit enters,

And fits his little frigate for adventures.

With Scythian stores, and trinkets, deeply laden,

He this way steers his course, in hopes of trading —

Yet ere he lands he 'as order'd me before,

To make an observation on the shore.

Where are we driven? our reckoning sure is lost!

This seems a barren and a dangerous coast.
Lord, what a sultry climate am I under!

Yon ill-foreboding cloud seems big with thunder;

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Here trees of stately size- and turtles in them;

[Pit.

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[Balconies.

He was a proficient in music; a clever amateur-actor; and wrote four volumes entitled Memoirs. Zobeide, above noticed, is translated from Les Scythes of Voltaire. Mr. Cradock died in 1826

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