SIR,

I am amazed to find an Epilogue attacked in your last Fridays Paper,

which has been so generally applauded by the Town, and receiv'd such

Honours as were never before given to any in an English Theatre.

The Audience would not permit Mrs. Oldfield to go off the Stage the

first Night, till she had repeated it twice; the second Night the

Noise of Ancoras was as loud as before, and she was again obliged to

speak it twice: the third Night it was still called for a second time;

and, in short, contrary to all other Epilogues, which are dropt after

the third Representation of the Play, this has already been repeated

nine times.

I must own I am the more surprized to find this Censure in Opposition

to the whole Town, in a Paper which has hitherto been famous for the

Candour of its Criticisms.

I can by no means allow your melancholy Correspondent, that the new

Epilogue is unnatural because it is gay. If I had a mind to be

learned, I could tell him that the Prologue and Epilogue were real

Parts of the ancient Tragedy; but every one knows that on the British

Stage they are distinct Performances by themselves, Pieces entirely

detached from the Play, and no way essential to it.

The moment the Play ends, Mrs. Oldfield is no more Andromache, but

Mrs. Oldfield; and tho the Poet had left Andromache stone-dead upon

the Stage, as your ingenious Correspondent phrases it, Mrs. Oldfield

might still have spoke a merry Epilogue. We have an Instance of this

in a Tragedy [2] where there is not only a Death but a Martyrdom. St.

Catherine was there personated by Nell Gwin; she lies stone dead upon

the Stage, but upon those Gentlemen's offering to remove her Body,

whose Business it is to carry off the Slain in our English Tragedies,

she breaks out into that abrupt Beginning of what was a very

ludicrous, but at the same time thought a very good Epilogue.

Hold, are you mad? you damn'd confounded Dog,

I am to rise and speak the Epilogue.

This diverting Manner was always practised by Mr. Dryden, who if he

was not the best Writer of Tragedies in his time, was allowed by every

one to have the happiest Turn for a Prologue or an Epilogue. The

Epilogues to Cleomenes, Don Sebastian, The Duke of Guise, Aurengzebe,

and Love Triumphant, are all Precedents of this Nature.

I might further justify this Practice by that excellent Epilogue which

was spoken a few Years since, after the Tragedy of Phædra and

Hippolitus; with a great many others, in which the Authors have

endeavour'd to make the Audience merry. If they have not all succeeded

so well as the Writer of this, they have however shewn that it was not

for want of Good-will.

I must further observe, that the Gaiety of it may be still the more

proper, as it is at the end of a French Play; since every one knows

that Nation, who are generally esteem'd to have as polite a Taste as

any in Europe, always close their Tragick Entertainments with what

they call a Petite Piece, which is purposely design'd to raise Mirth,

and send away the Audience well pleased. The same Person who has

supported the chief Character in the Tragedy, very often plays the

principal Part in the Petite Piece; so that I have my self seen at

Paris, Orestes and Lubin acted the same Night by the same Man.

Tragi-Comedy, indeed, you have your self in a former Speculation found

fault with very justly, because it breaks the Tide of the Passions

while they are yet flowing; but this is nothing at all to the present

Case, where they have already had their full Course.

As the new Epilogue is written conformable to the Practice of our best

Poets, so it is not such an one which, as the Duke of Buckingham says

in his Rehearsal, might serve for any other Play; but wholly rises out

of the Occurrences of the Piece it was composed for.

The only Reason your mournful Correspondent gives against this

Facetious Epilogue, as he calls it, is, that he has mind to go home

melancholy. I wish the Gentleman may not be more Grave than Wise. For

my own part, I must confess I think it very sufficient to have the

Anguish of a fictitious Piece remain upon me while it is representing,

but I love to be sent home to bed in a good humour. If Physibulus is

however resolv'd to be inconsolable, and not to have his Tears dried

up, he need only continue his old Custom, and when he has had his half

Crowns worth of Sorrow, slink out before the Epilogue begins.

It is pleasant enough to hear this Tragical Genius complaining of the

great Mischief Andromache had done him: What was that? Why, she made

him laugh. The poor Gentleman's Sufferings put me in mind of

Harlequins Case, who was tickled to Death. He tells us soon after,

thro a small Mistake of Sorrow for Rage, that during the whole Action

he was so very sorry, that he thinks he could have attack'd half a

score of the fiercest Mohocks in the Excess of his Grief. I cannot but

look upon it as an happy Accident, that a Man who is so bloody-minded

in his Affliction, was diverted from this Fit of outragious

Melancholy. The Valour of this Gentleman in his Distress, brings to

ones memory the Knight of the sorrowful Countenance, who lays about

him at such an unmerciful rate in an old Romance. I shall readily

grant him that his Soul, as he himself says, would have made a very

ridiculous Figure, had it quitted the Body, and descended to the

Poetical Shades, in such an Encounter.

As to his Conceit of tacking a Tragic Head with a Comic Tail, in order

to refresh the Audience, it is such a piece of Jargon, that I don't

know what to make of it.

The elegant Writer makes a very sudden Transition from the Play-house

to the Church, and from thence, to the Gallows.

As for what relates to the Church, he is of Opinion, that these

Epilogues have given occasion to those merry Jiggs from the Organ-Loft

which have dissipated those good Thoughts, and Dispositions he has

found in himself, and the rest of the Pew, upon the singing of two

Staves cull'd out by the judicious and diligent Clark.

He fetches his next Thought from Tyburn; and seems very apprehensive

lest there should happen any Innovations in the Tragedies of his

Friend Paul Lorrain.

In the mean time, Sir, this gloomy Writer, who is so mightily

scandaliz'd at a gay Epilogue after a serious Play, speaking of the

Fate of those unhappy Wretches who are condemned to suffer an

ignominious Death by the Justice of our Laws, endeavours to make the

Reader merry on so improper an occasion, by those poor Burlesque

Expressions of Tragical Dramas, and Monthly Performances.

I am, Sir, with great Respect,

Your most obedient, most humble Servant,

Philomeides.