The stubborne author of the trifle<48.1> crime,
That just now cheated you of two hours' time,
Presumptuous it lik't him,<48.2> began to grow
Carelesse, whether it pleased you or no.
But we who ground th' excellence of a play
On what the women at the dores wil say,
Who judge it by the benches, and afford
To take your money, ere his oath or word
His SCHOLLARS school'd, sayd if he had been wise
He should have wove in one two COMEDIES;
The first for th' gallery, in which the throne
To their amazement should descend alone,
The rosin-lightning flash, and monster spire
Squibs, and words hotter then his fire.
Th' other for the gentlemen oth' pit,
Like to themselves, all spirit, fancy, wit,
In which plots should be subtile as a flame,
Disguises would make PROTEUS stil the same:
Humours so rarely humour'd and exprest,
That ev'n they should thinke 'em so, not drest;
Vices acted and applauded too, times
Tickled, and th' actors acted, not their crimes,
So he might equally applause have gain'd
Of th' hardned, sooty, and the snowy hand.<48.3>
Where now one SO SO<48.4> spatters, t'other: no!
Tis his first play; twere solecisme 'tshould goe;
The next 't show'd pritily, but searcht within
It appeares bare and bald, as is his chin;
The towne-wit sentences: A SCHOLARS PLAY!
Pish! I know not why, but th'ave not the way.<48.5>
We, whose gaine is all our pleasure, ev'n these
Are bound by justice and religion to please;
Which he, whose pleasure's all his gaine, goes by
As slightly, as they doe his comaedy.
Culls out the few, the worthy, at whose feet
He sacrifices both himselfe and it,
His fancies first fruits: profit he knowes none,
Unles that of your approbation,
Which if your thoughts at going out will pay,
Hee'l not looke farther for a second day.<48.6>
<48.1> Perhaps TRIFLING was the word written by Lovelace.
A VENIAL OFFENCE is meant.
<48.2> It would be difficult to point out a writer so unpardonably
slovenly in his style or phraseology as Lovelace. By "Presumptuous
it lik't him," we must of course understand "Presumptuous that
he liked it himself," or presumptuously self-satisfied.
<48.3> i.e. the rough and dirty occupants of the gallery and
the fair spectators in the boxes.
<48.4> An exclamation of approval, when an actor made a hit.
The phrase seems to be somewhat akin to the Italian "SI, SI,"
a corruption of "SIA, SIA."
<48.5> i.e. they do not know how to act a play.
<48.6> This prologue and epilogue were clearly not attached
to the play when it was first performed by the fellow-collegians
of the poet at Gloucester Hall, as an amateur attempt in the
dramatic line, but were first added when "The Scholars" was
reproduced in London, and the parts sustained by ordinary actors.