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TO A FRIEND,

Who had been much abufed in many different LIBELS.

THE greatest Monarch may be ftabb'd by night,
And fortune help the murderer in his flight;
The vileft ruffian may commit a
a rape,
Yet fafe from injur'd innocence escape;
And Calumny, by working under ground,
Can, unreveng'd, the greatest merit wound.
What's to be done? Shall Wit and Learning choose
To live obfcure, and have no fame to lofe?
By Cenfure frighted out of Honour's road,
Nor dare to use the gifts by Heaven bestow'd?
Or fearless enter in through Virtue's gate,
And buy diftinction at the deareft rate?

EPIGRAM.

GREAT folks are of a fine mold;

Lord? how politely they can fcold!

While a coarse English tongue will itch,
For whore and rogue; and dog and bitch.

PRO

PROLOGUE

To a PLAY for the Benefit of the DISTRESSED WEAVERS, By Dr. SHERIDAN.

Spoken by Mr. ELRINGTON. 1721.

GREAT cry and little wool—is now become
The plague and proverb of the Weaver's loom:
No wool to work on, neither weft nor warp;
Their pockets empty, and their stomachs sharp.
Provok'd, in loud complaints to you they cry:
Ladies, relieve the weavers: or they die!
Forfake your filks for ftuffs; nor think it ftrange,
To shift your cloaths, fince you delight in change,
One thing with freedom I'll prefume to tell-
The men will like you every bit as well.

See I am drefs'd from top to toe in stuff;
And, by my troth, I think I'm fine enough:
My wife admires me more, and fwears she never,
In any drefs, beheld me look fo clever.

And if a man be better in fuch ware,

What great advantage must it give the fair!
Our wool from lambs of innocence proceeds:
Silks come from maggots, callicoes from weeds:
Hence 'tis by fad experience that we find
Ladies in filks to vapours much inclin'd―
And what are they but maggots in the mind?
For which I think it reason to conclude
That cloaths may change our temper like our food.
Chintzes are gawdy, and engage our eyes
Too much about the party-colour'd dyes:

Although

Although the luftre is from

you begun,

We see the rainbow, and neglect the fun.
How fweet and innocent's the country maid,
With fmall expence in native wool array'd;
Who copies from the fields her homely green,
While by her fhepherd with delight she's seen!
Should our fair ladies drefs like her in wool,
How much more lovely, and how beautiful,
Without their Indian drapery, they'd prove!
While wool would help to warm us into love!
Then, like the famous Argonauts of Greece,
We'd all contend to gain the Golden Fleece!

EPILOGUE, BY THE DEAN.
Spoken by Mr. GRIFFITH.

WHO dares affirm this is no pious age,

When charity begins to tread the stage?

When actors, who, at beft, are hardly favers,
Will give a night of benefit to Weavers ?
Stay-let me fee, how finely will it found!
Imprimis, From his Grace a hundred pound.
Peers, clergy, gentry, all are benefactors;
And then comes in the item of the actors.
Item, The actors freely gave a day-
The Poet had no more who made the Play.

But whence this wondrous charity in Players? They learn it not at Sermons, or at Prayers: Under the rofe, fince here are none but friends, (To own the truth) we have fome private ends.

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Since waiting-women, like exacting jades,
Hold up the prices of their old brocades;
We'll dress in manufactures made at home;
Equip our kings and generals at the Comb †.
We'll rig from Meath-ftreet Ægypt's haughty queen,
And Antony shall court her in ratteen.
In blue fhalloon fhall Hannibal be clad,
And Scipio trail an Irish purple plaid.
In drugget dreft, of thirteen pence a yard,
See Philip's fon amid his Persian guard;
And proud Roxana, fir'd with jealous rage,
With fifty yards of crape fhall fweep the stage.
In short, our kings and princeffes within
Are all refolv'd this project to begin,
And you, our fubjects, when you here refort,
Muft imitate the fashion of the Court.

Oh! could I fee this audience clad in ftuff, Though money's scarce, we should have trade enough: But chintze, brocades, and lace, take all away, And scarce a crown is left to fee a play.

Perhaps you wonder whence this friendship springs
Between the Weavers and us Play-house Kings;
But Wit and Weaving had the fame beginning;
Pallas first taught us Poetry and Spinning:
And, next, obferve how this alliance fits,
For Weavers now are just as poor as Wits:
Their brother quill-men, workers for the stage,
For forry ftuff can get a crown a page;
But Weavers will be kinder to the Players,
And fell for twenty-pence a yard of theirs.
And, to your knowledge, there is often less in
The Poet's wit, than in the Player's dreffing,

A ftreet famous for woollen manufactures.

THE

THE COUNTRY-LIFE.

Part of a Summer spent at GAULSTOWN-HOUSE.

THALIA, tell in fober lays,

How George*, Nim†, Dan ‡, Dean §, pass their
days;

And, fhould our Gaulftown's art grow fallow,'
Yet Neget quis carmina Gallo?

Here (by the way) by Gallus mean I

Not Sheridan, but friend Delany.

Begin, my
We fally forth at different hours;

Mufe. First from our bowers

;

At feven the Dean, in night-gown dreft,
Goes round the house to wake the reft;
At nine, grave Nim and George facetious
Go to the Dean, to read Lucretius
At ten, my Lady comes and hectors,
And kiffes George, and ends our lectures;
And when she has him by the neck fast,
Hals him, and fcolds us down to breakfast.
We fquander there an hour or more,
And then all hands, boys, to the oar;
All, heteroclite Dan except,

Who neither time nor order kept,
But, by peculiar whimfies drawn,
Peeps in the ponds to look for spawn;

• Mr. Rochfort.

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10

15

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+ His brother, Mr. John Rochfort; who was called Nimrod, from his great attachment to the chace.

Rev. Daniel Jackson.

Dr. Swift.

O'erfees

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