These goods for man the laws of Heaven ordain, These goods he grants, who grants the power to gain; With these celestial Wisdom calms the mind, PROLOGUE SPOKEN BY MR GARRICK, At the Opening of the Theatre Royal, Drury-lane, 1747. WHEN Learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foes Then Jonson came, instructed from the school, The wits of Charles found easier ways to fame, Nor wish'd for Jonson's art, or Shakspeare's flame. Themselves they studied, as they felt they writ; Intrigue was plot, obscenity was wit. Vice always found a sympathetic friend; Then, crush'd by rules, and weaken'd as refin'd, Perhaps (for who can guess th' effects of chance ?) Here Hunt may box, or Mahomet* may dance. Hard is his lot that, here by Fortune plac'd, Must watch the wild vicissitudes of taste; * Hunt, a famous boxer on the stage; Mahomet, a ropedancer, who had exhibited at Covent-Garden Theatre the winter before, said to be a Turk. With ev'ry meteor of caprice must play, To chase the charms of Sound, the pomp For useful Mirth and salutary Woe; Bid scenic Virtue form the rising age, of Show, And Truth diffuse her radiance from the stage. |