WRITTEN TO THE DUKE DE NOALLES.
VAIN the concern which you exprefs,
That uncall'd Alard will poffefs
Your house and coach, both day and night, And that Macbeth was haunted lefs
By Banquo's reftlefs fpright.
With fifteen thousand pound a year.
Do you complain, you cannot bear
An ill, you may foon retrieve?
Good Alard, faith, is modester
By much, than you believe.
Lend him but fifty LOUIS' D'OR;
And fhall never fee him more:
Take the advice; PROBATUM EST. Why do the gods indulge our ftore, But to fecure our reft?
SPOKEN BY MRS. OLDFIELD, WHO ACTED IS MEN A,
LADIES, to-night your pity I implore
For one, who never troubled you before
An Oxford man, extremely read in Greek,
Who from Euripides makes Phædra speak;
* This excellent tragedy, although performed by Betterton, Booth, Mrs. Barry, and Mrs. Oldfield, met with but a very cold reception from the publick on its first appearance. In the Spectator, No. 18, Mr. Addison fays-" would one "think it was poffible (at a time when an author lived "that was able to write the Phædra and Hippolitus) for a "people to be fo ftupidly fond of the Italian opera, as "scarce to give a third day's hearing to that admirable
tragedy." The prologue to it was written by Mr. Addifon.
And comes to town to let us moderns know,
How women lov'd two thousand years ago.
If that be all, faid I, even burn your play:
I'gad! we know all that, as well as they :
Show us the youthful, handfome charioteer.
Firm in his feat, and running his career;
Our fouls would kindle with as generous flames,
As e'er infpir'd the ancient Grecian Dames:
Every Ifmena would refign her breast ;
And every dear Hippolitus be bleft.
But, as it is, fix flouncing Flanders mares
Are even as good, as any two of theirs :
And if Hippolitus can but contrive
To buy the gilded chariot: John can drive.
Now of the buftle you have feen to-day,
And Phædra's morals in this fcholar's play,
Something at least in juftice fhould be faid:
But this Hippolitus fo fills one's head-
Well! Phædra liv'd as chaftly as she could;
For fhe was father Jove's own flesh and blood,
Her aukward love indeed was odly fated;
She and her Poly were too near related:
And yet that fcruple had been laid afide,
If honeft Thefeus had but fairly died:
But when he came, what needed he to know,
But that all matters ftood in STATU QUO?
There was no harm, you fee, or grant there were;
She might want conduct; but he wanted care.
'Twas in a husband little less than rude,
Upon his wife's retirement to intrude
He should have fent a night or two before,
That he would come exact at fuch an hour;
Then he had turn'd all tragedy to jeft;
Found every thing contribute to his reft;
The PICQUET-friend difmifs'd, the coaft all clear,
And spouse alone impatient for her dear.
But if thefe gay reflections come too late,
To keep the guilty Phædra from her fate ;
If your more serious judgment must condemu
The dire effects of her unhappy flame :
Yet, ye chafte matrons, and ye tender fair,
Let love and innocence engage your care:
My spotless flames to your protection take ;
And spare poor Phædra for Ifmena's fake.
MRS. DE LA RIVIERE MANLEY.
THE female author who recites to-day,
Trufts to her sex the merit of her play.
Like father Bayes fecurely fhe fits down:
P'it, box, and gallery, gad! all's our own.
In ancient Greece, fhe fays, when Sappho writ,
By their applaufe the critics fhow'd their wit,
They tun'd their voices to her Lyric ftring;
Though they could all do fomething more than fing.
But one exception to this fact we find;
That booby Phaon only was unkind,
An ill-bred boat-man, rough as waves and wind.
* This play was acted at Drury-lane, in 1717, with fuccefs. In the dedication to Sir Richard Steele, who wrote a prologue to it, the author apologizes for the feverity of her former writings against him.
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