REPRESENTED BY SOME OF THE
At HICKFORD's Dancing Room, February 2, 1720,
WHO ACTED CORDELIO THE PAGE.
WHAT! would my humble comrades have mę
Gentle Spectators, pray excufe the play?
Such work by hireling actors should be done,
Whom you may clap or hiss for half a crown,
A few lines of this Prologue occurs in another, which is printed in yol. I.
Our generous
fcenes for friendship we repeat;
And, if we don't delight, at least we treat.
Ours is the damage, if we chance to blunder;
We may be ask'd" whofe patent we act under?"
How shall we gain you, A LA MODE DE FRANCE?
We hir'd this room; but none of us can dance,
In cutting capers we shall never please:
Our learning does not lie below our knees.
Shall we procure you fymphony and found?
Then you must each subscribe two hundred pound.
There we should fail too, as to point of voice:
Miftake us not; we're no Italian boys.
True Britons born; from Weftminster we come;
And only speak the style of ancient Rome.
We would deferve, not poorly beg, applause;
And ftand or fall by Friend's and Bufby's laws.
For the diftrefs'd, your pity we implore:
If once refus'd, we 'll trouble you no more,
But leave our Orphan fqualling at your door.
Mafters of Westminster fchool.
HOH! with what woes am I opprest!
W. Be ftill, you senseless calf!
What if the Gods fhould make you bleft?
H. Why then I'd fing and laugh:
But, if they won't, I'll wail and cry.
W. You'll hardly LAUGH, before you
NCE on a time, in fun-fhine weather, Falfehood and Truth walk'd out together, The neighbouring woods and lawns to view, As oppofites will fometimes do.
Through many a blooming mead they past,
And at a brook arriv'd at laft.
The purling ftream, the margin green,
With flowers bedeck'd, a vernal scene,
Invited each itinerant maid,
To reft a while beneath the shade.
Under a spreading beach they fat,
And pass'd the time with female chat;
Whilft each her character maintain'd;
One spoke her thoughts, the other feign'd.
At length, quoth Falfehood, Sifter Truth,
(For fo fhe call'd her from her youth)
What if, to fhun yon' fultry beam,
We bathe in this delightful stream;
The bottom fmooth, the water clear,
And there's no prying fhepherd near?
With all my heart, the nymph reply'd,
And threw her fnowy robes afide,
Stript herself naked to the skin,
And with a spring leapt headlong in.
Falfehood more leisurely undreft,
And, laying by her taudry vest,
Trick'd herself out in Truth's array,
And cross the meadows tript away.
From this curft hour, the fraudful dame
Of facred Truth ufurps the name,
And, with a vile, perfidious mind,
Roams far and near, to cheat mankind;
Falfe fighs fuborns, and artful tears,
And ftarts with vain pretended fears;
In vifits, ftill appears most wise,
And rolls at church her faint-like eyes ;
Talks very much, plays idle tricks,
While rifing ftock her confcience pricks;
When being, poor thing, extremely gravel'd,
She fecrets.op'd, and all unravel'd.
But on fhe will, and fecrets tell
Of John and Joan, and Ned and Nell,
Reviling every one she knows,
As fancy leads, beneath the rofe.
Her tongue, fo voluble and kind,
It always runs before her mind;
As times do ferve, the flily pleads,
And copious tears ftill fhew her needs.
With promises as thick as weeds-
Speaks PRO and con, is wondrous civil,
To-day a Saint, to-morrow Devil.
Poor Truth fhe ftript, as has been faid,
And naked left the lovely maid,
Who, fcorning from her caufe to wince,
Has gone stark-naked ever fince;
And ever naked will appear,
Belov'd by all who Truth revere.
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