"To speak with freedom, dignity, and ease,
To learn those arts which may hereafter please,"—
nothing was required, but that "youth in earliest age" should "Rehearse the poet's labours on the stage." As for patriotism, said Prince George,—"Know,—'twas the first great lesson I was taught!" And, of course, he gloried that he was "A boy, in England born, in England bred!" Artists, who may hereafter paint the scene, will do well to remember what pictures were suspended on the walls:
"Before my eyes those heroes stand,
Whom the great William brought to bless this land;—
To guard, with pious care, that gen'rous plan
Of power well bounded, which he first began."
The epilogue was spoken by Lady Augusta (as Prince Frederick called his daughter) and Prince Edward, afterwards Duke of York. It was mere doggerel; but Augusta flouted at the fine phrases of the prologue, and Edward—entrusted with a sly hit at George's boast of being English born—declared that George had—
"Vouchsafed to mention
His future gracious intention,