For worth deceased the sigh from reason flows

E’en well feign’d passion for our sorrows call,

And real tears for mimic miseries fall:

But this poor farce has neither truth nor art,

To please the fancy or to touch the heart;

Unlike the darkness of the sky, that pours

On the dry ground its fertilizing showers;

Unlike to that which strikes the soul with dread,

When thunders roar and forky fires are shed;

Dark but not awful, dismal but yet mean,