PROLOGUE
TO HIS
ROYAL HIGHNESS,
UPON HIS
FIRST APPEARANCE AT THE DUKE'S THEATRE AFTER HIS RETURN FROM SCOTLAND.
SPOKEN BY MR SMITH, 21st APRIL, 1682.
The Duke's return from Scotland, and the shock which it gave to the schemes of Shaftesbury and the Exclusionists, has been mentioned at length in the Notes to the Second Part of "Absalom and Achitophel," Vol. ix. p. 402. The passage upon which the note is given, agrees with this Prologue, in representing the secret enemies of the Duke of York as anxiously pressing forwards to greet his return:
While those that sought his absence to betray,
Press first, their nauseous false respects to pay;
Him still the officious hypocrites molest,
And with malicious duty break his rest.
Vol. ix. p. 344.
The date of the Prologue, and the name of the speaker, are marked on a copy in Mr Luttrell's collection.