PROLOGUE
TO THE
LOYAL BROTHER, or the PERSIAN PRINCE.
BY MR SOUTHERNE, 1682.
Poets, like lawful monarchs, ruled the stage,
Till critics, like damned Whigs, debauched our age.
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Mark how they jump! critics would regulate }
Our theatres, and Whigs reform our state; }
Both pretend love, and both (plague rot them!) hate. }
The critic humbly seems advice to bring,
The fawning Whig petitions to the king;