[THE FIRST SCENE IS THE CITY OF SEVILLE.]
The Prologue enters with a play-bill in his hand, and reads—This day, being the 15th of December, shall be acted a new play, never play'd before, call'd The Adventures of Five Hours.
A NEW PLAY.
Th' are i' the right, for I dare boldly say,
The English stage ne'er had so new a play;
The dress, the author, and the scenes are new.
This ye have seen before ye'll say; 'tis true;
But tell me, gentlemen, who ever saw
A deep intrigue confin'd to five hours' law?
Such as for close contrivance yields to none:
A modest man may praise what's not his own.
'Tis true, the dress is his, which he submits
To those who are, and those who would be wits;
Ne'er spare him, gentlemen; for to speak truth,
He has a per'lous cens'rer been in's youth;
And now grown bald with age, doating on praise,
He thinks to get a periwig of bays.
Teach him what 'tis, in this discerning age,
To bring his heavy genius on the stage;
Where you have seen such nimble wits appear,
That pass'd so soon, one scarce could say th'were here.
Yet, after our discoveries of late
Of their designs, who would subvert the state,
You'll wonder much, if it should prove his lot
To take all England with a Spanish plot;
But if, through his ill conduct or hard fate,
This foreign plot (like that of eighty-eight)
Should suffer shipwreck in your narrow seas,
You'll give your modern poet his writ of ease;
For, by th' example of the King of Spain,
He resolves ne'er to trouble you again.
[THE PROLOGUE AT COURT.]
HE ADDRESSES HIMSELF TO THE PIT.
This refers to the author's purpose of retirement, at that time when his Majesty recommended this plot to him.
He looking up, and seeing the King, starts.
He kneels. He rises.