Can execute their airy purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfil.
Paradise Lost, Bk, I. MILTON.
But shapes that come not at an earthly call
Will not depart when mortal voices bid;
Lords of the visionary eye, whose lid,
Once raised, remains aghast, and will not fall!
Dion. W. WORDSWORTH.
I shall not see thee. Dare I say
No spirit ever brake the band
That stays him from the native land,
Where first he walked when clasped in clay?
No visual shade of some one lost,
But he, the spirit himself, may come
Where all the nerve of sense is numb;
Spirit to spirit, ghost to ghost.
In Memoriam, XCII. A. TENNYSON.
STAGE, THE.
Where is our usual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Prologues, like compliments, are loss of time;
'Tis penning bows and making legs in rhyme.
Prologue to Crisp's Tragedy of Virginia. D. GARRICK.
Prologues precede the piece in mournful verse,
As undertakers walk before the hearse.
Prologue to Apprentice. D. GARRICK.
On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting,
'Twas only that when he was off, he was acting.
Retaliation. O. GOLDSMITH.
The drama's laws, the drama's patrons give.
For we that live to please, must please to live.
Prologue. Spoken by Mr. Garrick on Opening Drury
Lane Theatre, 1747. DR. S. JOHNSON.