Prologue To "Sophonisba,"

ACTED AT OXFORD, 1680.

WRITTEN BY NATHAN LEE.


    Thespis,^[1] the first professor of our art,
    At country wakes sung ballads from a cart.
    To prove this true, if Latin be no trespass,
    "Dicitur et plaustris vexisse poemata Thespis."
    But Æschylus, says Horace in some page,
    Was the first mountebank that trod the stage:
    Yet Athens never knew your learned sport
    Of tossing poets in a tennis-court.
    But 'tis the talent of our English nation,
    Still to be plotting some new reformation:
    And few years hence, if anarchy goes on,
    Jack Presbyter shall here erect his throne,
    Knock out a tub with preaching once a day,
    And every prayer be longer than a play.
    Then all your heathen wits shall go to pot,
    For disbelieving of a Popish plot:
    Your poets shall be used like infidels,
    And worst, the author of the Oxford bells:
    Nor should we 'scape the sentence, to depart,
    Even in our first original, a cart.
    No zealous brother there would want a stone
    To maul us cardinals, and pelt Pope Joan:
    Religion, learning, wit, would be suppress'd--
    Rags of the whore, and trappings of the beast:
    Scot, Suarez, Tom of Aquin, must go down,
    As chief supporters of the triple crown;
    And Aristotle's for destruction ripe;
    Some say he call'd the soul an organ-pipe,
    Which by some little help of derivation,
    Shall then be proved a pipe of inspiration.

John Dryden

John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England’s first Poet Laureate in 1668. His work dominated the literary life of Restoration England and he is seen as a major figure in the literary history of the period. Dryden's notable works include the satirical poem 'Absalom and Achitophel' and the mock-heroic 'Mac Flecknoe.'

John Dryden

On The Death Of Amyntas.

John Dryden, Simple Poetry

Incantation In Oedipus.

John Dryden, Simple Poetry

An Epilogue.

John Dryden, Simple Poetry

Song. Farewell, Fair Armida.

John Dryden, Simple Poetry

English

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