retofore?
We once were fam'd in story, and could write
Equal to Men; cou'd govern, nay, cou'd fight.
We still have passive Valour, and can show, }
Wou'd Custom give us leave, the active too, }
Since we no Provocations want from you. }
For who but we cou'd your dull Fopperies bear,
Your saucy Love, and your brisk Nonsense hear;
Indure your worse than womanish Affectation,
Which renders you the Nusance of the Nation;
Scorn'd even by all the Misses of the Town,
A Jest to Vizard Mask, the _Pit-Buffoon_;
A Glass by which the admiring Country Fool
May learn to dress himself _en Ridicule:_
Both striving who shall most ingenious grow
In Leudness, Foppery, Nonsense, Noise and Show.
And yet to these fine things we must submit
Our Reason, Arms, our Laurels, and our Wit.
Because we do not laugh at you, when leud,
And scorn and cudgel ye when you are rude.
That we have nobler Souls than you, we prove,
By how much more we're sensible of Love;
Quickest in finding all the subtlest ways
To make your Joys, why not to make you Plays?
We best can find your Foibles, know our own, }
And Jilts and Cuckolds now best please the Town; }
Your way of Writing's out of fashion grown. }
Method, and Rule--you only understand;
Pursue that way of Fooling, and be damn'd.
Your learned Cant of Action, Time and Place,
Must all give way to the unlabour'd Farce.
To all the Men of Wit we will subscribe:
But for your half Wits, you unthinking Tribe,
We'll let you see, whate'er besides we do,
How artfully we copy some of you:
And if you're drawn to th' Life, pray tell me then,
Why Women should not write as well as Men.

* * * * *
* * * *

NOTES: Sir Patient Fancy

NOTES ON THE TEXT.

+To the Reader+

p. 7, l. 1 _To the Reader._ Only in 4to 1678.

+Dramatis Personae+

p. 10 _Dramatis Personae._ I have added '_Abel_ (_Bartholmew_), Clerk
to _Sir Patient Fancy_; _Brunswick_, a friend to _Lodwick Knowell_;
_Antic_, Waiting-woman to _Lucretia_; Nurse; Guests.' In former
editions the physicians are grouped together as 'Five Doctors', and
The Lady _Knowell_ is mistakenly termed 'Mother to _Lodwick_ and
_Isabella_', which I have corrected to 'and _Lucretia_'. I have noted
the confusion of 'Abel' and 'Bartholmew' in the introduction, pp. 5-6.

+ACT I: Scene i+

p. 11, l. 2 I have add