I seldom fail;
When I'm first beaten, 'tis my part to rail.
You British fools, of the old Trojan stock,
That stand so thick, one cannot miss the flock,
Poets have cause to dread a keeping pit,
When women's cullies come to judge of wit.
As we strew rat's-bane when we vermin fear,
'Twere worth our cost to scatter fool-bane here;
And, after all our judging fops were served,
Dull poets, too, should have a dose reserved;
Such reprobates, as, past all sense of shaming,
Write on, and ne'er are satisfied with damning:
Next, those, to whom the stage does not belong,
Such whose vocation only is--to song;
At most to prologue, when, for want of time,
Poets take in for journey-work in rhime.
But I want curses for those mighty shoals
Of scribbling Chloris's, and Phyllis' fools:
Those oafs should be restrained, during their lives,
From pen and ink, as madmen are from knives.
I could rail on, but 'twere a task as vain,
As preaching truth at Rome, or wit in Spain:
Yet, to huff out our play was worth my trying;
John Lilburn 'scaped his judges by defying:[1]
If guilty, yet I'm sure o' the church's blessing,
By suffering for the plot, without confessing.

Footnote:
1. Lilburn, the most turbulent, but the boldest and most upright of
men, had the merit of defying and resisting the tyranny of the
king, of the parliament, and of the protector. He was convicted in
the star-chamber, but liberated by the parliament; he was tried on
the parliamentary statute for treasons in 1651, and before
Cromwell's high court of justice in 1654; and notwithstanding an
audacious defence,--which to some has been more perilous than a
feeble cause,--he was, in both cases, triumphantly acquitted.

* * * * *

THE

SPANISH FRIAR;

OR,

THE DOUBLE DISCOVERY.

_Ut melius possis fallere, sume togam._
--MART.

_--Alterna revisens
Lasit, et in solido rursus fortuna locavit._
--VIRG.

THE SPANISH FRIAR.

The Spanish Friar, or the Double Discovery, is one of the best and
most popular of our poet's dramatic efforts. The plot is, as Johnson
remarks, particularly happy, for the