merit needless, and without it vain.
In Reason, Nature, Truth he dares to trust:
Ye fops be silent, and ye wits be just!

Of prologues generally, Johnson pronounced that Dryden's were superior
to any that David Garrick had written, but that Garrick had written
more good prologues than Dryden. "It is wonderful that he has been
able to write such a variety of them." Garrick's prologues and
epilogues are, indeed, quite innumerable, and are, almost invariably,
sparkling, witty, and vivacious. They could scarcely fail to win the
favour of an audience; and then oftentimes they had the additional
advantage of being delivered by himself.

Prologues seem to have been a recognised vehicle of literary courtesy.
Authors favoured each other with these addresses as a kind of
advertisement of the good understanding that prevailed between
them--an evidence of respect, friendliness, and encouragement. Thus
Addison's tragedy of "Cato" was provided with a prologue by Pope--the
original line, "Britons, arise! be worth like this approved," being
"liquidated" to "Britons attend!"--for the timid dramatist was alarmed
lest he should be judged a promoter of insurrection. Addison in his
turn furnished the prologue to Steele's "Tender Husband," while Steele
favoured Vanbrugh with a prologue to his comedy of "The Mistake."
Johnson, as we have seen, now and then provided his friends with
prologues. The prologue to Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" was
written by Garrick, to be spoken by Woodward, the actor, "dressed in
black, and holding a handkerchief to his eyes;" the prologue to "The
School for Scandal" was also the work of Garrick. Sheridan, it may be
noted, supplied a prologue to Savage's tragedy of "Sir Thomas
Overbury," on the occasion of its revival at Covent Garden,
thirty-four years after the death of its author. Among the last of the
prologues was one written by Mr. Charles Dickens to Dr. Westland
Marston's poetic drama, "The Patrician's Daughter."

Prologues have now vanished, however, and are not likely to be
reintroduced. It must be added that they showed symptoms of decline in
worth long before they departed. Originally apologies for players and
dramatists--at a time when the histrionic profession was very lightly
esteemed--they were retained by the conservatism of the stage as
matters of form, long after they had forfeited all genuine excuse for
their existence. The name is still retained, however, and applied to
the