Ogles and leers with artificial skill, Till, having lost in age the power to kill, She sits all night at cards, and ogles at spadille. 35 EPILOGUE WRITTEN FOR MR. CHARLES LEE LEWES.' HOLD! prompter, hold! a word before your nonsense; I'd speak a word or two-to ease my conscience: My pride forbids it ever should be said My heels eclips'd the honors of my head; - From The Poetical and Dramatic Works, 1780. This epilogue was spoken by Mr. Lewes at Covent-garden theater, on the occasion of his benefit, the 7th of May, 1773. The play was Lady Jane Grey; the after-piece, Harlequin Sorcerer-a pantomimic entertainment which had been revived with extraordinary success. - Mr. Lewes acted Young Marlow in She Stoops to Conquer; but he was more celebrated as a harlequin, to which character the epilogue is adapted. Mr. Lewes wrote Comic Sketches, and Memoirs of himself. He died in 1803.Line 18. May rosin'd lightning blast me, if I do! An allusion to the composition of stage-lightning -not a profane imprecation. As Sir Walter Scott observes: "THE WREATH OF GOLDSMITH IS UNSULLIED." That I found humor in a piebald vest; Or ever thought that jumping was a jest. [Takes off his mask. Whence, and what art thou, visionary birth? Whose ins and outs no ray of sense discloses; While from below, the trap-door demons rise And from above, the dangling deities. And shall I mix in this unhallow'd crew? May rosin'd lightning blast me, if I do! Oh! for a Richard's voice to catch the theme: "Give me another horse! bind up my wounds ! —soft ; 't was but a dream." G G 24 24 Ay, 't was but a dream for now there's no retreating; If I cease Harlequin, I cease from eating. 'T was thus that Æsop's stag-a creature blameless, Yet something vain, like one that shall be nameless Once on the margin of a fountain stood, And cavil'd at his image in the flood. "The deuse confound," he cries, "these drum-stick shanks They never have my gratitude nor thanks; They're perfectly disgraceful! strike me dead! Near, and more near, the hounds and huntsmen drew. 66 "Hoicks! hark forward!" came thundering from be hind. He bounds aloft, outstrips the fleeting wind; He quits the woods, and tries the beaten ways; At length his silly head, so priz'd before, Is taught his former folly to deplore; 44 |