Selected Works of Eliza Haywood

A Wife to be Let - Prologue.

Spoken by Mr. Theophilus Cibber.

The tragic muse, to merit wished applause,
From fancied misery, real caution draws;
Her flaming strokes display some purple crime,
The passions feel, and the soul swells sublime.
The comic, all this pomp of woe declines,
Softens her light, and rather smiles, than shines;
She but your known familiar follies shows,
Prudes, misers, cullies, fops, coquettes, and beaus:
With her, as at some poor man's feast you meet,
Where what the guests contribute, makes the treat.

Critics! Be dumb to-night—no skill display;
A dangerous woman-poet wrote the play:
One, who not fears your fury, though prevailing,
More than your match, in everything, but railing,
Give her fair quarter, and whene'er she tries ye,
Safe in superior spirit she defies ye:
Measure her force, by her known novels, writ
With manly vigour, and with woman's wit,
Then tremble, and depend, If ye beset her,
She, who can talk so well, may act ye better.

Learn, from the opening scene, ye blooming fair,
Rightly to know your worth, and march with care,
When a fool tempts ye, arm your hearts with pride,
And think th'ungenerous born to be denied:
But, to the worthy, and the wise, be kind,
Their Cupid, is not, like the vulgar's, blind:
Justly they weigh your charms, and sweetly pay
Your soft submission, with permitted sway.