I intend to set about it. But here shall be my monitor

my gentle guide. — Ah! can I leave the virtuous path those eyes illumine?

Though thou, dear maid, shouldst waive thy beauty's sway,
Thou still must rule, because I will obey :
An humble fugitive from Folly view,
No sanctuary near but Love and you :

You can, indeed, each anxious fear remove,
For even Scandal dies, if you approve.

[To the audience.

EPILOGUE.

BY MR. COLMAN.

SPOKEN BY LADY TEAZLE.

I, WHO was late so volatile and gay,

Like a trade-wind must now blow all one way,
Bend all my cares, my studies, and my vows,
To one dull rusty weathercock-my spouse !
So wills our virtuous bard—the motley Bayes
Of crying epilogues and laughing plays!
Old bachelors, who marry smart young wives,
Learn from our play to regulate your lives;
Each bring his dear to town, all faults upon her
London will prove the very source of honour,
Plunged fairly in, like a cold bath it serves,
When principles relax, to brace the nerves:
Such is my case; and yet I must deplore
That the gay dream of dissipation 's o'er.
And say, ye fair! was ever lively wife,
Born with a genius for the highest life,
Like me untimely blasted in her bloom,
Like me condemn'd to such a dismal doom?

Save money — when I just knew how to waste it!
Leave London — just as I began to taste it!
Must I then watch the early crowing cock,

The melancholy ticking of a clock;

In a lone rustic hall forever pounded;

With dogs, cats, rats, and squalling brats surrounded?

250

With humble curate can I now retire,

(While good Sir Peter boozes with the squire,) And at backgammon mortify my soul,

That pants for loo, or flutters at a vole?
Seven's the main! Dear sound that must expire,
Lost at hot cockles round a Christmas fire;
The transient hour of fashion too soon spent,
Farewell the tranquil mind, farewell content!
Farewell the plumèd head, the cushion'd tête,
That takes the cushion from its proper seat!
That spirit-stirring drum! - card drums I mean,
Spadille odd trick pam basto king and
queen!

And you, ye knockers, that, with brazen throat,
The welcome visitors' approach denote;
Farewell all quality of high renown,

Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious town!
Farewell! your revels I partake no more,

And Lady Teazle's occupation 's o'er!

All this I told our bard; he smiled, and said 't was

clear,

I ought to play deep tragedy next year.

Meanwhile he drew wise morals from his play,
And in these solemn periods stalk'd away:

"Bless'd were the fair like you; her faults who stopp'd
And closed her follies when the curtain dropp'd!
No more in vice or error to engage,

Or play the fool at large on life's great stage."

NOTES.

THE RIVALS

PREFACE.

"FADED ideas float in the fancy like half-forgotten dreams; and the imagination in its fullest enjoyments becomes suspicious of its offspring, and doubts whether it has created or adopted."

This passage was quoted by Burgoyne, in the preface of the 'Heiress.' The same thought is to be found also in the 'Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,' where Dr. Holmes said, "I never wrote a line of verse that seemed to me comparatively good, but it appeared old at once, and often as if it had been borrowed." A little earlier in the same chapter, the Autocrat had declared the law which governs in such cases: "When a person of fair character for literary honesty uses an image such as another has employed before him, the presumption is that he has struck upon it independently, or unconsciously recalled it, supposing it his own."

"It is not without pleasure that I catch at an opportunity of justifying myself from the charge of intending any national reflection in the character of Sir Lucius O'Trigger."

In his 'Retrospections of the Stage,' John Bernard, who was present at the unfortunate first performance of the 'Rivals,' has declared that the audience was indifferent to Sir Lucius, as acted by Lee. When the play was revised, Clinch took the part. Why any one should object to Sir Lucius, it is now difficult to discover. Sir Lucius is one of the best of stage-Irishmen, and he is emphatically an Irish gentleman.