ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

By inscribing this slight performance to you, I do not mean so much to compliment you as myself. It may do me some honor to inform the public, that I have lived many years in intimacy with you. It may serve the interests of mankind also to inform them, that the greatest wit may be found in a character, without impairing the most unaffected piety.

I have, particularly, reason to thank you for your partiality to this performance. The undertaking a comedy, not merely sentimental, was very dangerous; and Mr. Colman, who saw this piece in its various stages, always thought it so. However, I ventured to trust it to the public; and, though it was necessarily delayed till late in the season, I have every reason to be grateful.

I am, dear sir,

Your most sincere friend

And admirer,

OLIVER GOLDSMITH,

PROLOGUE

BY DAVID GARRICK, ESQ.1

Enter Mr. Woodward,2 dressed in black, and holding u handkerchief to

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

"I've that within for which there are no plasters!
Pray would
you
know the reason why I'm crying?
The Comic Muse, long sick, is now a-dying!
And if she goes, my tears will never stop;
For, as a player, I can't squeeze out one drop;
I am undone, that's all - shall lose my bread
I'd rather, but that's nothing - lose my head.
When the sweet maid is laid upon the bier,

4

Shuter and I shall be chief mourners here.

Prologue by David Garrick: Garrick (1716-79), the greatest producer of plays England has known, was famous for his prologues, of which he wrote a great many. Concerning She Stoops to Conquer Horace Walpole writes, March 27, 1773, “Garrick would not act it, but bought himself off with a poor prologue."

2 Enter Mr. Woodward: Henry Woodward (1717–77), one of the best comedians of the eighteenth century, was unrivaled as Bobadil, Petruchio, and Touchstone. He had taken the part of Lofty in The Good-Natured Man, but spoke only the prologue in this play.

3 'Tis not alone: Compare Hamlet, Act I, Sc. 2: ""T is not alone my inky cloak, good mother."

Shuter: Edward Shuter (1728-76) was considered by Garrick the greatest comic genius he had ever seen. His best characters were Scrub, Trapolin, Launcelot, and Falstaff. His Croaker was the success of Goldsmith's first play.

To her a mawkish drab of spurious breed, Who deals in sentimentals, will succeed. Poor Ned and I are dead to all intents; We can as soon speak Greek as sentiments! Both nervous grown, to keep our spirits up, We now and then take down a hearty cup. What shall we do? If Comedy forsake us, They'll turn us out, and no one else will take us. But why can't I be moral? Let me try: My heart thus pressing — fix'd my face and With a sententious look, that nothing means, (Faces are blocks in sentimental scenes,) Thus I begin - "All is not gold that glitters,1 ✓Pleasure seems sweet, but proves a glass of bitters. When Ignorance enters, Folly is at hand;

[ocr errors]

eye

1

Learning is better far than house and land.
Let not your virtue trip; who trips may stumble,
And virtue is not virtue, if she tumble."

I give it up- morals won't do for me;

To make you laugh, I must play tragedy.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

A Doctor comes this night to show his skill.
To cheer her heart, and give your muscles motion,
He, in Five Draughts prepared, presents a potion:
A kind of magic charm; for, be assured,

If
you
will swallow it, the maid is cured:
But desperate the Doctor, and her case is,
If you reject the dose, and make wry faces.

This truth he boasts, will boast it while he lives,
No poisonous drugs are mixed in what he gives.
Should he succeed, you 'll give him his degree;
If not, within he will receive no fee!

The college you, must his pretensions back,
Pronounce him Regular, or dub him Quack.

"All is not gold": From Dryden's Hind and Panther

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]
« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »