For sure I don't wrong you-you seldom are slack, And death is your only preventive: MRS BULKLEY. Well, madam, what if, after all this sparring, MISS CATLEY. And that our friendship may remain unbroken, MRS BULKLEY. Agreed. MISS CATLEY. Agreed. MRS BULKLEY. And now with late repentance, Un-epilogued the Poet waits his sentence. [Exeunt. SONG. AH ME! WHEN SHALL I MARRY ME?" (Intended to have been sung in the Comedy of " She Stoops to Conquer.") Ан me! when shall I marry me? Lovers are plenty, but fail to relieve me. He, fond youth, that could carry me, But I will rally, and combat the ruiner: Not a look, nor a smile shall my passion discover. She that gives all to the false one pursuing her, Makes but a penitent, and loses a lover. EPILOGUE, SPOKEN BY MR LEE LEWIS, IN THE CHARACTER OF HOLD! Prompter, hold! a word before your nonsense: My pride forbids it ever should be said My heels eclipsed the honours of my head; [Takes off his mask. Whence, and what art thou, visionary birth? Oh! for a Richard's voice to catch the theme, "Give me another horse! bind up my wounds !—soft 'twas but a dream." Ay, 'twas but a dream, for now there's no retreating, If I cease Harlequin, I cease from eating. 'Twas 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 cavill'd at his image in the flood. "The deuce confound," he cries, "these drumstick shanks! They never have my gratitude nor thanks; Whilst thus he spoke, astonish'd, to his view, Near, and more near, the hounds and huntsmen drew; Hoicks! hark forward! came thundering from behind, He bounds aloft, outstrips the fleeting wind: He quits the woods, and tries the beaten ways; He starts, he pants, he takes the circling maze : At length his silly head, so prized before, Is taught his former folly to deplore; Whilst his strong limbs conspire to set him free, And at one bound he saves himself-like me. [Taking a jump through the stage door. |