Poems upon Several Occasions/The British Enchanters/Prologue

by George Granville

 

PROLOGUE.

POETS, by observation, find it true;
'Tis harder much to please themselves, than You:
To Weave a Plot, to Work, or to Refine
A labour'd Scene, to Polish ev'ry Line,
Judgment must sweat, and feel a Mother's Pains:
Vain Fools! thus to disturb and rack their Brains:
When, more indulgent to the Writer's Ease,
You are too good to be so hard to please:
No such convulsive Pangs it will require,
To write the pretty Things that you admire.

Our Author then, to please you in your Way,
Presents you now a Bawble of a Play,
In jingling Rhime, well fortify'd and strong,
He fights entrench'd, o'er Head and Ears, in Song,
If here and there some evil-fated Line
Should chance, thro' Inadvertency, to shine,
Forgive him, Beaux, he means you no Offence, $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
But begs you, for the Love of Song and Dance,
To pardon all the Poetry and Sense.