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Nor Men the weak anxieties of Age;
Some things are acted, others only told;
But what we hear moves less than what we see;
Spectators only have their Eyes to trust,
But Auditors must trust their Ears and you;
Yet there are things improper for a Scene,
Which men of Judgment only will relate;
Mædœa must not draw her murthering knife,
And spill her childrens blood upon the Stage,
Nor Atreus there his horrid Feast prepare,
Cadmus's, and Prognes Metamorphosis,
(She to a Swallow turn'd, he to a Snake)
And whatsoever contradicts my Sense,
I hate to see, and never can believe,
Five Acts are the just measure of a Play.
Never presume to make a God appear,
But for a business worthy of a God,
Some things are acted, others only told;
But what we hear moves less than what we see;
Spectators only have their Eyes to trust,
But Auditors must trust their Ears and you;
Yet there are things improper for a Scene,
Which men of Judgment only will relate;
Mædœa must not draw her murthering knife,
And spill her childrens blood upon the Stage,
Nor Atreus there his horrid Feast prepare,
Cadmus's, and Prognes Metamorphosis,
(She to a Swallow turn'd, he to a Snake)
And whatsoever contradicts my Sense,
I hate to see, and never can believe,
Five Acts are the just measure of a Play.
Never presume to make a God appear,
But for a business worthy of a God,
And
