An EPILOGUE
To the first Part of Don Quixote. By Sancho, Riding upon his Ass.
'MONGST our Fore-fathers, that pure Wit profest,
There's an old Proverb, That two Heads are best.
Dapple and I have therefore jogg'd this way,
Through sheer good Nature, to defend this Play:
Tho' I've no Friends, yet he (as proof may shew)
May have Relations here for ought I know.
For in a Crowd, where various Heads are addle,
May many an Ass be, that ne'er wore a Saddle.
'Tis then for him that I this Speech intend,
Because I know he is the Poet's Friend;
And, as 'tis said, a parlous Ass once spoke,
When Crab-tree Cudgel did his Rage provoke;
So if ye are not civil, 'dsbud, I fear,
He'll speak again
And tell the Ladies every Dapple here.
Take good Advice then, and with kindness win him,
Tho' he looks simply, you don't know what's in him:
He has shrewd Parts, and proper for his Place,
And yet no Plotter, you may see by's Face;
He tells no Lyes, nor does Sedition vent,
Nor ever Brays against the Government.
Then for his Garb he's like the Spanish Nation,
Still the old Mode, he never changes Fashion;
His sober Carriage too you've seen to Day,
But for's Religion, troth, I cannot say
Whether for Mason, Burgis, Muggleton,
The House with Steeple, or the House with none:
I rather think he's of your Pagan Crew,
For he ne'er goes to Church no more than you.
Some that would, by his Looks, guess his Opinion,
Say, he's a Papish; others, a Socinian,
But I believe him, if the Truth were known,
As th' rest of the Town-Asses are, of none;
