The Poetical Works of the Right Hon. George Granville, Lord Lansdowne/101
EPILOGUE
DESIGNED FOR THE BRITISH ENCHANTERS.
Wit once, like Beauty, without art or dreſs,
Naked, and unadorn’d, could find ſucceſs,
Till by fruition novelty deſtroy’d,
The nymph muſt find new charms to be enjoy’d.
As by his equipage the man you prize,5
And ladies muſt have gems beſide their eyes;
So fares it too with plays: in vain we write,
Unleſs the muſic and the dance invite;
Scarce Hamlet clears the charges of the night.
Would you but fix ſome ſtandard how to move,10
We would transform to any thing you love:
Judge our deſire by our coſt and pains;
Sure the expenſe, uncertain are the gains.
But tho’ we fetch from Italy and France
Our fopperies of tune, and mode of dance,15
Our ſturdy Britons ſcorn to borrow ſenſe.
Howe’er to foreign faſhions we ſubmit,
Still ev’ry fop prefers his mother-wit.
In only wit this conſtancy is ſhown,
For never was that errant changeling known20
Who for another’s ſenſe would quit his own.
Our author would excuſe these youthful ſcenes,
Begotten at his entrance in his teens:
Some childiſh fancies may approve the toy,
Some like the Muſe the more for being a boy;25
And ladies ſhould be pleas’d, is not content,
To find so young a thing not wholly impotent.
Our ſtage-reformers, too, he would diſarm,
In charity ſo cold, in zeal ſo warm!
And therefore, to atone for ſtage-abuſes,30
And gain the church-indulgence for the Muſes,
He gives his thirds—to charitable uſes.32