ven in pity
Will make but few, I vow to spend with vestals:
The greatest part in prayers for you; the rest
In mourning my unworthiness.
Press me not farther to explain myself;
'Twill not become me, and may cause your trouble.

_Leon._ Too well I understand her secret grief, [_Aside._
But dare not seem to know it.--Come, my fairest; [_To_ PALMYRA.
Beyond my crown I have one joy in store,
To give that crown to her whom I adore. [_Exeunt._

EPILOGUE.

Thus have my spouse and I informed the nation,
And led you all the way to reformation;
Not with dull morals, gravely writ, like those,
Which men of easy phlegm with care compose,--
Your poets, of stiff words and limber sense,
Born on the confines of indifference;
But by examples drawn, I dare to say,
From most of you who hear and see the play.
There are more Rhodophils in this theatre,
More Palamedes, and some few wives, I fear:
But yet too far our poet would not run;
Though 'twas well offered, there was nothing done.
He would not quite the women's frailty bare,
But stript them to the waist, and left them there:
And the men's faults are less severely shown,
For he considers that himself is one.--
Some stabbing wits, to bloody satire bent,
Would treat both sexes with less compliment;
Would lay the scene at home; of husbands tell,
For wenches, taking up their wives i' the Mall;
And a brisk bout, which each of them did want,
Made by mistake of mistress and gallant.
Our modest author thought it was enough
To cut you off a sample of the stuff:
He spared my shame, which you, I'm sure, would not,
For you were all for driving on the plot:
You sighed when I came in to break the sport,
And set your teeth when each design fell short.
To wives and servants all good wishes lend,
But the poor cuckold seldom finds a friend.
Since, therefore, court and town will take no pity,
I humbly cast myself upon the city.

Footnotes:
1. _He mocks himself of me_.] Melantha, like some modern coxcombs,
uses the idiom as well as the words of the French language.

2. _Dangerfield._] A dramatic bully, whose sword and habit became
proverbial. "This gentleman, appearing with his mustaccios,
according to the Turkish manner, Cordubee hat, and strange
out-of-the-way clothes, just as if one had been dressed up to act
Captain Dangerfield in the pl