From Youth and Beauty your Allies and Friends.
| What vaine unnecessary things are men | |
| How well we doe with out ’em, tell me then | |
| Whence comes that meane submissivness wee finde | |
| This ill bred age has wrought on womankind | |
| Fall’n from the rights their sex and beautyes gave | 5 |
| To make men wish despaire and humbly crave | |
| Now ’twill suffice if they vouchsafe to have. | |
| To the Pell Mell,° Playhous and the drawing roome | Pall Mall |
| Their Woemen Fayres, these Woemen Coursers° come | hunters with greyhounds |
| To chaffer, chuse, and ride theire bargaines home, | 10 |
| Att the appearance of an unknow’n face | |
| Up steps the Arrogant pretending ass, | |
| Pulling by th’elbow his companion Huff° | person puffed up with self-importance |
| Cryes Looke, de God that wench is well enough | |
| Faire and well shap’t, good Lipps and teeth twill doe | 15 |
| Shee shall bee Tawdry° for a month or two | showy, gaudy, cheaply pretentious |
| Att my expence, bee rude and take upon her | |
| Shew her contempt of quallity and honour | |
| And with the generall fate of errant Women | |
| Bee very proude awhile, then very Common | 20 |
| E’re beare this scorne, I’d bee shutt up at home | |
| Content with humoring my selfe alone, | |
| Force back the Humble Love of former dayes | |
| In pensive madrigals and ends of playes | |
| When if my Lady frown’d th’unhappy Knight | 25 |
| Was faine to fast and lye alone that night | |
| But whils’t th’insulting wife the Breeches wore | |
| The Husband tooke her cloathes to give his— | |
| Who now maintaines it with a gentler art | |
| Thus Tyrranyes to Commonwealths Convert, | 30 |
| Then after all you finde what ere wee say | |
| Things must goe on in their Lewd naturall way | |
| Besides the Beastly men wee to of’n see | |
| Can Please themselves alone as well as wee | |
| Therfore kind Ladyes of the towne to you | 35 |
| For our stol’n ravish’t men wee hereby sue | |
| By this time you have found out wee suppose | |
| That they’re as Errant° Tinsell° as their Cloathes | thoroughgoing, unmitigated / deceptively |
| Poore broaken Propertyes that cannot serve | fine or glittering appearance |
| To treate such persons soe as they deserve | 40 |
| Mistake us not, wee doe not here pretend | |
| That like your young sparkes° you can condescend | fops |
| To Love a beastly playhous Creature, Foh | |
| Wee dare not thinke soe meanly of you, Noe. | |
| ’Tis not the Player pleases but the Part | 45 |
| Shee may like Rollo who despises Hart | |
| Shee may like Rollo who despises Hart | |
| To Theaters as Temples you are brought | |
| Where Love is worshipt and his precepts taught | |
| You must goe home and practice, for ’tis here | |
| Just as in other preaching places, where | 50 |
| Greate Eloquence is show’n gainst sin, and Papists | |
| By men who Live Idolators and Atheists, | |
| These two were dainty trades indeed could each | |
| Live up to halfe the miracles they teach | |
| Both are a | 55 |
Authorship: Rochester’s holograph.
Date: Between March and November 1672, when Rochester wrote the piece for an all-female cast of a play (Edward L. Saslow, ‘A “New” Epilogue by Rochester’, Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660–1700, 23 (1999), 1–9).
Copy-text: Nottingham University MS Portland Pw V 31, ff. 12r–13r.
First publication: Poems by John Wilmot Earl of Rochester, ed. Vivian de Sola Pinto (London, 1953).
Departures from copy-text: 2 How well we] Why wee can 7 have.] have, 8–10 crossed out, except for ‘roome’; ‘and’ l. 8 replaces ‘nay’ 21 E’re beare this scorne, I’d bee] E’re I’d endure this scorne, I live 33–4 crossed out 48 worshipt] honourd 53–4 crossed out
| Wit has of late took up a trick t’appear, | ||
| Unmannerly, or at the best severe. | ||
| And Poets share the Fate by which we fall, | ||
| When kindly we attempt to please you all. | ||
| ’Tis hard, your scorn should against such prevail, 5 | ||
| Whose ends are to divert you, tho’ they fail. | ||
| You Men would think it an ilnatur’d Jest, | ||
| Should we laugh at you when you did your best. | ||
| Then rail not here, though you see reason for’t. | | 10 |
| If Wit can find it self no better sport; | ||
| Wit is a very foolish thing at Court. | ||
| Wit’s bus’ness is to please, and not to fright, | | |
| ’Tis no Wit to be always in the right, | ||
| You’l find it none, who dare be so to night. | ||
| Few so ill-bred will venture to a Play, 15 | ||
| To spy out faults in what we Women say: | ||
| For us no matter what we speak, but how, | ||
| How kindly can we say – I hate you now. | ||
| And for the men, if you’l laugh at ’em, do; | ||
| They mind themselves so much, they’ll ne’re mind you. – 20 | ||
| But why do I descend to lose a Prayer | ||
| On those small Saints in Wit, the God sits there. | ||
| To you (Great Sir) my Message hither tends, From Youth and Beauty your Allies and Friends. | ||
| See my Credentials written in my Face, 25 | ||
| They challenge your Protection in this place, | ||
| And hither come with such a Force of charmes, | ||
| As may give check even to your prosp’rous Armes: | ||
| Millions of Cupids hovering in the Rear, | ||
| Like Eagles following fatal Troops, appear. 30 | ||
| All waiting for the slaughter, which draws nigh, | ||
| Of those bold Gazers, who this Night must dye. | ||
| Nor can you ’scape our soft Captivitie, | ||
| From which old Age alone must set you free. | ||
| Then tremble at the fatal Consequence – 35 | ||
| Since, ’tis well known for your own part (Great Prince) | ||
| ’Gainst us you still have made a weak defence. – | ||
| Be generous, and wise, and take our part; | ||
| Remember we have eyes, and you a heart. | ||
| Else you may find, too late, that we are things 40 | ||
| Born to kill vassals, and to conquer Kings. | ||
| But oh! to what vain Conquest I pretend, | ||
| Whilst Love is our Commander, and your Friend. | ||
| Our victory your Empire more assures, | ||
| For Love will ever make the Triumph yours. 45 | ||
Authorship: Attributed to Rochester in copy-text.
Date: Before July 1673, when Settle’s Empress of Morocco was given its first public performance.
Copy-text: Elkanah Settle, The Empress of Morocco. A Tragedy (London, 1673), sig. A3r–v.
First publication: As copy-text.
Departures from copy-text: 14 You’l] You ’il 36 your] you
| As Charms° are Nonsence, Nonsence seems a Charm, | magic spells | |
| Which hearers of all Judgment does disarm; | ||
| For Songs and Scenes, a double Audience bring, | ||
| And Doggrel takes,° which two ey’d Cyclops Sing. | takes the fancy, wins favour | |
| Now to Machines, and a dull Mask you run, | | 5 |
| We find that Wit’s the Monster you would shun, | ||
| And by my troth ’tis most discreetly done. | ||
| We find that Wit’s the Monster you would shun, | ||
| And by my troth ’tis most discreetly done. | ||
| For since, with Vice and Folly, Wit is fed, | ||
| Through Mercy ’tis, most of you are not dead. | ||
| Players turn Puppets now at your desire, | | 10 small or worthless pieces |
| In their Mouth’s Nonsence, in their Tails a Wire, | ||
| They fly through Clouds of Clouts,° and showers of Fire. | ||
| A kind of loosing Loadum is their Game, [of cloth | ||
| Where the worst Writer has the greatest Fame. | ||
| To get vile Plays like theirs, shall be our care; 15 | ||
| But of such awkward Actors we despair. | ||
| False taught at first— | ||
| Like Bowls ill byass’d, still the more they run, | ||
| They’re further off, then when they first begun. | ||
| In Comedy their unweigh’d Action mark, 20 | ||
| There’s one is such a dear familiar spark, | ||
| He yawns, as if he were but half awake; | ||
| And fribling° for free speaking, does mistake. | stammering or trifling | |
| False accent and neglectful Action too | ||
| They have both so nigh good, yet neither true, 25 | ||
| That both together, like an Ape’s mock face | ||
| By near resembling Man, do Man disgrace. | ||
| Through pac’d ill Actors, may perhaps be cur’d, | ||
| Half Players like half Wits, can’t be endur’d. | ||
| Yet these are they, who durst expose the Age 30 | ||
| Of the great Wonder of our English Stage. | ||
| Whom Nature seem’d to form for your delight, | ||
| And bid him speak, as she bid Shakespeare write. | ||
| Those Blades indeed are Cripples in their Art, | ||
| Mimmick his Foot, but not his speaking part. 35 | ||
| Let them the Traytor or Volpone try, | ||
| Could they— | ||
| Rage like Cethegus, or like Cassius die, | ||
| They ne’er had sent to Paris for such Fancies, | ||
| As Monster’s heads, and Merry Andrew’s° Dances. buffooon, clown 40 | ||
| Wither’d perhaps, not perish’d we appear, | ||
| But they were blighted, and ne’er came to bear. | ||
| Th’old Poets dress’d your Mistress Wit before, | | 45 |
| These draw you on with an old Painted Whore, | ||
| And sell like Bawds, patch’d Plays for Maids twice o’er. | ||
| Old witt we have; they on the new may live | ||
| Of their own Poet At-all Positive. | ||
| To Epsom Wells | ||
| Tis knowne his interlining friends lent witt. | ||
| Some doubt if he writ that; all grant he writt 50 | ||
| The humorists, the Sheperdesse and hipocrite; | ||
| And by the Style of Tempest Mask wee know | ||
| That none but he could write the Psyche too. | ||
| Each day now adds new vigour to his pen, | ||
| Since Sampson like his locks are grown agen. 55 | ||
| Such Witt with us must needs be Scarse and Deare, | ||
| Unless he’d write another Miser here. | ||
| But hold! our wishes need not make such hast: | ||
| Our House was burnt for playing of his last. | ||
| Yet they may scorn our House and Actors too, 60 | ||
| Since they have swell’d so high to hector° you. threaten, bully | ||
| They cry, Pox o’ these Covent Garden Men, | ||
| Dam ’em, not one of them, but keeps out Ten. | ||
| Were they once gone, we for those thundering Blades,° gallants | ||
| Should have an Audience of substantial Trades,° occupations, professions 65 | ||
| Who love our muzzled Boys, and tearing Fellows, | ||
| My Lord great Neptune, and great Nephew Eolus. | ||
| Oh how the merry Citizen’s in love | ||
| With – | ||
| Psyche, the Goddess of each Field and Grove. 70 | ||
| He cryes i’ faith, methinks ’tis well enough, | ||
| But you roar out and cry, ’Tis all damn’d stuff. | ||
| So to their House the graver Fops repair, | ||
| While Men of Wit, find one another here. | ||
Authorship: Attributed to Rochester in 1691.
Date: Between the first performances of Shadwell’s Psyche on 27 February and Fane’s Love in the Dark on 10 May 1675.
Copy-text: Francis Fane, Love in the Dark, or, The Man of Bus’ness ([London], 1675), ll. 1–45, 60–74 (italics reversed), and MS addition by John Verney to his copy at Claydon House, Bucks. (ll. 46–59).
First publication: ll. 1–45, 60–74 in Fane, Love in the Dark, or, The Man of Bus’ness ([London], 1675), pp. [95]–[6]; ll. 46–59 in Paul Hopkins, ‘“As it was not spoke by Mr. Haines”: An Unpublished Attack on Shadwell in an Epilogue by Rochester’, in Order and Connexion: Studies in Bibliography and Book History: Selected Papers from The Munby Seminar Cambridge July 1994, ed. R. C. Alston (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 127–57, p. 145.
Departures from copy-text: 4 two ey’d Cyclops Sing [Verney MS] Smiths in Sattin sing 16 awkward] awkard 46–59 the italics, ‘v’ for ‘u’ (ll. 43–7) and punctuation (except ll. 43–5) are editorial.
My Lord: Great Neptune, for my sake,
Of these bright Beauties pity take . . .
Great Nephew Æolus make no noise,
Muzzle your roaring Boys . . .
| Some few from Wit have this true Maxime got, | | |
| That ’tis still better to be pleas’d then not, | ||
| And therefore never their own Torment plot. | ||
| While the Malitious Criticks still agree | ||
| To loath each Play they come and pay to see; 5 | ||
| The first know ’tis a Meaner part of sence | ||
| To finde a fault, then taste an Excellence, | ||
| Therefore they praise and strive to like, while these | ||
| Are dully vain of being hard to please. | ||
| Poets and Women have an Equal Right | | 10 |
| To hate the Dull, who Dead to all Delight | ||
| Feel pain alone, and have no Joy but spite. | ||
| To hate the Dull, who Dead to all Deligh | ||
| Feel pain alone, and have no Joy but spite. | ||
| ’Twas Impotence did first this Vice begin, | ||
| Fooles censure Wit, as Old men raile of Sin, | ||
| Who Envy Pleasure, which they cannot tast, 15 | ||
| And good for nothing, wou’d be wise at last. | ||
| Since therefore to the Women it appears, | | |
| That all these Enemies of Wit are theirs, | ||
| Our Poet the Dull herd no longer fears. | ||
| What e’re his fate may prove, ’twill be his pride 20 | ||
| To stand or fall, with Beauty on his side. | ||
Authorship: Attributed to Rochester in copy-text and 1680.
Date: Before first performance of D’Avenant’s Circe on 12 May 1677.
Copy-text: Charles D’Avenant, Circe, A Tragedy (London, 1677), p. [59].
First publication: As copy-text.
Departure from copy-text: italics reversed.
8 drawing roome: ‘In this context probably the Great Withdrawing Room at Whitehall Palace, the principal public gathering place of the gentry and nobility’ (Love, p. 409).
10 In the copy-text, ‘chaffer’ (=‘barter’, ‘bandy words’) appears to have been changed to ‘chatter’.
46 Rollo: Rollo, Duke of Normandy or, The Bloody Brother, a play by John Fletcher. The actor Charles Hart played the lead.
Title: Mr. Haines: Joseph Haines (1648–1701), a leading comic actor, played Visconti in Love in the Dark.
4 In Shadwell’s opera Psyche recently staged at Dorset Garden, the Cyclops are shown at the court of Cupid ‘forging great vases of silver’ (3.1).
13 loosing Loadum: game of cards in which the player who loses, wins.
31 Wonder of our English Stage: a marginal note in 1691 identifies ‘Major Mohun’. Michael Mohun (?1620–84) was a leading player in the King’s Company, and played Trivultio in Love in the Dark.
35 Mimmick his Foot: Mohun was reputed to suffer from gout.
36–8 Mohun played Lorenzo in James Shirley’s The Traitor (1631), Volpone in Jonson’s comedy, Cethegus in Jonson’s Catiline, and Cassius in Julius Caesar.
39 sent to Paris: Shadwell’s Psyche is based on the Molière-Corneille Psyché (1671), another lavish spectacle.
40 Monsters’ heads and dances feature in Psyche, the latter being created by St André (Montague Summers, The Complete Works of Thomas Shadwell (London, 1927), 2, p. 275).
45 patch’d Plays: e.g. Psyche, adapted from Molière-Corneille, or the Dryden-Davenant Tempest, derived from Shakespeare.
48–51 Epsom Wells is Shadwell’s most well-known comedy, and the other three are early plays: The Humorists (1671), The Royal Shepherdess and the lost Molière-derived The Hypocrite (1669).
59 Shadwell’s The Miser was the last play acted at the King’s House in Drury Lane before it was severely damaged by fire on 25 January 1672.
66–7 muzzled Boys . . . Eolus: cf. the song at the end of Shadwell’s Tempest:
70 Cf. Pan’s song in Psyche, I: ‘Great Psyche, Goddess of each Field and Grove . . .’