The Epilogue to Circe

	Some few from wit have this true maxim got
	That ’tis still better to be pleased than not
	And therefore never their own torment plot,
	While the malicious critics still agree
5	To loathe each play they come and pay to see;
	The first know ’tis a meaner part of sense
	To find a fault than taste an excellence,
	Therefore they praise and strive to like, while these
	Are dully vain of being hard to please.
10	Poets and women have an equal right
	To hate the dull, who dead to all delight
	Feel pain alone and have no joy but spite.
	’Twas impotence did first this vice begin,
	Fools censure wit as old men rail of sin,
15	Who envy pleasure which they cannot taste,
	And good for nothing would 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.
20	Whate’er his fate may prove, ’twill be his pride
	To stand or fall with beauty on his side.