Chapter II: Prologue: To the First Part,

SPOKEN BY

MRS ELLEN GWYN,

IN A BROAD-BRIMMED HAT, AND WAIST-BELT.[1]

This jest was first of the other house's making,
And, five times tried, has never failed of taking;
For 'twere a shame a poet should be killed
Under the shelter of so broad a shield.
This is that hat, whose very sight did win ye
To laugh and clap as though the devil were in ye.
As then, for Nokes, so now I hope you'll be
So dull, to laugh once more for love of me.
I'll write a play, says one, for I have got
A broad-brimmed hat, and waist-belt, towards a plot.
Says the other, I have one more large than that.
Thus they out-write each other--with a hat!
The brims still grew with every play they writ;
And grew so large, they covered all the wit.
Hat was the play; 'twas language, wit, and tale:
Like them that find meat, drink, and cloth in ale.
What dulness do these mongrel wits confess,
When all their hope is acting of a dress!
Thus, two the best comedians of the age
Must be worn out, with being blocks o' the stage;
Like a young girl, who better things has known,
Beneath their poet's impotence they groan.
See now what charity it was to save!
They thought you liked, what only you forgave;
And brought you more dull sense, dull sense much worse
Than brisk gay nonsense, and the heavier curse.
They bring old iron, and glass upon the stage,
To barter with the Indians of our age.
Still they write on, and like great authors show; }
But 'tis as rollers in wet gardens grow }
Heavy with dirt, and gathering as they go. }
May none, who have so little understood,
To like such trash, presume to praise what's good!
And may those drudges of the stage, whose fate
Is damned dull farce more dully to translate,
Fall under that excise the state thinks fit
To set on all French wares, whose worst is wit.
French farce, worn out at home, is sent abroad;
And, patched up here, is made our English mode.
Henceforth, let poets, ere allowed to write,
Be searched, like duelists before they fight,
For wheel-broad hats, dull honour, all that chaff,
Which makes you mourn, and makes the vulgar laugh:
For these, in plays, are as unlawful arms,
As, in a combat, coats of mail, and charms.

Footnote:
1. There is a vague tradition, that, in this grotesque dress, (for the
brims of the hat were as broad as a cart-wheel,) Nell Gwyn had the
good fortune first to attract the attention of her royal lover.
Where the jest lay, is difficult to discover: it seems to have
originated with the duke of York's players.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

MAHOMET BOABDELIN, _the last king of Granada._
_Prince_ ABDALLA, _his brother._
ABDELMELECH, _chief of the Abencerrages._
ZULEMA, _chief of the Zegrys._
ABENAMAR, _an old Abencerrago._
SELIN, _an old Zegry._
OZMYN, _a brave young Abencerrago, son to Abenamar._
HAMET, _brother to Zulema, a Zegry._
GOMEL, _a Zegry._
ALMANZOR.
FERDINAND, _king of Spain._
_Duke of_ ARCOS, _his General._
_Don_ ALONZO D'AGUILAR, _a Spanish Captain._

ALMAHIDE, _Queen of Granada._
LYNDARAXA, _Sister of_ ZULEMA, _a Zegry Lady._
BENZAYDA, _Daughter to_ SELIN.
ESPERANZA, _Slave to the Queen._
HALYMA, _Slave to_ LYNDARAXA.
ISABELLA, _Queen of Spain._

_Messengers, Guards, Attendants, Men, and Women._

SCENE.--_Granada, and the Christian Camp besieging it._

ALMANZOR AND ALMAHIDE,

OR, THE

CONQUEST OF GRANADA.

THE FIRST PART.