Chapter XXXI: Epilogue: Spoken by Dalinda

Now, in good manners, nothing should be said
Against this play, because the poet's dead[61].
The prologue told us of a moral here:
Would I could find it! but the devil knows where.
If in my part it lies, I fear he means
To warn us of the sparks behind our scenes.
For, if you'll take it on Dalinda's word,
'Tis a hard chapter to refuse a lord.
The poet might pretend this moral too,--
That when a wit and fool together woo,
The damsel (not to break an antient rule)
Should leave the wit, and take the wealthy fool.
This he might mean: but there's a truth behind, }
And, since it touches none of all our kind }
But masks and misses, 'faith, I'll speak my mind. }
What if he taught our sex more cautious carriage,
And not to be too coming before marriage;
For fear of my misfortune in the play,
A kid brought home upon the wedding day?
I fear there are few Sancho's in the pit,
So good as to forgive, and to forget;
That will, like him, restore us into favour,
And take us after on our good behaviour.
Few, when they find the money-bag is rent,
Will take it for good payment on content.
But in the telling, there the difference is,
Sometimes they find it more than they could wish.
Therefore be warned, you misses and you masks,
Look to your hits, nor give the first that asks.
Tears, sighs, and oaths, no truth of passion prove;
True settlement, alone, declares true love.
For him that weds a puss, who kept her first,
I say but little, but I doubt the worst.
The wife, that was a cat, may mind her house, }
And prove an honest, and a careful spouse; }
But 'faith I would not trust her with a mouse. }

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 56: Alluding to the vulgar proverb, "One who is born under a three-penny planet will never be worth a groat."]

[Footnote 57: There would probably occur to the audience of the period, some recollection of the manner in which King James had been treated by Sunderland.]

[Footnote 58: Meaning, that the courtiers, although their eyes be as fatal as those of basilisks, are not subject to the fate of that fabulous serpent, which died if a man beheld it first.]

[Footnote 59: Our author uses the same old word, for a scramble, in the prologue to "The Widow Ranter."

Bauble and cap no sooner are thrown down,
But there's a _muss_ of more than half the town.

It occurs frequently in old authors, and particularly in the well known passage in "Anthony and Cleopatra."

----Of late, when I cried ho!
Like boys unto a _muss_, kings would start forth,
And cry, your will?]

[Footnote 60: This old English word, for a Christmas masquerading frolic, is still used in some parts of England.]

[Footnote 61: See the lines in the prologue,

He dies,--at least to us and to the stage,
And what he has, he leaves this noble age.]