Chapter LIII: Epilogue: TO

HENRY II.

BY JOHN BANCROFT,

AND PUBLISHED BY MR MOUNTFORT, 1693.

SPOKEN BY MRS BRACEGIRDLE.

_This play is founded on the amours of Henry II. and the death
of fair Rosamond. John Bancroft, the author, was a surgeon, and
wrote another play called "Sertorius." He gave both the reputation
and the profits of "Henry II." to Mountfort, the comedian; and
probably made him no great compliment in the former particular,
though, as the piece was well received, the latter might be of some
consequence. Mountfort was an actor of great eminence. Cibber says,
that he was the most affecting lover within his memory._

Thus you the sad catastrophe have seen,
Occasioned by a mistress and a queen.
Queen Eleanor the proud was French, they say;
But English manufacture got the day.
Jane Clifford was her name, as books aver;
Fair Rosamond was but her _nom de guerre_.
Now tell me, gallants, would you lead your life
With such a mistress, or with such a wife?
If one must be your choice, which d'ye approve,
The curtain lecture, or the curtain love?
Would ye be godly with perpetual strife,
Still drudging on with homely Joan, your wife
Or take your pleasure in a wicked way,
Like honest whoring Harry in the play?
I guess your minds; the mistress would be taken,
And nauseous matrimony sent a packing.
The devil's in you all; mankind's a rogue;
You love the bride, but you detest the clog.
After a year, poor spouse is left i'the lurch,
And you, like Haynes,[405] return to mother-church.
Or, if the name of Church comes cross your mind,
Chapels-of-ease behind our scenes you find.
The playhouse is a kind of market-place;
One chaffers for a voice, another for a face;
Nay, some of you,--I dare not say how many,--
Would buy of me a pen'worth for your penny.
E'en this poor face, which with my fan I hide,}
Would make a shift my portion to provide, }
With some small perquisites I have beside. }
Though for your love, perhaps, I should not care,
I could not hate a man that bids me fair.
What might ensue, 'tis hard for me to tell; }
But I was drenched to-day for loving well, }
And fear the poison that would make me swell.}

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 405: The facetious Joe Haynes became a Catholic in the latter part of James the Second's reign. But after the Revolution, he read his recantation of the errors of Rome in a penitentiary prologue, which he delivered in a suit of mourning.]

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