[Footnote A:  This seems to allude to the Polish dress, which, upon his restoration, Charles wished to introduce into Britain.  It was not altered for the French, till his intimacy with that court was cemented by pecuniary dependence.]

In the prologue, the author indulges himself in a display of the terms of astrology, of which vain science he was a believer and a student.

PREFACE.

It would be a great impudence in me to say much of a comedy, which has had but indifferent success in the action.  I made the town my judges, and the greater part condemned it:  after which, I do not think it my concernment to defend it with the ordinary zeal of a poet for his decried poem.  Though Corneille is more resolute in his preface before his Pertharite[A], which was condemned more universally than this; for he avows boldly, that, in spite of censure, his play was well and regularly written; which is more than I dare say for mine.  Yet it was received at court; and was more than once the divertisement of his Majesty, by his own command; but I have more modesty than to ascribe that to my merit, which was his particular act of grace.  It was the first attempt I made in dramatic poetry; and, I find since, a very bold one, to begin with comedy, which is the most difficult part of it.  The plot was not originally my own; but so altered by me, (whether for the better or worse I know not) that whoever the author was, he could not have challenged a scene of it.  I doubt not but you will see in it the uncorrectness of a young writer; which is yet but a small excuse for him, who is so little amended since.  The best apology I can make for it, and the truest, is only this, that you have, since that time, received with applause, as bad, and as uncorrect plays from other men.

[Footnote A:  “Le succes de cette tragedie a ete si malheureux, que pour m’epargner le chagrin de m’en souvenir, je n’en dirai presque rien.—­J’ajoute ici malgre sa disgrace, que les sentimens en sont assez vifs et nobles, les vers assez bien tournes, et que la facon dont le sujet s’explique dans la premiere scene ne manque pas d’artifice.”

Examen de Pertharite.]

PROLOGUE,

When it was first acted.

Is it not strange to hear a poet say,
He comes to ask you, how you like the play? 
You have not seen it yet:  alas! ’tis true;
But now your love and hatred judge, not you: 
And cruel factions (bribed by interest) come,
Not to weigh merit, but to give their doom. 
Our poet, therefore, jealous of th’ event,
And (though much boldness takes) not confident,
Has sent me, whither you, fair ladies, too,
Sometimes upon as small occasions, go;
And, from this scheme, drawn for the hour and day,
Bid me enquire the fortune of his play.