EPILOGUE, SPOKEN BY MR. LEE LEWES, IN THE CHARACTER OF HOLD! Prompter, hold! a word before your nonsense: My pride forbids it ever should be said, My heels eclips'd the honours of my head; [Takes off his mask. Whence, and what art thou, visionary birth? "Give me another horse! bind up my wounds!-soft— (1) [These were probably the last verses written by Goldsmith. They were spoken on the 28th of April 1774, twenty-four days after his death.] Ay, 'twas but a dream, for now there's no retreating, Twas thus that Esop's stag, a creature blameless, Once on the margin of a fountain stood, And cavill'd at his image in the flood. "The deuce confound," he cries, "these drumstick shanks, They never have my gratitude nor thanks; They're perfectly disgraceful! strike me dead! [Taking a jump through the stage door. |