journey to Ireland; the Queen's pleasure, and the impatient wishes of that nation are about to deprive us of two 50 of our publick ornaments. But there is no arguing against reasons so prevalent as these.

Your Grace's absence will yet

Those who shall lament

acquiesce in the wisdom

and justice of Her Majesty's choice: among all whose royal favours none cou'd be so agreeable, upon a thousand 55 accounts, to that people, as the Duke of Ormond. With what joy, what acclamations shall they meet a governor, who beside their former obligations to his family, has so lately ventur'd his life and fortune for their preservation ? What duty, what submission shall they not pay to that 60 authority which the Queen has delegated to a person so dear to 'em? And with what honour, what respect shall they receive Your Grace, when they look upon you as the noblest and best pattern Her Majesty cou'd send 'em, of her own royal goodness, and personal virtues? They shall 65 behold Your Grace with the same pleasure the English shall take when ever it shall be their good fortune to see you return again to your native country. In England Your Grace is become a publick concern, and as your going away will be attended with a general sorrow, so 70 your return shall give as general a joy; and to none of those many, more than to,

Madam,

Your Grace's

most Obedient, and

most Humble Servant,

N. Rowe.

PROLOGUE

SPOKEN BY MR. Betterton

Long has the fate of kings and empires been
The common bus'ness of the tragick scene,
As if misfortune made the throne her seat,
And none cou'd be unhappy but the great.
Dearly, 't is true, each buys the crown he wears,
And many are the mighty monarch's cares:
By foreign foes and home-bred factions prest,
Few are the joys he knows, and short his hours of

rest.

Stories like these with wonder we may hear,
But far remote, and in a higher sphere,
We ne'er can pity what we ne'er can share.
Like distant battles of the Pole and Swede,
Which frugal citizens o'er coffee read,
Careless for who shall fail or who succeed.
Therefore an humbler theme our author chose,
A melancholy tale of private woes:

No princes here lost royalty bemoan,

But you shall meet with sorrows like your own;
Here see imperious love his vassals treat,
As hardly as ambition does the great;

II We. 1714, Who.

See how succeeding passions rage by turns,

How fierce the youth with joy and rapture burns,
And how to death, for beauty lost, he mourns.

Let no nice taste the poet's art arraign,
If some frail vicious characters he feign :
Who writes shou'd still let nature be his care,
Mix shades with lights, and not paint all things
fair,

But shew you men and women as they are. X
With deference to the fair he bad me say,
Few to perfection ever found the way;
Many in many parts are known t' excel,
But 't were too hard for one to act all well;
Whom justly life should through each scene com-
mend,

The maid, the wife, the mistress, and the friend :
This age, 't is true, has one great instance seen,
And heav'n in justice made that one a Queen.

28 you. 1714, ye.

25

30

35

SCENE, Sciolto's PALACE AND GARDEN, WITH SOME PART OF

THE STREET NEAR IT, IN
GENOA

Dramatis Persona. 1703 ed. prints the Epilogue between the Prologue and this.

The Fair Penitent

ACT I. SCENE I.

Scene, a Garden belonging to Sciolto's Palace.
Enter Altamont and Horatio.

Altamont. Let this auspicious day be ever
sacred,

No mourning, no misfortunes happen on it;
Let it be markt for triumphs and rejoycings;
Let happy lovers ever make it holy,

Chuse it to bless their hopes, and crown their
wishes

This happy day that gives me my Calista.

Horatio. Yes, Altamont; to-day thy better

stars

Are join'd to shed their kindest influence on thee:

Sciolto's noble hand, that rais'd thee first,

5

Half dead and drooping o'er thy father's grave, 10
Compleats its bounty, and restores thy name
To that high rank and lustre which it boasted
Lefore ungrateful Genoa had forgot

6 my. 1732 omits.