EPILOGUE.

SHAPE.

WE have efcap'd the law, but yet do fear

Something that's harder anfwer d-your sharp ear.

O for a prefent fleight now, to beguile

That, and deceive you but of one good fmile!
'Tis that must free us; th' Author dares not look
For that good fortune, to be fav'd by's book.
To leave this blessed foil is no great woe;
Our grief's in leaving you, that make it fa:

For if you fhall call in thofe beams you lent,
'Twould ev'n at home create a banishment.

EDITION.

THE

ORDINARY:

A CO MED Y.

WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT,

M. A. CH. CH. Oxon.

LONDON:

Printed for HUMPHREY MOSELEY; and are to be fold at his Shop, at the Sign of The Prince's Armes, in St. Paul's Church-yard.

MDCLI.

8vo.

JOVIAL

JOVIAL CREW;

OR, THE

MERRY BEGGARS.

ICHARD BROME was of mean extraction,

R1

and sometime fervant to Ben Jonfon. At what time he began to write, we have no account; but his master fays, it was not until he had ferved him the term of an apprenticeship. The first play of Brome's, which appeared in print in 1632, has the following verfes from Ben Jonfon:

"To my faithful fervant, and (by his continu'd

virtue) my loving friend, the author of this " work, Mr. Richard Brome.

"I had you for a fervant once, Dick Brome,
"And you perform'd a fervant's faithful parts:
"Now you are got into a nearer room

"Of fellowship, profeffing my old arts.
"And you do do them well; with good applaufe ;
"Which you have juftly gain'd from the stage,
"By obfervation of thofe comick laws,

"Which I, your master, firft did teach the age.
"You learnt it well, and for it ferv'd your time,
"A 'prenticeship; which few do now a-days:
"Now each court hobbihorse will wince in rime;
"Both learned and unlearned, all write plays.
"It was not fo of old: men took up t. ades

"That knew the crafts they had been bred in
right:

"An honeft Bilboe-fmith would make good blades, "And the phyfician teach men fpue and

"The cobler kept him to his awl; but now,
"He'll be a poet fcarce can guide a plow."

Befides this teftimony in his favour, by one who was not apt to be over-lavish of his praises, feveral of the principal VOL. X.

Y

poets