Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TYRANNICK [TYRANNIC] LOVE: EPILOGUE, by JOHN DRYDEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TYRANNICK [TYRANNIC] LOVE: EPILOGUE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hold! Are you mad? You damned, confounded dog!
Last Line: Yet dy'd a princess, acting in s.Cathar'n.
Subject(s): Ghosts; Gwynn, Eleanor (nell) (1650-1687); Plays & Playwrights ; Poetry & Poets; Supernatural; Gwyn, Eleanor (nell); Gwynne, Eleanor (nell); Dramatists


TO THE BEARER. Hold! are you mad? you damn'd, confounded Dog!
I am to rise, and speak the Epilogue.
TO THE AUDIENCE. I come, kind Gentlemen, strange news to tell ye;
I am the Ghost of poor departed Nelly.
Sweet Ladies, be not frighted; I'le be civil;
I'm what I was, a little harmless Devil.
For, after death, we Sprights have just such Natures,
We had, for all the World, when humane Creatures;
And, therefore, I, that was an Actress here,
Play all my Tricks in Hell, a Goblin there.
Gallants, look to 't, you say there are no Sprights;
But I'll come dance about your Beds at nights;
And faith you'll be in a sweet kind of taking,
When I surprise you between sleep and waking.
To tell you true, I walk, because I dye
Out of my Calling, in a Tragedy.
O Poet, damn'd dull Poet, who could prove
So senseless, to make Nelly dye for Love!
Nay, what's yet worse, to kill me in the prime
Of Easter-term, in Tart and Cheese-cake time!
I'le fit the Fopp; for I'le not one word say,
T' excuse his godly, out of fashion Play;
A Play, which, if you dare but twice sit out,
You'll all be slander'd, and be thought devout.
But, farewel, Gentlemen, make haste to me,
I'm sure e're long to have your company.
As for my Epitaph when I am gone,
I'le trust no Poet, but will write my own.

Here Nelly lies, who, though she lived a Slater'n,
Yet dy'd a Princess, acting in S.Cathar'n.





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