PROLOGUE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 1680 by JOHN DRYDEN

@3THESPIS@1, the first Professor of our Art,
At Country Wakes, Sung Ballads in a Cart.
To prove this true, if @3Latin@1 be no Trespass,
@3Dicitur et Plaustris vexisse Poemata Thespis@1.
But @3Eschylus@1, say @3Horace@1 in some Page,
Was the first Mountebank e'ertrod the Stage;
Yet @3Athens@1 never knew your learned Sport
of tossing Poets in a @3Tennis-Court@1.
But 'tis the Talent of our @3English@1 Nation
Still to be plotting some new Reformation;
And few years hence, if anarchy go on,
@3Jack Presbyter@1 will here erect his Throne,
Knock out a Tub with Preaching once a Day.
And every Prayer be longer than a Play.
Then all you Heathen Wits shall go to pot
For disbelieving of a Popish plot:
Nor should we want the Sentence to depart
Ev'n in our first Original, a Cart.
@3Occham, Dun Scotus@1, must though learn'd go down,
As chief Supporters of the Triple Crown.
And @3Aristotle@1 for destruction ripe:
Some say he call'd the Soul an Organ-pipe,
Which, by some little help of Derivation,
Shall thence be call'd a Pipe of Inspiration.
Your wiser Judgments further penetrate
Who late found out one Tare amongst the Wheat,
This is our Comfort: none e'er cried us down
But who disturb'd both Bishop and a Crown.

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