Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ARVIRAGUS AND PHILICA, REVIVED: PROLOGUE, by JOHN DRYDEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: With sickly actors & an old house too Last Line: You'd less good breeding or had more good nature. Subject(s): Actors & Actresses; Plays & Playwrights ; Theater & Theaters; Actresses; Dramatists; Stage Life | ||||||||
WITH sickly Actors and an old House too, We're match'd with glorious Theatres and new, And with our Ale-house scenes and Cloaths bare worn Can neither raise old Plays nor new adorn. If all these Ills could not undo us quite, A brisk French Troop is grown your dear delight; Who with broad bloudy Bills call you each day To laugh and break your Buttons at their Play; Or see some serious Piece, which we presume Is fall'n from some incomparable plume; And therefore, Messieurs, if you'll do us Grace, Send Lacquies early to preserve your Place. We dare not on your Priviledge intrench, Or ask you why you like 'em? They are French. Therefore some go with Courtesie exceeding, Neither to hear nor see, but show their Breeding: Each Lady striving to out-laugh the rest; To make it seem they understood the Jest. Their Countrymen come in, and nothing pay, To teach us English where to clap the play: Civil, Igad; Our Hospitable Land Bears all the Charge, for them to understand: Mean time we languish, and neglected lye, Like Wives, while you keep better Company; And wish for our own sakes, without a Satyr, You'd less good Breeding or had more good Nature. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#20): 1. SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#20): 2. SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL ELEGY IN A THEATRICAL WAREHOUSE by KENNETH FEARING LOGIC AND 'THE MAGIC FLUTE' (IMPRESSIONS OF A PREMIERE) by MARIANNE MOORE DEPRESSION DAYS (2) by PAT MORA BOY AND MOM AT THE NUTCRACKER BALLET by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE EYES LIKE LEEKS by LINDA GREGERSON A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY by JOHN DRYDEN A SONG TO A FAIR YOUNG LADY GOING OUT OF TOWN IN THE SPRING by JOHN DRYDEN |
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