Note 413 — MAC-FLECNOE.
Reading edition
These circumstances of offence occur in the prologue, epilogue, and preface to the "Virtuoso," which must have been acted in the same season with "Aureng-Zebe," as the dedication is dated 26th June, 1676. The prologue commences with an irreverend allusion to that play, and to our author's theatrical engagements:
You came with such an eager appetite To a late play, which gave so great delight, Our poet fears, that by so rich a treat Your palates are become too delicate. Yet since you've had rhyme for a relishing bit, To give a better taste to comic wit; But this requires expence of time and pains, Too great, alas! for poets' slender gains. For wit, like china, should long buried lie, Before it ripens to good comedy; A thing we ne'er have seen since Jonson's days, And but a few of his were perfect plays. Now drudges of the stage must oft appear, They must be bound to scribble twice a year.
That these insinuations might not be mistaken, Shadwell, in the epilogue, severely attacks rhyming tragedies in general; the object of which diatribe, considering the late success of "Aureng-Zebe," could not possibly be misinterpreted:
But of those ladies he despairs to-day, Who love a dull romantic whining play; } Where poor frail woman's made a deity, } With senseless amorous idolatry, } And snivelling heroes sigh, and pine, and cry. } Though singly they beat armies, and huff kings, Rant at the gods, and do impossible things; Though they can laugh at danger, blood, and wounds, Yet if the dame once chides, the milk-sop hero swoons. These doughty things nor manners have nor wit; We ne'er saw hero fit to drink with yet.
The passage in the Dedication, in which he insinuates that the provision of a pension was all he wanted, to place him on a level with the proudest of his rivals, is as follows: "That there are a great many faults in the conduct of this play, I am not ignorant; but I (having no pension but from the theatre, which is either unwilling, or unable, to reward a man sufficiently for so much pains as correct comedies require) cannot allot my whole time to the writing of plays, but am forced to mind some other business of advantage. Had I as much money, and as much time for it, I might perhaps write as correct a comedy as any of my contemporaries."