PROLOGUE TO THE SECOND PART. They, who write ill, and they, who ne'er durst write, We take them in, and they turn beauties here.) As scriveners draw away the bankers' trade. "Pox on her, 'tmust be she;" and-" damme, no !"— Just so, I prophesy, these wits to-day Will blindly guess at our imperfect play; With what new plots our Second Part is filled, Who must be kept alive, and who be killed. And as those vizard-masks maintain that fashion, To soothe and tickle sweet imagination; So our dull poet keeps you on with masking, To make you think there's something worth your asking. But, when 'tis shown, that, which does now delight you, Will prove a dowdy, with a face to fright you. ALMANZOR AND ALMAHIDE, OR, THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA. THE SECOND PART. ACT I. SCENE I.-A Camp. Enter KING FERDINAND, QUEEN ISABELLA, ALONZO D'AGUILAR; Attendants, Men and Women. K. Ferd. At length the time is come, when Spain shall be From the long yoke of Moorish tyrants free. Till, swelling by degrees, it has possessed The greater space, and now crowds up the rest; When, from behind, there starts some petty state, And pushes on its now unwieldy fate;' Then down the precipice of time it goes, And sinks in minutes, which in ages rose. Q. Isabel. Should bold Columbus in his search succeed, And find those beds in which bright metals breed; The wealth which he in western mines did lay,- K. Ferd. By that assault which last we made, I find, Their courage is with their success declined: I saw him, glistering in his armour, ride To them ABDALLA. Q. Isabel. But see, the brother of the Moorish king: He seems some news of great import to bring. |