pretend by this dedication, is an honour which I do myself to posterity, by acquainting them, that I have been conversant with the first persons of the age in which I lived; and thereby perpetuate my prose, when my verses may possibly be forgotten, or obscured by the fame of future poets. Which ambition, amongst my other faults and imperfections, be pleased to pardon, in,

MY LORD,

Your Lordship's most obedient servant,

JOHN DRYDEN.

PROLOGUE,

SPOKEN BY MR BETTERTON.

SURE there's a dearth of wit in this dull town,
When silly plays so savourily go down;
As, when clipped money passes, 'tis a sign
A nation is not over-stocked with coin.
Happy is he, who, in his own defence,
Can write just level to your humble sense;
Who higher than your pitch can never go;
And, doubtless, he must creep, who writes below.
So have I seen, in hall of knight, or lord,
A weak arm throw on a long shovel-board ;
He barely lays his piece, bar rubs and knocks,
Secured by weakness not to reach the box
A feeble poet will his business do,

Who, straining all he can, comes up to you:
For, if you like yourselves, you like him too.
An
ape his own dear image will embrace;
An ugly beau adores a hatchet face:

So, some of you, on pure instinct of nature,
Are led, by kind, to admire your fellow creature.
In fear of which, our house has sent this day,
To insure our new-built vessel, called a play;
No sooner named, than one cries out,-These stagers
Come in good time, to make more work for wagers.
The town divides, if it will take or no;

The courtiers bet, the cits, the merchants too;
A sign they have but little else to do.

}

}

*The ancient game of shovel-board was played by sliding pieces of money along a smooth table, something on the principle of billiards. The allusion seems to be the same as if a modern poet had said, that a feeble player at billiards runs no risk of pocketing his own ball. The reader will find a variety of passages concerning this pastime in the notes of the various commentators upon a passage in the "Merry Wives of Windsor," where Slender enumerates among the contents of his pocket, when picked by Pistol, “two Edward shovel-boards," that is, two broad shillings of Edward VI. used for playing at this game. In some old halls the shovel-board table is still preserved, and sometimes used.

Bets, at the first, were fool-traps; where the wise,
Like spiders, lay in ambush for the flies:

But now they're grown a common trade for all,
And actions by the new-book rise and fall;
Wits, cheats, and fops, are free of wager-hall.
One policy as far as Lyons carries ;

Another, nearer home, sets up for Paris.

Our bets, at last, would even to Rome extend,
But that the pope has proved our trusty friend.
Indeed, it were a bargain worth our money,
Could we insure another Ottoboni *.
Among the rest there are a sharping set,
That pray for us, and yet against us bet.
Sure heaven itself is at a loss to know

If these would have their prayers be heard, or no :
For, in great stakes, we piously suppose,

Men pray but very faintly they may lose.

Leave off these wagers; for, in conscience speaking,
The city needs not your new tricks for breaking:
And if you gallants lose, to all appearing,
You'll want an equipage for volunteering;

While thus, no spark of honour left within ye,
When you should draw the sword, you draw the guinea.

* Cardinal Ottoboni, a Venetian by birth, succeeded to the tiara on the death of Innocent XI., and assumed the name of Alexander VIII. He was, like his predecessor, an enemy to France, and maintained the privileges of the Holy See, both in the point of the regale, and in refusing to grant bulls to those French bishops who had signed the formulary of 1682, by which the Pope was declared fallible, and subject to the decrees of a general council. His death took place during the congress of 1690. It was therefore a recent event when this play was first represented, and the disposition of his successor, towards the French or Imperial Courts, was matter of anxious speculation to the politicians of the day.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

King ARTHUR.

OSWALD, King of KENT, a Saxon, and a Heathen. CONON, Duke of CORNWALL, Tributary to King ARTHUR.

MERLIN, a famous Enchanter.

OSMOND, a Saxon Magician, and a Heathen.

AURELIUS, Friend to ARTHUR.

ALBANACT, Captain of ARTHUR'S Guards.

GUILLIMAR, Friend to Oswald.

EMMELINE, Daughter of CoNon.

MATILDA, her Attendant.

PHILIDEL, an Airy Spirit.

GRIMBALD, an Earthy Spirit.

Officers and Soldiers, Singers and Dancers.

SCENE-Kent.

KING ARTHUR;

OR, THE

BRITISH WORTHY.

ACT I.-SCENE I.

Enter CONON, AURELIUS, ALBANACT. Con. Then this is the deciding day, to fix Great Britain's sceptre in great Arthur's hand. Aur. Or put it in the bold invader's gripe. Arthur and Oswald, and their different fates, Are weighing now within the scales of Heaven. Con. In ten set battles have we driven back These heathen Saxons, and regained our earth. As earth recovers from an ebbing tide Her half-drowned face, and lifts it o'er the waves, From Severn's bank, even to this barren down, Our foremost men have pressed their fainty rear, And not one Saxon face has been beheld; But all their backs and shoulders have been stuck With foul dishonest wounds; now here, indeed, Because they have no farther ground, they stand.