Classic Poem

AT THE PANTHEON MASQUERADE, AND AFTERWARDS, (WITH CONSIDERABLE ALTERATIONS) AT MRS. BROADSHEAD'S MASQUERADE .

I N real life though few act well their part,
Rejecting nature, and adopting art;
The Stroller must the passions all display,
And suit his feelings to each change of play.
Sometimes Charles Surface roaring out his toast,
Then, Hamlet starting at his father's ghost!
Next Falstaff, leering at the merry wife;
Now Richard, fighting for his crown and life!
Or, stung with guilt, at Duncan's purpos'd death,
Stare at the visionary dagger, as Macbeth:
And when the bowl, the dagger, and the string,
Has clear'd the stage, of hero, mute, and king;
In humble farce we court the comic vein,
In our eyes pleasure, in our bosoms pain,
Yet sure for tragedy we're much more fit,
For rags, and poverty are foes to wit,
And fair Jane Shore, that interesting sinner!
In truth may say, she's faint for want of dinner.
While Ammon's son, his dreams of glory pass'd,
If thin the house, in Babylon must fast!
But not to Stroller's is confin'd the rage,
Of acting plays in this capricious age;
Peers, knights, and commoners, with ladies fair,
Sigh out their souls, or rant in wild despair;
And occupy those barns, in many a town,
Where we have laugh'd, and wept for half a crown!
Nor have we Wand'rers the prescriptive art
To act throughout this life a double part;
For the proud senator, you daily see,
Who bellows out for Freedom! Liberty!
At home pursues the tyrant's guilty life,
Nor grants that freedom to a wretched wife.
The patriot, out of place, can rail at kings,
And deems court honours, mean and trifling things;
But when the scene is chang'd, behold him stand,
The wand of office glitt'ring in his hand!
Courteous he bows, now skill'd in statesman's wiles,
And leaves the people, for the prince's smiles.
The cringing courtier, bred, from early youth,
No friend to freedom, and a foe to truth;
Plac'd, is a Tory, and the monarch's slave,
Turn'd out, a Hampden risen from the grave!
Recanted errors gain the croud's applause,
He shines a Whig, the prop of freedom's cause!
The doctor cries, “avoid all pois'nous wine,”
But drinks two bottles, or he could not dine:
While lawyers prove that right, they know is wrong,
As money makes the cause, or weak, or strong.

 Thus on the stage of life mankind display,
A checker'd character, each several day;
Though some, not suited to the scenes they fill,
May act, like me, their fictious parts but ill.