The bard when first he gave his mind to write
Thought it his only business, that his plays
Should please the people: but it now falls out,
He finds, much otherwise, and wastes, perforce,
His time in writing prologues; not to tell
The argument, but to refute the slanders
Broacht by the malice of an older bard.
And mark what vices he is charged withal:
Menander wrote the “Andrian” and “Perinthian”:
Know one and you know both; in argument
Less different than in sentiment and style.
What suited with the “Andrian” he confesses
From the “Perinthian” he transferred and used
For his: and this it is these slanderers blame,
Proving by deep and learned disputation
That fables should not be confounded thus.
Troth! all their knowledge is they nothing know:
Who blaming him, blame Nævins, Plautus, Ennius,
Whose great example is his precedent;
Whose negligence he 'd wish to emulate
Rather than their dark diligence. Henceforth
Let them, I give them warning, be at peace,
And cease to rail, lest they be made to know
Their own misdeeds! …

Yet if to other poets 't is not lawful
To draw the characters our fathers drew,
How can it then be lawful to exhibit
Slaves running to and fro; to represent
Good matrons, wanton harlots; or to show
An eating parasite, vainglorious soldier,
Supposititious children, bubbled dotards,
Or love, or hate, or jealousy?—In short,
Nothing 's said now, but has been said before!
Weigh then these things with candour and forgive
The Modern, if what Ancients did they do!