The prologue to His Majesty at the first play presented at the Cock-pit in Whitehall, being part of that noble entertainment which their Maiesties received Novemb. 19. from his Grace the Duke of Albemarle. Denham, John, Sir, 1615-1669. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A81294 of text R210836 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason 669.f.26[30]). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 3 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A81294 Wing D1007A Thomason 669.f.26[30] ESTC R210836 99869591 99869591 163912 2240931330

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Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A81294) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 163912) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 247:669f26[30]) The prologue to His Majesty at the first play presented at the Cock-pit in Whitehall, being part of that noble entertainment which their Maiesties received Novemb. 19. from his Grace the Duke of Albemarle. Denham, John, Sir, 1615-1669. 1 sheet ([1] p.) Printed for G. Bedell and T. Collins, at the Middle-Temple Gate in Fleet-street, London : 1660. In verse - "Greatest of Monarchs, welcome to this place". Annotation on Thomason copy: "Nou. 23". Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Great Britain -- History -- Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660 -- Poetry -- Early works to 1800. A81294 R210836 (Thomason 669.f.26[30]). civilwar no The prologue to His Majesty at the first play presented at the Cock-pit in Whitehall, being part of that noble entertainment which their Mai Denham, John, Sir 1660 1 466 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 A This text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. 2007-10 Assigned for keying and markup 2007-10 Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-11 Sampled and proofread 2007-11 Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 Batch review (QC) and XML conversion
THE PROLOGUE TO HIS MAJESTY At the first PLAY presented at the Cock-pit in WHITEHALL , Being part of that Noble Entertainment which Their MAIESTIES received Novemb. 19. from his Grace the Duke of ALBEMARLE . GReatest of Monarchs , welcome to this place Which Majesty so oft was wont to grace Before our Exile , to divert the Court , And ballance weighty Cares with harmless sport This truth we can to our advantage say , They that would have no KING , would have no Play : The Laurel and the Crown together went , Had the same Foes , and the same Banishment : The Ghosts of their great Ancestors they fear'd , VVho by the art of conjuring Poets rear'd , Our HARRIES & our EDWARDS long since dead Still on the Stage a march of Glory tread : Those Monuments of Fame ( they thought ) would stain And teach the People to despise their Reign : Nor durst they look into the Muses Well , Least the cleer Spring their ugliness should tell ; Affrighted with the shadow of their Rage , They broke the Mirror of the times , the Stage ; The Stage against them still maintain'd the War , When they debauch'd the Pulpit and the Bar. Though to be Hypocrites , be our Praise alone , 'T is our peculiar boast that we were none . . What er'e they taught , we practis'd what was true , And something we had learn'd of honor too , VVhen by Your Danger , and our Duty prest , VVe acted in the Field , and not in Test ; Then for the Cause our Tyring-house they sack't , And silenc't us that they alone might act ; And ( to our shame ) most dext'rously they do it , Out-act the Players , and out-ly the Poet ; But all the other Arts appear'd so scarce , Ours were the Moral Lectures , theirs the Farse : This spacious Land their Theater became , And they Grave Counsellors , and Lords in Name ; VVhich these Mechanicks Personate so ill That ev'n the Oppressed with contempt they fill , But when the Lyons dreadful skin they took , They roar'd so loud that the whole Forrest shook ; The noise kept all the Neighborhood in awe , VVho thought 't was the true Lyon by his Pawe . If feigned Vertue could such Wonders do , VVhat may we not expect from this that 's true ! But this Great Theme must serve another Age , To fill our Story , and adorne our Stage .

LONDON , Printed for G. Bedell and T. Collins , at the Middle-Temple Gate in Fleet-street . 1660.