The Certain Hour (Dizain des Poëtes)

by James Branch Cabell

  I the Plain Dealer am to act to-day.

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  Now, you shrewd judges, who the boxes sway, Leading the ladies' hearts and sense astray, And for their sakes, see all and hear no play; Correct your cravats, foretops, lock behind: The dress and breeding of the play ne'er mind; For the coarse dauber of the coming scenes To follow life and nature only means, Displays you as you are, makes his fine woman A mercenary jilt and true to no man, Shows men of wit and pleasure of the age Are as dull rogues as ever cumber'd stage.

  WILLIAM WYCHERLEY.--_Prologue to The Plain Dealer_.