M.DCC.LVIII.

_Three Hours after_

MARRIAGE:

A

COMEDY.

_Rumpatur, quisquis rumpitur invidia._ MART.

ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT.

It may be necessary to acquaint the reader, that this play is printed exactly as it is acted.

I must farther own the a.s.sistance I have receiv'd in this piece from two of my friends; who, tho' they will not allow me the honour of having their names join'd with mine, cannot deprive me of the pleasure of making this acknowledgment.

JOHN GAY.

PROLOGUE

Spoke by MR. WILKS.

_Authors are judg'd by strange capricious rules, The great ones are thought mad, the small ones fools.

Yet sure the best are most severely fated, For fools are only laugh'd at, wits are hated, Blockheads with reason, men of sense abhor; But fool 'gainst fool is barb'rous civil war.

Why on all authors then should critics fall?

Since some have writ, and shewn no wit at all.

Condemn a play of theirs, and they evade it, Cry, d.a.m.n not us, but d.a.m.n the French that made it; By running goods, these graceless owlers gain, Theirs are the rules of France, the plots of Spain: But wit, like wine, from happier climates brought, Dash'd by these rogues, turns English common draught: They pall Moliere's and Lopez sprightly strain, And teach dull Harlequins to grin in vain.

How shall our author hope a gentle fate, Who dares most impudently----not translate.

It had been civil in these ticklish times, To fetch his fools and knaves from foreign climes;_ Spaniards and French abuse to the worlds' end But spare old England, lest you hurt a friend.

If any fool is by your satire bit, Let him hiss loud, to show you all--he's. .h.i.t.

Poets make characters as salesmen cloaths, We take no measure of your fops and beaus.

But here all sizes and all shapes ye meet, And fit yourselves--like chaps in Monmouth-street._

_Gallants look here, this[B] fool's cap has an air-- Goodly and smart,--with ears of Issachar.

Let no one fool engross it, or confine: A common blessing! now 'tis your's, now mine.

But poets in all ages, had the Care To keep this cap, for such as will, to wear; Our author has it now, for ev'ry wit Of course resign'd it to the next that writ: And thus upon the stage 'tis fairly[C] thrown, Let him that takes it, wear it for his own._

[B] Shews a cap with ears.

[C] Flings down the cap and

_Exit._

Dramatis Personae.

MEN.

FOSSILE, } Mr. _Johnson_.

POSSUM, } Doctors. Mr. _Corey_.

NAUTILUS, } Mr. _Cross_.

PTISAN, Apothecary. Mr. _Wright_.

PLOTWELL, Mr. _Cibber_.

UNDERPLOT, Mr. _Penkethman_.

Sir TREMENDOUS, Mr. _Bowman_.

First PLAYER, Mr. _Diggs_.

Second PLAYER, Mr. _Watson_.

SAILOR. Mr. _Bickerstaff_.

Footmen, Servants, _&c._

WOMEN.

Mrs. TOWNLEY, Mrs. _Oldfield_.

Mrs. PHOEBE CLINKET, Mrs. _Bicknet_.

SARSNET, Mrs. _Garnet_.

PRUE. Miss _Willis_.

_Three Hours after_

MARRIAGE:

A

COMEDY.

ACT I.