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If they had strength enough, and damn this play.

But this the author bade me boldly say:

If any take his plainness in ill part,

He's glad on't from the bottom of his heart; Poets in honor of the truth should write 10 With the same spirit brave men for it fight; And though against him causeless hatreds rise,

And daily where he goes of late he spies The scowls of sullen and revengeful eyes, 'Tis what he knows with much contempt to bear, 15

And serves a cause too good to let him fear. He fears no poison from an incensed drab, No ruffian's five-foot-sword, nor rascal's stab,

20

Nor any other snares of mischief laid,
Not a Rose-alley cudgel-ambuscade,
From any private cause where malice reigns,
Or general pique all blockheads have to
brains:

Nothing shall daunt his pen when truth does call,

No, not the picture-mangler1 at Guildhall. The rebel-tribe, of which that vermin's one, Have now set forward and their course begun; 26

And while that prince's figure they deface,

As they before had massacred his name, Durst their base fears but look him in the face,

They'd use his person as they've used his fame;

30

A face, in which such lineaments they read Of that great martyr's2 whose rich blood they shed,

That their rebellious hate they still retain, And in his son would murther him again. 34 With indignation then, let each brave heart, Rouse and unite to take his injured part; Till Royal love and goodness call him home, And songs of triumph meet him as he come; Till Heaven his honor and our peace restore, And villains never wrong his virtue more.

1Q1, note in margin: "The rascal that cut the Duke of York's picture." 2 Charles I.

BURY FAIR

A COMEDY BY THOMAS SHADWELL

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

LORD BELLAMY [living in the country: friend to Wildish]

MR. WILDISH [a London gentleman]

MR. OLDWIT

SIR HUMPHREY NODDY Bury fops

MR. TRIM

LA ROCH [a French barber and peruke-maker]

Valet to Mr. Wildish

CHARLES

Butler

NICHOLAS, servant to La Roch

Page to La Roch

LADY FANTAST, wife to Mr. Oldwit

MRS. FANTAST, daughter to my Lady Fantast by a former husband

Mrs. Gertrude, Oldwit's daughter by a former wife

[PHILADELPHIA, her half-sister, disguised as
Charles, Page to Lord Bellamy]
LUCE, Mrs. Fantast's woman
Four Ladies

Milliner, Perfumer, Hosier, Goldsmith, Indian

Gown Man, two Jack-Puddings, Gingerbread
Woman, Fruit Women, Country Fellows and
Wenches, Constable and his Guard, Servants
and Footmen

SCENE: St. Edmund's Bury

[TIME: Contemporary]

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY

To

CHARLES

Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, Lord Chamberlain of His Majesty's Household, Lord Lieutenant of Sussex, and one of the most Honorable Privy Council

My Lord,

I who have been so long and so continually obliged by your Lordship, have ever fresh occasions of acknowledging your favor and bounty to me, and cannot be silent of the late great honor you have done me in making me the King's servant; but must publish my gratitude for that and all the rest of the great obligations I have received. Your Lordship not only makes use of your own power, but of that which the King has entrusted you with, to do good to mankind, which you ever delighted in. And as I am apt to believe that no man had ever a great office conferred upon him with more favor from his Prince, so I am well assured no man ever received one with a more general liking of the people than your Lordship. Nothing but the service of so great and gracious a King, who so miraculously redeemed us, and since makes all our interests his own, could recompense you for the happy retirement you might enjoy, and wherein you so much delight.

This play, my Lord, I humbly submit to your Lordship's judgment. I can write nothing worthy of your acceptance; but I hope your Lordship will give some indulgence to this, since it was written during eight months' painful sickness, wherein all the several days in which I was able to write any part of a scene amounted not to. one month, except some few which were employed in indispensable business. This is indeed

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