Prologue To "albumazar."[1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDEFFGHIIJJKLMMFF NOPPQRSSFFSSTTUUVVWW DDXXFFYYTo say this comedy pleased long ago | A |
Is not enough to make it pass you now | B |
Yet gentlemen your ancestors had wit | C |
When few men censured and when fewer writ | C |
And Jonson of those few the best chose this | D |
As the best model of his masterpiece | E |
Subtle was got by our Albumazar | F |
That Alchymist by this Astrologer | F |
Here he was fashion'd and we may suppose | G |
He liked the fashion well who wore the clothes | H |
But Ben made nobly his what he did mould | I |
What was another's lead becomes his gold | I |
Like an unrighteous conqueror he reigns | J |
Yet rules that well which he unjustly gains | J |
By this our age such authors does afford | K |
As make whole plays and yet scarce write one word | L |
Who in his anarchy of wit rob all | M |
And what's their plunder their possession call | M |
Who like bold padders scorn by night to prey | F |
But rob by sunshine in the face of day | F |
Nay scarce the common ceremony use | N |
Of Stand sir and deliver up your Muse | O |
But knock the Poet down and with a grace | P |
Mount Pegasus before the owner's face | P |
Faith if you have such country Toms abroad | Q |
'Tis time for all true men to leave that road | R |
Yet it were modest could it but be said | S |
They strip the living but these rob the dead | S |
Dare with the mummies of the Muses play | F |
And make love to them the Egyptian way | F |
Or as a rhyming author would have said | S |
Join the dead living to the living dead | S |
Such men in poetry may claim some part | T |
They have the licence though they want the art | T |
And might where theft was praised for Laureates stand | U |
Poets not of the head but of the hand | U |
They make the benefits of others' studying | V |
Much like the meals of politic Jack Pudding | V |
Whose dish to challenge no man has the courage | W |
'Tis all his own when once he has spit in the porridge | W |
But gentlemen you're all concern'd in this | D |
You are in fault for what they do amiss | D |
For they their thefts still undiscover'd think | X |
And durst not steal unless you please to wink | X |
Perhaps you may award by your decree | F |
They should refund but that can never be | F |
For should your letters of reprisal seal | Y |
These men write that which no man else would steal | Y |
John Dryden
(1)
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