282

Dem. I consent

That he shall have her 72: let him finish there.

Esch. All now is as it should be 73.---[to the Audience :]
Clap your hands!

THE

STEP-MOTHER.

EXHIBITED at the MEGALESIAN GAMES';

Sextus Julius Cæsar and Cn. Cornelius Dolabella, Curule Ædiles. It was not acted through. The musick, composed for equal flutes, by Flaccus, freedman to Claudius. It is entirely from the Greek of Apollodorus2. It was acted first without a prologue, Cn. Octavius and T. Manlius, consuls3; and brought on again at the funeral games of Æmilius Paulus: it did not please. It was acted a third time, Q. Fulvius and L. Marcius, Curule Ediles: principal actor, L. Ambivius Turpio: it pleased.

PRO

PROLOGUE.

10

THIS play is call'd The Step-mother. When first It was presented, such a hurricane *, A tumult so uncommon interven'd, It neither could be seen, nor understood: So taken were the people, so engag'd By a rope-dancer!-It is now brought on As a new piece: and he who wrote the play, Suffer'd it not to be repeated then, That he might profit by a second sales. Others, his plays, you have already known; Now then, let me beseech you, know this too.

ANOTHER

I Come a pleaders, in the shape of prologue :
Let me then gain my cause, and now grown old,
Experience the same favour as when

young;

Who then recover'd many a lost play,
Breath'd a new life into the scenes, and sav'd
The author, and his writings, from oblivion.
Of those, which first I studied of Cæcilius",
In some I was excluded; and in some
Hardly maintain'd my ground. But knowing well
The variable fortunes of the scene,

I was content to hazard certain toil

For an uncertain gain. I undertook

To rescue those same plays from condemnation,
And labour'd to reverse your sentence on them;
That the same poet might afford me more,
And no ill fortune damp young genius in him.
My cares prevail'd; the plays were heard; and thus
Did I restore an author, nearly lost
Through the malevolence of adversaries,
To study, labour, and the poet's art.
But had I at that time despis'd his plays,
Or labour'd to deter him from the task,

It had been easy to have kept him idle,
And to have scared him from attempting more;
For my sake, therefore, deign to hear with candour
The suit I mean to offer to you now.

Once more I bring the STEP-MOTHER before you,
Which yet in silence I might never play;
So did confusion crush it: which confusion
Your prudence may allay, if it will deign

To