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 :] 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 : young; Who then recover'd many a lost play, I was content to hazard certain toil For an uncertain gain. I undertook To rescue those same plays from condemnation, It had been easy to have kept him idle, Once more I bring the STEP-MOTHER before you, To |