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WILD OATS;

OR,

THE STROLLING GENTLEMEN.

IN FIVE ACTS.

PERFORMED AT THE

THEATRE-ROYAL, COVENT-GARDEN,

IN 1791.

PROLOGUE,

WRITTEN BY JOHN TAYLOR, ESQ

SPOKEN BY MR. HOLMAN.

WHAT can we now invite you to partake,
When realms have been exhaufted for your fake,
And ample Nature travers'd o'er and o'er,
'Till all her beaten haunts will yield no more?
From climes where Phoebus pours his brightest ray
To where scarce faintly gleams the twilight day,
The dauntless Bard has urg'd his vent'rous aim,
To greet you ftill with fresh Dramatic game.
One noble Hunter, of the Thefpian train,

Rush'd from his Avon's fide o'er earth's domain,
And brought with happy Magic, more than toil,
The motley tribes of ev'ry varying foil;
While his quick eye fo widely could explore
That Time himself, fhall ne'er discover more:
Nay, in the track of his fublime career,
We país the bounds of Nature's humble sphere;
And zealous after all our fearch has found,
Through radiant wilds of Fancy's fairy ground;
Once more the arduous chace we dare pursue,
And fondly hope we've started fomething new,

Our Hero, for fo far we may discover,

Is a young Actor, and of course a lover!

But, what, perhaps, will raise no flight surprise!
Though ufed to various fhapes, above disguise.
Fictitious language, of a borrow'd part,

Sports from his tongue, indeed, but not his heart!
For Nature's warm and abfolute controul
Guides ev'ry impulfe of his gen'rous foul.
Sure fuch a part your favour must engage,
And though a stranger on the mimic stage,

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Yet may the Scenic band, with honeft pride!
Howe'er by formal Prejudice decry'd,
Boaft as fair patterns of domestic worth,
As that our present Drama pictures forth!

Let then the Bard, who vindicates our caufe,
Obtain the fanction of your warm applause!
So may we prove, in spite of prudish Spleen!
Actors can feel beyond the paffing fcene;

And long, too harfhly deem'd a thoughtless kind, Live to the friendly model he defign'd.

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