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Home  »  The Poems of John Dryden  »  Epilogue to Henry II, King of England, with the Death of Rosamond

John Dryden (1631–1700). The Poems of John Dryden. 1913.

Prologues and Epilogues

Epilogue to Henry II, King of England, with the Death of Rosamond

THUS you the sad Catastrophe have seen,

Occasion’d by a Mistress and a Queen.

Queen Eleanor the proud was French, they say;

But English Manufacture got the Day.

Jane Clifford was her Name, as Books aver:

Fair Rosamond was but her Nom de Guerre.

Now tell me, Gallants, wou’d you lead your Life

With such a Mistress, or with such a Wife?

If one must be your Choice, which d’ye approve,

The Curtain-Lecture or the Curtain-Love?

Wou’d ye be godly with perpetual Strife,

Still drudging on with homely Joan your Wife,

Or take your Pleasure in a wicked way,

Like honest Whoring Harry in the Play?

I guess your Minds; The Mistress wou’d be taking,

And nauseous Matrimony sent a packing.

The Devil’s in ye all; Mankind’s a Rogue,

You love the Bride, but you detest the Clog:

After a Year, poor Spouse is left i’ th’ lurch;

And you, like Haynes, return to Mother-Church.

Or, if the Name of Church comes cross your mind,

Chapels of Ease behind our Scenes you find.

The Play-house is a kind of Market-place;

One chaffers for a Voice, another for a Face;

Nay, some of you, I dare not say how many,

Would buy of me a Pen’ worth for your Peny.

Even this poor Face (which with my Fan I hide)

Would make a shift my Portion to provide,

With some small Perquisites I have beside.

Though for your Love, perhaps, I should not care,

I could not hate a Man that bids me fair.

What might ensue, ’tis hard for me to tell;

But I was drench’d to day for loving well,

And fear the Poyson that would make me swell.