Prologue

The Contract is it call'd?—I cannot say, I much admire the title of his play; Contracts, they tell me, have been fraught with evil, Since Faustus sign'd his Contract with—the Devil; Yet, spite of Satan, all men love to make 'em, Tho' nineteen out of twenty wish to break 'em: Butchers and meal-men, brewers, agents, factors, Pimps, poets, placemen, managers, and actors, Bawds, bankrupts, booksellers, are all—Contractors, All lye, and swear, and cheat, t' increase their store, Then die, and go—where Faustus went before.

Whilst thus o'er all we see th' infection spread, No wonder it shou'd taint the marriage bed; Each wife forgets, each husband breaks his vow, For what are Contracts? what is wedlock now?

Garrick, who long was marry'd—to the town, At length, a fashionable husband grown, Forsakes his spouse; base man! for, truth to tell, She lov'd her own dear Davy wond'rous well; Tho' now he slights her, breaks from her by force, And nought will serve him but a full divorce. But be the fault in women or in men, Thanks to our laws! they all may—wed again; Her faithless fav'rite gone, the Lady's free, To choose another, and may smile—on me, To the Lame Lover may resign her charms, And, tho' a cripple, take me to her arms: I'll promise to be constant, kind, polite, And pay my duty—every other night: My dear-lov'd rib I never will abandon, But stand by her whilst I've ONE leg to stand on; I'll make a solemn Contract, play or pay, And hope we shall not part this many a day.

Our brother scribbler too, I greatly fear, Has made a foolish kind of Contract here, He promises, and ten to one you're bit, To furnish fable, sentiment and wit: I've seen his piece, the man appeal'd to me, And I, as chancellor, issued my decree; T'has pass'd the seals—they're going to rehearse it, But you're the House of Peers—and may reverse it.