Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 9.djvu/119

Present anon: Medea must not kill
Her sons before the people, nor the ill-
Natur'd and wicked Atreus cook to th' eye
His nephew's entrails: nor must Progne fly
Into a swallow there; nor Cadmus take
Upon the stage the figure of a snake.
What so is shown, I not believe, and hate.
Nor must the fable, that would hope the fate
Once seen, to be again call'd for, and play'd,
Have more or less than just five acts: nor laid,
To have a god come in; except a knot
Worth his untying happen there: and not
Any fourth man, to speak at all, aspire.
An actor's parts, and office too, the quire
Must maintain manly: nor be heard to sing
Between the acts, a quite clean other thing
Than to the purpose leads, and fitly 'grees.
It still must favour good men, and to these
Be won a friend; it must both sway and bend
The angry, and love those that fear t' offend.
Praise the spare diet, wholesome justice, laws,
Peace, and the open ports, that peace doth cause.
Hide faults, pray to the gods, and wish aloud
Fortune would love the poor, and leave the proud.
The hau'boy, not as now with latten bound,
And rival with the trumpet for his sound,
But soft, and simple, at few holds breath'd time
And tune too, fitted to the chorus' rhyme,
As loud enough to fill the seats, not yet
So over-thick, but where the people met,
They might with ease be number'd, being a few
Chaste, thrifty, modest folk, that came to view.
But as they conquer'd and enlarg'd their bound,
That wider walls embrac'd their city round,
And they uncensur'd might at feasts and plays
Steep the glad genius in the wine whole days,