Some ages has the stage triumphant stood, <br />and vice in masquerade debauchd the crowd; <br />In charming numbers, all bewitching arts, <br />has the gay syren drest to steal our hearts: <br />like undesigning pleasure she appears, <br />at once delights & unperceivd insnares, <br />long has she found th' unhappy pow'r to please, <br />& wantond in a luxury of success. <br />But you unmasque the fashionable cheat, <br />Draw off the curtain, & dissect the bait, <br />Expose to view the hook so closely hid, <br />Break down her altars, & her priests deride. <br />thus, when to painted Idols Israel bowd, <br />the good Elijah Zealous for his god <br />Against the blocks, and all their prophets rose, <br />Alone attackd and overthrew his foes. <br /> <br />Hail man of god, all hail, whose pious quill <br />Dares check a world thats so perversly ill, <br />Dares ev'n its darling vanities abuse, <br />and in its full Carreer arrest the looser muse. <br />You like some angell guide conduct us on, <br />& shew the sodom wch you teach to shun; <br />You spoil the varnisht ill of all its rays, <br />of all its beauty's, evry borrowd grace, <br />& shew wt lurks beneath so smooth a face. <br /> <br />Thus (say the bards) some worthy knight maintains <br />A warr wth fairy states, enchanted scenes, <br />When he moves on the bright delusion fly's, <br />& dismall dungeons gape before his eyes<br /><br />Thomas Parnell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-mr-colliers-essay-on-the-stage/
