| Alexander Pope (1688–1744). Complete Poetical Works. 1903. | | | | Later Poems | | Prologue (To a Play for Mr. Dennis’s Benefit) |
| | In 1733, When He Was Old, Blind, and in Great Distress, a Little before His Death |
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AS when that hero, who in each campaign | |
| Had braved the Goth, and many a Vandal slain, | |
| Lay fortune-struck, a spectacle of woe, | |
| Wept by each friend, forgiv’n by ev’ry foe; | |
| Was there a gen’rous, a reflecting mind, | 5 |
| But pitied Belisarius old and blind? | |
| Was there a chief but melted at the sight? | |
| A common soldier but who clubb’d his mite? | |
| Such, such emotions should in Britons rise, | |
| When, press’d by want and weakness, Dennis lies; | 10 |
| Dennis! who long had warr’d with modern Huns, | |
| Their quibbles routed, and defied their puns; | |
| A desp’rate bulwark, sturdy, firm, and fierce, | |
| Against the Gothic sons of frozen verse. | |
| How changed from him who made the boxes groan, | 15 |
| And shook the stage with thunders all his own! | |
| Stood up to dash each vain pretender’s hope, | |
| Maul the French tyrant, or pull down the Pope! | |
| If there ’s a Briton, then, true bred and born, | |
| Who holds dragoons and wooden shoes in scorn; | 20 |
| If there ’s a critic of distinguish’d rage; | |
| If there ’s a senior who contemns this age; | |
| Let him to-night his just assistance lend, | |
| And be the Critic’s, Briton’s, old man’s friend. | | | |
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