Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1822-01-15
POETRY.
pRIZl. PROLOGUE.


Tecited at the opening of the Theatre in
this city. 1t is the production oil" Ho-
RACE IN CGNctNNAT1.''- Cincinnati Gag.
In early days, ere intellectual light
Dispersed the sombre clouds of gothic night,
When Superstition, in religions robe,
Unsheath'd her sword and travers'd half the
globe,
Destroyed each work of science and of taste,
And changed the worlds fair garden to awaste,
Beneath The tyrant's sway the embryo Stage
siumber'd unknown to Fame, from age to age.
At last the age of Ign'rancc psss'd away,
And knowledge beam'd on man its mental raw,
The Dramas Muse her magic scenes unfilrpd,
And gave her precept to enchant the world.
Thus far-famed Roscrus grac'd Apollo's dome
And lashd the vices of imperial Rome,
And thus on Albion's Stage a GAnn1uK's art
by taste directed, swaye The human heart.
A SIDDoN's pow'rs the slumb'r ring fancy woke
And passion felt thrill when KEaBLE spoke
and thus the Muse her scenic wreath affords
To PAYNE and COOPER of Columbia's boards
Long DER our young Emporium, now confess
The Tyre and rising Athens of the West
Where Wealth, and Taste, and Learning, have
combined
To grace the person and adorn the mind;
Where Art and Science to Religion bow,
And laurels Irvine around the Patriots brow;
The rising sun of Taste but dimy shone,
The Dramas noble art was scarcely known;
With Tyres unstrung the Scenic MUSES. slept,
While Shakspeare's Genius saw the scene and
wept;
Till, by the generous efforts of a few,
A rough-hewn Theatre arose to view,
Where thronged in breathless wonder youth
and age,
And they who reared the building, trod the
Stage.
How changed the scene We now with joy
behold
This spacious Edifice its doors unfold;
And Youth and sparkling Beauty, ever gay,
Meet here again to greet our opening play.
Henceforth the task be ours with grateful
hearts,
Still true to Nature to perform our parts;
To deck fair Virtue in her loveliest charms,
And goad the monster Vice with Satire's arms
With Thalia's lighter weapons to engage,
And lash the lesser follies of the age;
Be ours, in fine, the task, from night to night,
TO spread the feast Of Reason and Delight.
Who long have ruled the fairy realms of wit;
Who every falling at a glance espy,
And "see through all things with the halfshut
eve"
We whose gay forms our circlng Boxes grace,
Whose gen'rous hearts are beaming in each
face;
And ye, who smiling sit, enthroned on high
The Jores and Junos of our mimic sky
Alike. with charity behold our plays,
Nor censure harshly where you cannot praise.
Friends ofour infant stage! who here resort,
To whom the Drama looks for its support,
Whose lb'ral aid this classic dome has reared,
Whose constant zeal our every hope has
cheered,
On whose superior judgment and applause
Depend the final triumph of our cause;
If e'er some foolish fashion OF the day
From Natures path should lead our steps
astray;
IF honor's voice we ever strive to hush,
Or DER the Maiden's cheek difIuse blush;
IF ever poor neglected worth we scorn,
Or crouch to those with empty honors born;-
o give us not your sanction but dismiss
The Play and Players with thu indignant hiss.
Thus may the Stage present to public view,
A school for morals, and for letters too;
Where native genius may expand its powers;
And strew our path with intellectual flowers.