While others vainly strive to know Thee more, Let me in filent Reverenceadore;

Wishing that human Pow'r were higher rais'd,
Only that Thine might be more nobly prais'd!
Thrice happy Angels in their high Degree;

Created worthy of extolling Thee!

FINI S.

THE

TRAGEDY

OF

JULIUS CESAR,

ALTERED:

With a PROLOGUE and CHORUS;

By His GRACE

JOHN Duke of BUCKINGHAM.

PROLOGUE to the Alteration of JULIUS CÆSAR.

H

Ope to mend SHAKESPEAR!or to match hisStyle! 'Tis fuch a Feft, would make a Stoick fmile. Too fond of Fame, our Poet foars too high s Tet freely owns he wants the Wings to fly: So fenfible of his prefumptuous Thought, That he confeffes while he does the Fault: This to the Fair will no great wonder prove, Whe oft in Blushes yield to what they love.

Of greatest Actions, and of noblest Men, This Story moft deferves a Poet's Pen. For who can wish a Scene more justly fam'd, When Rome and mighty JULIUS are but nam'd? That State of Heroes, who the World had brav'd! That wondrous Man, who fuch a State inflav'd! Tet loth he was to take fo rough a way, And after govern'd with fo mild a Sway, At diftance now of feventeen hundred Years, Methinks a lovely Ravisher appears ; Whom, tho' forbid by Virtue to excuse,

A Nymph might pardon, and could fcarce refufe.

This Play begins the Day before CÆSAR'S Death,

and ends within an Hour after it.