Analysis of Prologue Spoken at the Opening of The New House, March 26, 1674



A plain-built house, after so long a stay,
Will send you half unsatisfied away;
When, fallen from your expected pomp, you find
A bare convenience only is designed.
You, who each day can theatres behold,
Like Nero's palace, shining all with gold,
Our mean ungilded stage will scorn, we fear,
And, for the homely room, disdain the cheer.
Yet now cheap druggets to a mode are grown,
And a plain suit, since we can make but one,
Is better than to be by tarnished gawdry known.
They, who are by your favours wealthy made,
With mighty sums may carry on the trade;
We, broken bankers, half destroyed by fire,
With our small stock to humble roofs retire;
Pity our loss, while you their pomp admire.
For fame and honour we no longer strive;
We yield in both, and only beg—to live;
Unable to support their vast expense,
Who build and treat with such magnificence,
That, like the ambitious monarchs of the age,
They give the law to our provincial stage.
Great neighbours enviously promote excess,
While they impose their splendour on the less;
But only fools, and they of vast estate,
The extremity of modes will imitate,
The dangling knee-fringe, and the bib-cravat.
Yet if some pride with want may be allowed,
We in our plainness may be justly proud;
Our Royal Master willed it should be so;
Whate 'er he's pleased to own, can need no show:
That sacred name gives ornament and grace,
And, like his stamp, makes basest metal pass.
'Twere folly now a stately pile to raise,
To build a playhouse while you throw down plays;
While scenes, machines, and empty operas reign,
And for the pencil you the pen disdain;
While troops of famished Frenchmen hither drive,
And laugh at those upon whose alms they live:
Old English authors vanish, and give place
To these new conquerors of the Norman race.
More tamely than your fathers you submit;
You're now grown vassals to them in your wit.
Mark, when they play, how our fine fops advance
The mighty merits of their men of France,
Keep time, cry Ben! and humour the cadence.
Well, please yourselves; but sure 'tis understood,
That French machines have ne'er done England good.
I would not prophesy our house's fate;
But while vain shows and scenes you overrate,
'Tis to be feared—
That, as a fire the former house o'erthrew,
Machines and tempests will destroy the new.


Scheme AABBCCDDEFEGGHHHIIJJKKLLMMANNOOPQRRSSIIPPTTUUVWWMMYDZ
Poetic Form
Metre 0111101101 111101001 11011010111 0101010101 1111110001 1101010111 101111111 0101010101 111110111 0011111111 11011111011 111111101 1101110101 11010101110 11011110101 10101111101 110111101 1101010111 0101011101 1101111 1100101101 11011100101 111000011 110111101 1101011101 0010011110 0100110011 1111111101 1010111101 10101011111 1011111111 1101110001 011111101 1101010111 110111111 1101010101 0101010101 1111010101 0111011111 1101010011 11110010101 111110101 1111011011 11111101101 0101011111 111101010 110111101 1101111101 111110101 111101101 1111 1101001011 010110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 2,309
Words 408
Sentences 14
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 53
Lines Amount 53
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,798
Words per stanza (avg) 406
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

2:04 min read
73

John Dryden

 · 1631 · Aldwincle
 · 1631 · London

John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made Poet Laureate in 1668. more…

All John Dryden poems | John Dryden Books

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    "Prologue Spoken at the Opening of The New House, March 26, 1674" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Dec. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22688/prologue-spoken-at-the-opening-of-the-new-house%2C-march-26%2C-1674>.

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