Let the strict life of graver mortals be
A long, exact and serious Comedy;
In every Scene some Moral let it teach
And if it can, at once both please and preach:
Let mine an innocent gay Farce appear,
And more diverting still than regular;
Have humour, wit, a native ease and grace,
Tho’not too strictly bound to time and place.
Critics in wit or life are hard to please;
Few write to those, and none can live to these.