Prologue

In ancient times, when Helen's fatal charms
Roused the contending universe to arms,
The Grecian council happily deputes
The sly Ulysses forth - to raise recruits.
The artful captain found, without delay,
Where great Achilles, a deserter, lay.
Him Fate had warned to shun the Trojan blows;
Him Greece required - against their Trojan foes.
All the recruiting arts were needful here
To raise this great, this tim'rous volunteer.
Ulysses well could talk - he stirs, he warms
The warlike youth. He listens to the charms
Of plunder, fine laced coats, and glitt'ring arms.
Ulysses caught the young aspiring boy,
And listened him who wrought the fate of Troy.
Thus by recruiting was bold Hector slain;
Recruiting thus fair Helen did regain.
If for one Helen such prodigious things
Were acted, that they even listed kings;
If for one Helen's artful, vicious charms,
Half the transported world was found in arms;
What for so many Helens may we dare,
Whose minds, as well as faces, are so fair?
If, by one Helen's eyes, old Greece could find
Its Homer fired to write - even Homer blind,
The Britons sure beyond compare may write,
That view so many Helens every night.

Prologue to The Recruiting Officer, by George Farquhar