In the concluding lines he deprecated all effort to win applause by other than legitimate means: Be this at least his praise, be this his pride: To force applause no modern arts are tried; Should partial catcalls all his hopes confound, He bids no trumpet quell the fatal sound; Should welcome sleep relieve the weary wit, He rolls no thunders o'er the drowsy pit; No snares to captivate the judgment spreads, Nor bribes your eyes to prejudice your heads.
Unmoved, though witlings sneer and rivals rail, Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.
He scorns the meek address, the suppliant strain; With merit needless, and without it vain.
In Reason, Nature, Truth he dares to trust: Ye fops be silent, and ye wits be just! Of prologues generally, Johnson pronounced that Dryden's were superior to any that David Garrick had written, but that Garrick had written more good prologues than Dryden.

"It is wonderful that he has been able to write such a variety of them." Garrick's prologues and epilogues are, indeed, quite innumerable, and are, almost invariably, sparkling, witty, and vivacious.

They could scarcely fail to win the favour of an audience; and then oftentimes they had the additional advantage of being delivered by himself.
Prologues seem to have been a recognised vehicle of literary courtesy.
Authors favoured each other with these addresses as a kind of advertisement of the good understanding that prevailed between them--an evidence of respect, friendliness, and encouragement.

Thus Addison's tragedy of "Cato" was provided with a prologue by Pope--the original line, "Britons, arise! be worth like this approved," being "liquidated" to "Britons attend!"-- for the timid dramatist was alarmed lest he should be judged a promoter of insurrection.

Addison in his turn furnished the prologue to Steele's "Tender Husband," while Steele favoured Vanbrugh with a prologue to his comedy of "The Mistake." Johnson, as we have seen, now and then provided his friends with prologues.