_The curtain drawn discovers two Astrologers; the prologue is
presented to them_.

_1 Astrol. reads_, A figure of the heavenly bodies in their
several Apartments, Feb. the 5th, half-an-hour after three afternoon,
from whence you are to judge the success of a new play, called the
Wild Gallant.

_2 Astrol_. Who must judge of it, we, or these gentlemen? We'll
not meddle with it, so tell your poet. Here are, in this house, the
ablest mathematicians in Europe for his purpose.

They will resolve the question, ere they part.
_1 Att_. Yet let us judge it by the rules of art;
First Jupiter, the ascendant's lord disgraced,
In the twelfth house, and near grim Saturn placed,
Denote short life unto the play:--
_2 Ast_. --Jove yet,
In his apartment Sagittary, set
Under his own root, cannot take much wrong.
_1 Ast_. Why then the life's not very short, nor long;
_2 Ast_. The luck not very good, nor very ill;
_Prole_. That is to say, 'tis as 'tis taken still.
_1 Ast_. But, brother, Ptolemy the learned says,
'Tis the fifth house from whence we judge of plays.
Venus, the lady of that house, I find
Is Peregrine; your play is ill-designed;
It should have been but one continued song,
Or, at the least, a dance of three hours long.
_Ast_. But yet the greatest mischief does remain,