ABSTRACT
The 1674 visit of the King's Company to the annual Act at Oxford was the subject of a letter from the King to the Vice-Chancellor requesting that their stay be extended from twelve to twenty days. Poets, your subjects, have their parts assignedT' unbend and to divert their sovereign's mind; When tired with following nature, you think fit To seek repose in the cool shades of wit, And from the sweet retreat with joy survey What rests, and what is conquered, of the way. Mr Hart narrates that 'As in mechanic operations wrought; and man the little world before you set, as once the sphere of crystal showed the great'. Oft has our poet wished a happy seat Might prove his fading Muse's last retreat: I wondered at his wish, but now I find He sought for quiet and content of mind, Which noiseful towns and courts can never know, And only in the shades like laurels grow.
