It is our fear, dread sovereign, we have bin<4>
Too tedious; neither can't be less than sin
To wrong your princely patience: if we have,
Thus low dejected, we your pardon crave;
And, if aught here offend your ear or sight,
We only act and speak what others write.



THE PROLOGUE TO THE STAGE,
AT THE COCK-PIT.

We know not how our play may pass this stage,
But by the best of poets<5> in that age
THE MALTA-JEW had being and was made;
And he then by the best of actors<6> play'd:
In HERO AND LEANDER<7> one did gain
A lasting memory; in Tamburlaine,
This Jew, with others many, th' other wan
The attribute of peerless, being a man
Whom we may rank with (doing no one wrong)
Proteus for shapes, and Roscius for a tongue,--
So could he speak, so vary; nor is't hate
To merit in him<8> who doth personate
Our Jew this day; nor is it his ambition
To exceed or equal, being of condition
More modest: this is all that he intends,
(And that too at the urgence of some friends,)
To prove his best, and, if none here gainsay it,
The part he hath studied, and intends to play it.