The Prologue to the Stage, at
the Cocke-Pit.
We know not how our Play may passe this Stage,
But by the best of [1]Poets in that age
The Malta Jew had being, and was made;
And He, then by the best of [2]Actors play'd:
In Hero and Leander, one did gaine
A lasting memorie: in Tamburlaine,
This Jew, with others many: th' other wan
The Attribute of peerelesse, being a man
Whom we may ranke with (doing no one wrong)
Proteus for shapes, and Roscius for a tongue,
So could he speake, so vary; nor is't hate
To merit: in [3]him who doth personate
Our Jew this day; nor is it his ambition
To exceed, or equall, 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 gaine-say it,
The part he hath studied, and intends to play it.