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Enter THE PROLOGUE.
He that hath feasted you these forty years,[1]
And fitted fables for your finer ears.
Although at first he scarce could hit the bore;
Yet you, with patience harkening more and more,
At length have grown up to him, and made known
The working of his pen is now your own:
He prays you would vouchsafe, for your own sake,
To hear him this once more, but sit awake.
And though he now present you with such wool,
As from mere English flocks his muse can pull,
He hopes when it is made up into cloth,
Not the most curious head here will be loth
To wear a hood of it, it being a fleece,
To match, or those of Sicily or Greece.[2]
His scene is Sherwood, and his play a Tale,
Of Robin Hood's inviting from the vale
Of Belvoir, all the shepherds to a feast:
Where, by the casual absence of one guest,
The mirth is troubled much, and in one man
As much of sadness shewn as passion can:
And fitted fables for your finer ears.
Although at first he scarce could hit the bore;
Yet you, with patience harkening more and more,
At length have grown up to him, and made known
The working of his pen is now your own:
He prays you would vouchsafe, for your own sake,
To hear him this once more, but sit awake.
And though he now present you with such wool,
As from mere English flocks his muse can pull,
He hopes when it is made up into cloth,
Not the most curious head here will be loth
To wear a hood of it, it being a fleece,
To match, or those of Sicily or Greece.[2]
His scene is Sherwood, and his play a Tale,
Of Robin Hood's inviting from the vale
Of Belvoir, all the shepherds to a feast:
Where, by the casual absence of one guest,
The mirth is troubled much, and in one man
As much of sadness shewn as passion can:
- ↑ He that hath feasted you these forty years.] If we suppose this to have been written the year before the poet's death, this will carry up the commencement of his dramatic career to 1595-6, and we know from Mr. Henslowe's memorandums, that he wrote for the stage at that early period.
- ↑ To match, or those of Sicily or Greece.] In this, Jonson is echoed by Horne Tooke, who was one of his warmest and steadiest admirers, and whose works are crowded with unnoticed quotations from him. By the fleeces of Sicily and Greece, are understood the pastoral poems of Theocritus, Moschus, and Bion.
