PROLOGUE
I've thought upon 't; and cannot tell which way
Ought I can say now should advance the play:
For plays are either good or bad: the good
(If they do beg) beg to be understood;
And, in good faith, that has as bold a sound,5
As if a beggar should ask twenty pound.
—Men have it not about them:
Then, gentlemen, if rightly understood,
The bad do need less prologue than the good;
For, if it chance the plot be lame, or blind,10
Ill-cloth'd, deform'd throughout, it needs must find
Compassion—it is a beggar without art:
But it falls out in penny-worths of wit,
As in all bargains else—men ever get
All they can in; will have London measure,15
A handful over, in their very pleasure.
And now ye have 't, he could not well deny 'ee.
And I dare swear he's scarce a saver by ye.
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