 | The Emperovr of the East |  |
Prologue at the Blackfriers.
But that imperious custome warrants it,Our Author with much willingnes would omit
This Preface to his new worke. Hee hath found
(And suffer'd for't) many are apt to wound
His credit in this kind: and whether hee,
Expresse himselfe fearefull, or peremptorie,
Hee cannot scape their censures who delight
To misapplie what euer hee shall write.
Tis his hard fate. And though hee will not sue,
Or basely beg such suffrages, yet to you
Free, and ingenious spirits, hee doth now,
In mee present his seruice, with his vow
Hee hath done his best, and though hee cannot glorie
In his inuention, (this worke being a storie,
Of reuerend Antiquitie) hee doth hope
In the proportion of it, and the scope,
You may obserue some peeces drawne like one
Of a stedfast hand, and with the whiter stone
To bee mark'd in your faire censures. More then this
I am forbid to promise, and it is
With the most 'till you confirme it: since wee know
What ere the shaft bee, Archer, or the bow,
Vnlesse your approbation guide it right.
| The Emperovr of the East | |