THE DEDICATION, TO THE READER.
If thou bee such, I
make thee my Patron,
and dedicate
the Piece to thee:
If not so much,
would I had beene at the charge of
thy better litterature. How-so-euer,
if thou canst but spell, and ioyne my
sense; there is more hope of thee,
then of a hundred fastidious impertinents,
who were there present the
first day, yet neuer made piece of
their prospect the right way. What
did they come for, then? thou wil't
aske me. I will as punctually answer:
To see, and to bee seene. To
make a generall muster of themselues
in their clothes of credit: and
possesse the Stage, against the Play.
To dislike all, but marke nothing.
And by their confidence of rising
between the Actes, in oblique lines,
make
affidauit to the whole house,
of their not vnderstanding one
Scene. Arm'd, with this præiudice,
as the
Stage-furniture, or
Arras-clothes,
they were there, as Spectators,
away. For the faces in the
hangings, and they beheld alike.
So I wish, they may doe euer. And
doe trust my selfe, and my Booke,
rather to thy rusticke candor, than
all the pompe of their pride, and solemne
ignorance, to boote. Fare
thee well, and fall too. Read
Ben. Ionson.
