 | The Famous Tragedy of The Rich Ievv of Malta |  |
The Prologue to the Stage, at the Cocke-pit.
We know not how our Play may passe this Stage,But by the best of Poets in that age
The Malta Jew had being, and was made;
And He, then by the best of Actors play'd:
In Hero and Leander, one did gaine
A lasting memorie: in Tamberlaine,
This Jew, with others many: th'other man
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 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 vrgence of some friends)
To proue his best, and if none here gaine-say it,
The part he hath studied, and intends to play it.
| The Famous Tragedy of The Rich Ievv of Malta | |