THE PROLOGUE SPOKEN AT COURT.

Gracious and great, that we so boldly dare
('Mongst other plays that now in fashion are)
To present this, writ many years agone,
And in that age thought second unto none,
We humbly crave your pardon. We pursue
The story of a rich and famous Jew

Who liv'd in Malta: you shall find him still,
In all his projects, a sound Machiavel;
And that's his character. He that hath past
So many censures is now come at last

To have your princely ears; grace you him; then You crown the action, and renown the pen.

EPILOGUE SPOKEN AT COURT.

It is our fear, dread sovereign, we have bin †
Too tedious; neither can't be less than sin
To wrong your princely patience: if we have,
Thus low dejected, we your pardon crave;
And, if aught here offend your ear or sight,
We only act and speak what others write.

⁕ censures] i. e. judgments.

† bin] i. e. been.

THE PROLOGUE TO THE STAGE,

AT THE COCK-PIT.

this stage,

We know not how our play may pass
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 gain
A lasting memory; in Tamburlaine,
This Jew, with others many, th' other wan
The attribute of peerless, being a man

best of poets]" Marlo." Marg. note in old ed.

† best of actors] "Allin." Marg. note in old ed.—Any account of this celebrated actor would be superfluous here.

In Hero and Leander, &c.] The meaning is—The one (Marlowe) gained a lasting memory by being the author of Hero and Leander; while the other (Alleyn) wan the attribute of peerless by playing the parts of Tamburlaine, the Jew of Malta, &c. The passage happens to be mispointed in the old ed. thus, "In Hero and Leander, one did gaine

A lasting memorie: in Tamberlaine,

This Jew, with others many: th' other wan," &c.

and hence Mr. Collier, in his Hist. of Eng. Dram. Poet. iii. 14, understood the words,

"in Tamburlaine,

This Jew, with others many,"

as applying to Marlowe: he afterwards, however, in his Memoirs of Alleyn, p. 9, suspected that the punctuation of the old ed. might be wrong,—which it doubtless is.

Whom we may rank with (doing no one wrong)
Proteus for shapes, and Roscius for a tongue,
So could he speak, 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 equal, being of condition
More modest this is all that he intends,
(And that too at the urgence of some friends,)
To prove his best, and, if none here gainsay it,
The part he hath studied, and intends to play it.

EPILOGUE TO THE STAGE,

AT THE COCK-PIT.

IN graving with Pygmalion to contend,
Or painting with Apelles, doubtless the end
Must be disgrace: our actor did not so,
He only aim'd to go, but not out-go.

Shim] "Perkins." Marg. note in old ed.—"This was Richard Perkins, one of the performers belonging to the Cock-pit theatre in Drury-Lane. His name is printed among those who acted in Hannibal and Scipio by Nabbes, The Wedding by Shirley, and The Fair Maid of the West by Heywood. After the playhouses were shut up on account of the confusion arising from the civil wars, Perkins and Sumner, who belonged to the same house, lived together at Clerkenwell, where they died and were buried. They both died some years before the Restoration. See The Dialogue on Plays and Players [Dodsley's Old Plays, 1. clii., last ed.]." Reed (apud Dodsley's O. P.).

Nor think that this day any prize was play'd*;
Here were no bets at all, no wagers laid+:
All the ambition that his mind doth swell,

Is but to hear from you (by me) 'twas well.

prize was play'd] This expression (so frequent in our early writers) is properly applied to fencing: see Steevens's note on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, act. i. sc. 1.

† no wagers laid] " Wagers as to the comparative merits of rival actors in particular parts were not unfrequent of old," &c. Collier (apud Dodsley's O. P.). See my Peele's Works, i. x. ed. 1829; and Collier's Memoirs of Alleyn, p. 11.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

Ferneze, governor of Malta.

Lodowick, his son.

Selim Calymath, son to the Grand Seignior.
Martin Del Bosco, vice-admiral of Spain.
Mathias, a gentleman.

JACOMO, } friars.

BARNARDINE,

BARABAS, a wealthy Jew.
Ithamore, a slave.

Pilia-Borza, a bully, attendant to Bellamira.

Two Merchants.

Three Jews.

Knights, Bassoes, Officers, Guard, Slaves, Messenger, and Carpenters.

Katherine, mother to Mathias.

Abigail, daughter to Barabas.

Bellamira, a courtezan.

Abbess.

Nun.

Machiavel as Prologue-speaker.

Scene, Malta.