Terminat hora diem, terminat auctor opus.

The Jew of Malta.

ΤΟ

MY WORTHY FRIEND,

MR. THOMAS HAMMON,

Of Gray's Inn, &c.

THIS play, composed by so worthy an author as Mr. Marlowe, and the part of the Jew presented by so unimitable an actor as Mr. Alleyn, being in this later age commended to the stage; as I ushered it unto the Court, and presented it to the Cock-pit, with these prologues and epilogues here inserted, so now being newly brought to the press, I was loth it should be published without the ornament of an Epistle; making choice of you unto whom to devote it; than whom (of all those gentlemen and acquaintance, within the compass of my long knowledge) there is none more able to tax ignorance, or attribute right to merit. Sir, you have been pleased to grace some of mine own works with your courteous patronage; I hope this will not be the worse accepted, because commended by me; over whom, none can claim more power or privilege than yourself. I had no better a newyear's gift to present you with; receive it therefore as a continuance of that inviolable obligement, by which, he rests still engaged; who as he ever hath, shall always remain, Tuissimus:

THO. HEYWOOD.

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 lived in Malta: you shall find him still,
In all his projects, a sound Machiavill;
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.

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.

THE PROLOGUE TO THE STAGE,

AT THE COCK-PIT.

We know not how our play may pass 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 played:
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

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.

Admired I am of those that hate me most.

Though some speak openly against my
books,

Yet they will read me, and thereby attain
To Peter's chair: and when they cast me off,
Are poisoned by my climbing followers.
I count religion but a childish toy,
And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
Birds of the air will tell of murders past;
I am ashamed to hear such fooleries:
Many will talk of title to a crown.
What right had Cæsar to the empire?
Might first made kings, and laws were then

most sure

When like the Draco's they were writ in

blood.

Hence comes it that a strong built citadel
Commands much more than letters can
import ;

Which maxim had [but] Phalaris observed,
He had never bellowed in a brazen bull,
Of great one's envy; of the poor petty
wights,

Let me be envied and not pitièd!
But whither am I bound? I come not, I,
To read a lecture here in Britain,
But to present the tragedy of a Jew,
Who smiles to see how full his bags are
crammed,

Which money was not got without my

means.

I crave but this-grace him as he deserves,
And let him not be entertained the worse
Because he favours me.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

[Exit.

As for those Samnites, and the men of Uz,
That bought my Spanish oils, and wines of
Greece,

Fie; what a trouble 'tis to count this trash.
Here have I purst their paltry silverlings.
Well fare the Arabians, who so richly pay
The things they traffic for with wedge of

gold,

Whereof a man may easily in a day
Tell that which may maintain him all his
life.

Would make a miracle of thus much coin:
The needy groom that never fingered groat,
But he whose steel-barred coffers are
And all his lifetime hath been tired,
crammed full,

Wearying his fingers' ends with telling it,
And for a pound to sweat himself to death.
Would in his age be loth to labour so,

Give me the merchants of the Indian mines,
That trade in metal of the purest mould;
The wealthy Moor, that in the eastern rocks
Without controul can pick his riches up,
And in his house heap pearl like pebble
stones,

Receive them free, and sell them by the

weight;

Bags of fiery opals, sapphires, amethysts,
Jacinths, hard topaz, grass-green emeralds,
Beauteous rubies, sparkling diamonds,
And seld-seen costly stones of so great price,
As one of them indifferently rated,
And of a carat of this quantity,
May serve in peril of calamity
This is the ware wherein consists my wealth;
To ransom great kings from captivity.
And thus methinks should men of judgment
frame

Their means of traffic from the vulgar trade,
And as their wealth increaseth, so inclose
Infinite riches in a little room.
But now how stands the wind?

Ha! to the east? yes: see how stand the
Into what corner peers my halcyon's bill?

vanes ?

East and by south: why then I hope my
ships

I sent for Egypt and the bordering isles
Are gotten up by Nilus winding banks:
Mine argosy from Alexandria,

Loaden with spice and silks, now under sail,
Are smoothly gliding down by Candy shore
To Malta, through our Mediterranean sea.

Enter Barabas in his counting house, with But who comes here? How now.

heaps of gold before him.

Bar. So that of thus much that return

was made:

And of the third part of the Persian ships,
There was the venture summed and satisfied.

Enter a Merchant.

Merch. Barabas, thy ships are safe, Riding in Malta Road: and all the merchants With other merchandise are safe arrived,