Page:The Jew of Malta - Marlowe (1633).pdf/16



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 Tamburlaine, This Jew, with others many: th' other wan 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 urgence of some friends) To prove his best, and if none here gaine-say it, The part he hath studied, and intends to play it.

Graving, with Pigmalion to contend; Or Painting, with Apelles, doubtlesse the end Must be disgrace: our Actor did not so, He onely aym'd to goe, but not out-goe. Nor thinke that this day any prize was plaid, Here were no betts at all, no wagers laid; All the ambition that his mind doth swell, Is but to heare from you, (by me) 'twas well.