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