ciii DEDICATION OF HEMINGE AND CONDELL TO THE FIRST FOLIO EDITION, PUBLISHED IN 1623. TO THE MOST NOBLE AND INCOMPARABLE PAIRE OF BRETHREN, WILLIAM EARLE OF PEMBROKE, ETC LORD CHAMBERLAINE TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, AND PHILIP EARLE OF MONTGOMERY, ETC. GENTLEMAN OF HIS MAJESTIES BED-CHAMBER. BOTH KNIGHTS OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, AND OUR SINGULAR GOOD LORDS. RIGHT HONOURABLE, HILST we studie to be thankfull in our particular, for the many fauors we haue receiued from your L. L. we are falne vpon the ill fortune, to mingle two the most diuerse things that can be, feare, and rashnesse; rashnesse in the enterprize, and feare of the successe. For, when we valew the places your H. H. sustaine, we cannot but know their dignity greater, then to descend to the reading of these trifles : and while we name them trifles, we haue depriu'd ourselues of the defence of our Dedication. But, since Your L. L. haue beene pleas'd to think these trifles something, heeretofore; and haue prosequuted both them, and their Author liuing, with so much fauour: we hope, that (they out-liuing him, and he not hauing the fate, common with some, to be exequutor to his owne writings) you will vse the like indulgence toward them, you haue done vnto their parent. There is a great difference, whether any Booke choose his Patrones, or finde them: This hath done both. For, so much were your L. L. likings of the seuerall parts. when they were acted, as before they were published, the Volume asked to be yours. We haue but collected them, and done an office to the dead, to procure his Orphanes, Guardians; without ambition either of selfe-profit, or fame: onely to keepe the memory of so worthy a Friend, & Fellow aliue, as was our SHAKESPEARE, by humble offer of his playes, to your most noble patronage. Wherein, as we haue justly obserued, no man to come neere your LL. but with a kind of religious addresse; it hath bin the height of our care, who are the Presenters, to make the present worthy of your H. H. by the perfection. But, there we must also craue our abilities to be considerd, my Lords. We cannot go beyond our owne powers. Country hands reach foorth milke, creame, fruites, or what they haue: and many Nation (we haue heard) that had not gummes & incense, obtained their requests with a leauened Cake. It was no fault to approch their Gods, by what meanes they could: And the most, though meanest, of things are made more precious, when they are dedicated to Temples. In that name therefore, we most humbly consecrate to your H. H. these remaines of your seruant SHAKESPEARE, that what delight is in them, may be euer your L. L. the reputation his, & the faults ours, if any be committed, by a payre so carefull to shew their gratitude both to the liuing and the dead, as is Your Lordshippes most bounden, JOHN HEMINge. HENRY CONDELL. PREFACE TO THE FIRST FOLIO EDITION PUBLISHED IN 1623. TO THE GREAT VARIETY OF READERS, ROM the most able, to him that can but spell : There you are number'd. We had rather you were weighd. Especially, when the fate of all Bookes depends upon your capacities: and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. Well! it is now publique, and you wil stand for your priviledges wee know : to read, and censure. Do so, but buy it first. That doth best commend a Booke, the Stationer saies. Then, how odde soever your braines be, or your wisedomes, make your licence the same, and spare not. Iudge your sixe-pen'orth, your shillings worth, your fiue shillings worth at a time, or higher, so you rise to the just rates, and welcome. But, what euer you do, Buy. Censure will not driue a Trade, or make the Iacke go. And though you be a Magistrate of wit, and sit on the Stage at Black-Friers, or the Cock-pit, to arraigne Playes dailie, know, these Playes haue had their triall alreadie, and stood out all Appeales; and do now come forth quitted rather by a Decree of Court, then any purchas'd Letters of commendation. It had bene a thing, we confesse, worthie to have bene wished, that the Author himselfe had lived to haue set forth, and ouerseen his owne writings; But since it hath bin ordain'd otherwise, and he by death departed from that right, we pray you, doe not envie his Friends, the office of their care, and paine, to haue collected & publish'd them; and so to have publish'd them, as where (before) you were abus'd with diuerse stolne, and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of injurious impostors, that expos'd them: euen those are now offer'd to your view cur'd, and perfect of their limbes; and all the rest, absolute in their numbers, as he conceived the Who, as he was a happie imitator of Nature, was a most gentle expresser of it. His mind and hand went together and what he thought, he vttered with that easinesse, that wee have scarse receiued from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our prouince, who onely gather his works, and giue them you, to praise him. It is yours that reade him. And there we hope, to your diuers capacities, you will finde enough, both to draw, and hold you: for his wit can no more lie hid, then it could be lost. Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe : And if then you doe not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger, not to vnderstand him. And so we leaue you to other of his Friends, whom if you need, can bee your guides: if you neede them not, you can leade your selves, and others. And such readers we wish him JOHN HEMINGE, MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: O draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name, Am I thus ample to thy book and fame : While I confess thy writings to be such, As neither man nor Muse can praise too much. 'Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But these ways Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise, For seeliest ignorance on these may light, Which, when it sounds at best, but echo's right; Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance; Or crafty malice might pretend this praise, And think to ruin, where it seem'd to raise. These are, as some infamous bawd or whore Should praise a matron. What could hurt her more? But thou art proof against them, and indeed Above th' ill fortune of them, or the need. I therefore will begin. Soul of the age! Th' applause! delight! the wonder of our stage! A little further, to make thee a room9: This refers to some lines by William Basse, beginning:- To learned Chaucer; and rare Beaumont lie |