We know not how our play may pass this stage,

     But by the best of poets 5 in that age

     THE MALTA-JEW had being and was made;

     And he then by the best of actors 6 play'd:

     In HERO AND LEANDER 7 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 8 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.