To the great Variety of Readers.
FRom 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 vp- on your capacities : and not of your heads alone, but of your purſes. Well! It is now publique, & you wil ſtand for your priuiledges wee know: to read, and cenſure. Do ſo, but buy it firſt. That doth beſt commend a Booke, the Stationer ſaies. Then, how odde ſoeuer your braines be, or your wiſedomes, make your licence the ſame,and ſpare not. Iudge your ſixe-pen’orth, your ſhillings worth, your fiue ſhil- lings worth at a time, or higher, ſo you riſe to the iuſt rates, and wel- come. But, what euer you do, Buy. Cenſure will not driue a Trade, or make the lacke 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 flood out all Ap- peales, 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 haue bene wiſhed,that the Author hirrſelfe had liu'd to haue ſet forth, and ouerſeen his owne writings. But ſince it hath bin ordain'd otherwiſe,and he by death de- parted from that right, we pray you do not envie his Friends,the office of their care, and paine, to haue collected & publiſh’d them; and ſo to haue 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 iniurious 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 concerned 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 haue 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 leauey ou to other of his Friends, whom if you need, can bee your guides: if you neede them not, you can leade your ſelues,and others. And ſuch Readers we with him.
Iohn Heninge.
Henrie Condell
