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  • Title: Prefatory Materials (Folio 1, 1663)

    • Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: Ben Jonson
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Prefatory Materials (Folio 1, 1663)

    1To the Reader.
    This Figure, that thou here seest put,
    It was for gentle Shakespeare cut;
    Wherein the Grauer had a strife
    5 with Nature, to out-doo the life :
    O, could he but haue drawne his wit
    As well in brasse, as he hath hit
    His face ; the Print would then surpasse
    All, that vvas euer vvrit in brasse.
    10But, since he cannot, Reader, looke
    Not on his Picture, but his Booke.
    B.I.
    MR. WILLIAM
    SHAKESPEARES
    15COMEDIES,
    HISTORIES, &
    TRAGEDIES.
    Published according to the True Originall Copies.
    LONDON
    20Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount. 1623.
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