All the unsigned footnotes in this volume are by the writer of the article to which they are appended. The interpretation of the initials signed to the others is: I. G. = Israel Gollancz, M.A.; H. N. H.= Henry Norman Hudson, A.M.; C. H. H.= C. H. Herford, Litt.D. To those Gentlemen, his Quondam acquaintance, that spend their wits in making Plaies, R. G. wisheth a bet ter exercise, and wisdom to present his extremities. Thou famous gracer of Tragedians, Juvenall, that byting Satyrist, deserving than the other two. al three of you, if by my miserie ye be not warned, for unto none of you (like me) sought those burres to cleave: those Puppets (I mean) that speake from our mouths, those anticks garnisht in our colours. Is it not strange that I, to whom they all have been beholding; is it not like that you, to whom they all have been beholding, shall (were ye in that case that I am now) be both at once of them forsaken? Yes, trust them not: for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide, supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of you; and being an absolute Iohannes fac totum, is in his own conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrie. O that I might entreate your rare wits to be imployed in more profitable courses: and let these Apes imitate your past excellence, and never more acquaint them with your admired inventions. Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, bought with a Million of Repentance (written before his death [1592], and published at his dying request). |