THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN

Act > Scene Pr

(Flourish. Enter Prologue)
l1l	Prologue	 New plays and maidenheads are near akin:
l2l		Much followed both, for both much money giv’n
l3l		If they stand sound and well. And a good play,
l4l		Whose modest scenes blush on his marriage day
l5l		And shake to lose his honour, is like her
l6l		That after holy tie and first night’s stir
l7l		Yet still is modesty, and still retains
l8l		More of the maid to sight than husband’s pains.
l9l		We pray our play may be so, for I am sure
l10l		It has a noble breeder and a pure,
l11l		A learnèd, and a poet never went
l12l		More famous yet ’twixt Po and silver Trent.
l13l		Chaucer, of all admired, the story gives:
l14l		There constant to eternity it lives.
l15l		If we let fall the nobleness of this
l16l		And the first sound this child hear be a hiss,
l17l		How will it shake the bones of that good man,
l18l		And make him cry from under ground, “O fan
l19l		From me the witless chaff of such a writer,
l20l		That blasts my bays and my famed works makes lighter
l21l		Than Robin Hood”? This is the fear we bring,
l22l		For to say truth, it were an endless thing
l23l		And too ambitious to aspire to him,
l24l		Weak as we are, and almost breathless swim
l25l		In this deep water. Do but you hold out
l26l		Your helping hands and we shall tack about
l27l		And something do to save us. You shall hear
l28l		Scenes, though below his art, may yet appear
l29l		Worth two hours’ travail. To his bones, sweet sleep#
l30l		Content to you. If this play do not keep
l31l		A little dull time from us, we perceive
l32l		Our losses fall so thick we must needs leave.
		(Flourish. Exit)
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