The Jew of Malta

We know not how our play may pass this stage, But by the best of poets in that age THE MALTA-JEW had being and was made; And he then by the best of actors play'd: In HERO AND LEANDER 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 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.