We know not how our play may pass this stage,<br/> But by the best of poets in that age<br/> THE MALTA-JEW had being and was made;<br/> And he then by the best of actors play'd:<br/> In HERO AND LEANDER one did gain<br/> A lasting memory; in Tamburlaine,<br/> This Jew, with others many, th' other wan<br/> The attribute of peerless, being a man<br/> Whom we may rank with (doing no one wrong)<br/> Proteus for shapes, and Roscius for a tongue,-<br/> So could he speak, so vary; nor is't hate<br/> To merit in him who doth personate<br/> Our Jew this day; nor is it his ambition<br/> To exceed or equal, being of condition<br/> More modest: this is all that he intends,<br/> (And that too at the urgence of some friends,)<br/> To prove his best, and, if none here gainsay it,<br/> The part he hath studied, and intends to play it.