A PROLOGUE
At the reviving of this PLAY.
STatues and Pictures challenge price and fame;
If they can justly boast, and prove they came
From Phidias or Apelles. None denie,
Poets and Painters hold a sympathy;
Yet their works may decay, and lose their grace,
Receiving blemish in their Limbs or Face.
When the Minds Art has this preheminence,
She still retaineth her first excellence.
Then why should not this dear Piece be esteem'd
Child to the richest fancies that e'r teem'd?
When not their meanest off-spring, that came forth,
But bore the image of their Fathers worth.
Beaumonts, and Fletchers, whose desert out-wayes
The best applause, and their least sprig of B[a]yes
Is worthy Phæbus; and who comes to gather
Their fruits of wit, he shall not rob the treasure.
Nor can you ever surfeit of the plenty,
Nor can you call them rare, though they be dainty.
The more you take, the more you do them right,
And we will thank you for your own delight.
Actus Primus. Scæna Prima.
Enter Vitelli, Lamoral, Anastro.
Vit. ALvarez pardon'd?
Ana. And return'd
Lamo. I saw him land
At St. Lucars, and such a general welcome,
Fame as harbinger to his brave actions,
Had with the easie people, prepar'd for him,
As if by his command alone, and fortune
Holland, with those low Provinces, that hold out
Against the Arch-Duke, were again compell'd
With their obedience to give up their lives
To be at his Devotion.
Vit. You amaze me,
For though I have heard, that when he fled from Sevil
To save his life (th[e]n forfeited to Law
For murth'ring Don Pedro my dear Uncle)
His extream wants enforc'd him to take pay
I'th' Army, sate down then before Ostend,
'Twas never yet reported, by whose favour
He durst presume to entertain a thought
Of coming home with pardon.
Ana. 'Tis our nature
Or not to hear, or not to give belief
To what we wish far from our enemies.