For since these arms of mine had seven years pith,

’Till now some nine months wasted, they have us’d

Their dearest action in the rafted barn;

And little of the theatre can I speak,

More than pertains to claps, and groans, and hisses;

And therefore little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience

I will a round unvarnish’d tale deliver,

Of my whole course of life; what cork, what brick dust,

What poverty, and what mighty shifts,