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TO HIS DEAREST FRIEND THE AUTHOR, AFTER HE HAD REVISED HIS COMEDY, by                    
First Line: The more I this thy masterpiece peruse
Last Line: Only in this thou dost thyself excel.
Subject(s): Plays & Playwrights ; Randolph, Thomas (1605-1634); Dramatists


THE more I this thy masterpiece peruse,
The more thou seem'st to wrong thy noble Muse
And thy free Genius. If this were mine,
A modest envy would bid me confine
It to my study or the critics' court,
And not make that the vulgar people's sport,
Which gave such sweet delight unto the king,
Who censur'd it not as a common thing.
Though thou hast made it public to the view
Of self-love, malice, and that other crew,
It were more fit it should impaled lie
Within the walls of some great library;
That if by chance, through injury of time,
Plautus and Terence, and that fragrant thyme
Of Attic wit should perish, we might see
All those reviv'd in this one comedy --
The Jealous Lovers. Pander, Gull and Whore:
The doting Father, Shark, and many more,
Thy scene doth represent unto the life,
Beside the character of a curst wife:
So truly given, in so proper style,
As if thy active soul had dwelt a while
In each man's body, and at length had seen
How in their humours they themselves demean.
I could commend thy jests, thy lines, thy plot,
Had I but tongues enou'; thy names -- what not?
But if our poets, praising other men,
Wish for an hundred tongues, what want we then,
When we praise poets? This I'll only say,
This work doth crown thee laureate to-day.
In other things how all, we all know well:
Only in this thou dost thyself excel.





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