haue publish'd them, as where (before) you were abus'd with diuerse
stolne, and surreptitious copies, maimed, and deformed by the frauds
and stealthes of iniurious impostors, that expos'd them: euen those,
are now offer'd to your view cur'd, and perfect of their limbes; and all
the rest, absolute in their numbers, as he conceiued
a happie imitator of Nature, was a most gentle expresser of it. His mind
and hand went together: And what he thought, he vttered with that
easinesse, that wee haue scarse receiued from him a blot in his papers.
But it is not our prouince, who onely gather his works, and giue them
you, to praise him. It is yours that reade him. And there we hope, to
your diuers capacities, you will finde enough, both to draw, and hold
you: for his wit can no more lie hid, then it could be lost. Reade him,
therefore; and againe, and againe: And if then you doe not like him,
surely you are in some manifest danger, not to vnderstand him. And so
we leaue you to other of his Friends, whom if you need, can bee your
guides: if you neede them not, you can leade your selues, and others.
To the memory of my beloued,
The AVTHOR
MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
AND
what he hath left vs.