Comedy is mild, gentle, willing for to please, And seeks to gain the love of all estates:
Delighting in mirth, mixt all with lovely tales, And bringeth things with treble joy to pass.
Thou, bloody, Envious, disdainer of men's joy, Whose name is fraught with bloody stratagems, Delights in nothing but in spoil and death, Where thou maist trample in their luke warm blood, And grasp their hearts within thy cursed paws:
Yet vail thy mind, revenge thou not on me;
A silly woman begs it at thy hands:
Give me the leave to utter out my play, Forbear this place, I humbly crave thee: hence, And mix not death amongst pleasing comedies, That treats naught else but pleasure and delight.
If any spark of human rests in thee, Forbear, be gone, tender the suite of me.
ENVY.
Why so I will; forbearance shall be such As treble death shall cross thee with despite, And make thee mourn where most thou joyest, Turning thy mirth into a deadly dole, Whirling thy pleasures with a peal of death, And drench thy methods in a sea of blood:
This will I do, thus shall I bear with thee;
And more to vex thee with a deeper spite, I will with threats of blood begin thy play, Favoring thee with envy and with hate.
COMEDY.
