Buy It Firft and Avoid Furreptitious Copies

To the great Variety of Readers.

From the moſt able, to him that can but ſpell: There you are number’d. We had rather you were weighd. Eſpecially, when the fate of all Bookes depends vpon your capacities : and not of your heads alone, but of your purſes. Well! It is now publique, & you wil ſtand for your priuiledges wee know : to read, and cenſure. Do ſo, but buy it firſt.

from the Introduction to the First Folio edition of Shakespeare’s Works, 1623.

Theatre in shakespeares time interior view
Beware the iniurious impoſtor!
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