To the reader-

"This figure that thou here seest put

It was for gentle Shakespeare cut

Wherein the graver had a strife

With nature to outdo the life

O, could he but have drawn his wit

As well in brass he hath hit

His face, the print would then surpass

All that was ever writ in brass!

But since he cannot, reader, look

Not on his picture, but his book."

- Ben Jonson