PROLOGUE OF THE PLAY.
In the book of Genesis it is expressed,
That when God to Abraham made sure promise,
That in his seed all nations should be blessed:
To send him a son by Sarah he did not miss.
Then to Isaac (as there recorded it is)
By Rebecca his wife, who had long time been barren,
When pleased him, at one birth he sent sons twain.
But before Jacob and Esau yet born were,
Or had either done good, or ill perpetrate:
As the prophet Malachi and Paul witness bear,
Jacob was chosen, and Esau reprobate:
Jacob I love (saith God) and Esau I hate.
For it is not (saith Paul) in man's renewing or will,
But in God's mercy, who chooseth whom he will.
But now for our coming we shall exhibit here,
Of Jacob and Esau how the story was;
Whereby God's adoption may plainly appear:
And also that, whatever God's ordinance was,
Nothing might defeat, but that it must come to pass.
That, if this story may your eyes or ears delight,
We pray you of patience, while we it recite.
THE HISTORY OF JACOB AND ESAU.
ACTUS PRIMA. SCAENA PRIMA.
RAGAN, _the servant_.
ESAU, _a young man, his master_.
[_Ragan entereth with his horn at his back and his
hunting staff in his hand, and leadeth three
greyhounds, or one, as may be gotten_.
Now let me see what time it is by the starlight?
God's for his grace, man, why it is not yet midnight!
We might have slept these four hours yet, I dare well say;
But this is our good Esau his common play:
[_Here he counterfeiteth how his master calleth
him up in the mornings, and of his answers_.
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