My soule more scruple breeds than my bloud sinne, Vertue imposeth more than any stepdame. 186-187 _Come . . . plaints_. A omits. 192 [_are_]. Added by Dilke; Qq omit. 196 _enterd_. A; B, enterr'd. 201 _a_. A omits. EPILOGUE With many hands you have seene D'Ambois slaine; Yet by your grace he may revive againe, And every day grow stronger in his skill To please, as we presume he is in will. The best deserving actors of the time 5 Had their ascents, and by degrees did clime To their full height, a place to studie due. To make him tread in their path lies in you; Hee'le not forget his makers, but still prove His thankfulnesse, as you encrease your love. 10 _FINIS._ LINENOTES: _Epilogue_ Not found in A. Notes To Bussy D'Ambois _For the meaning of single words see the Glossary._ =Prologue.= The allusions in these lines can be only partially explained. The play had evidently been performed, not long before 1641, by a company which had not possessed original acting rights in it. The performance had been successful (cf. ll. 3-4 "the grace of late It did receive"), and the "King's men," while not claiming a monopoly in it, nor seeking to detract from their rivals' merits, felt bound to revive the play on their own account, lest they should seem to be letting their claim go by default. It is possible that in ll. 11-12, they refer to a performance that in vindication of this claim they had given at Court, while, as further evidence of their priority of interest, they remind the audience of the actors belonging to the company who had appeared in the title-rôle. Nathaniel Field (l. 15), born in 1587, had as a boy been one of the "Children of the Queen's Revels," and had performed in Jonson's _Cynthia's Revels_, 1600, and _Poetaster_, 1601. He seems to have joined the King's players soon after 1614, and his name appears in the list of "the principall actors in all these playes" prefixed to the first Shakespearean Folio of 1623. Not long after this period, Field, who by his _Woman is a Weathercock_ (1612) and his _Amends for Ladies_ (1618) had made a reputation as a dramatist as well as an actor, is believed to have retired from the stage, though he lived till 1633. If, however, he did not appear as Bussy till after 1614, when the play had already been at least seven years, perhaps considerably longer, on the boards, it can scarcely be said with truth that his "action first did give it name" (l. 16). His successor in the part, whom the "gray beard" (l. 18) of advancing years had now disqualified, cannot be identified; but the "third man" (l. 21) is probably Ilyard Swanston, who, according to Fleay (_Biog. Chron. of Drama_, vol. I, p. 60), was one of the "King's men" from 1625 to 1642. His impersonation of Bussy is