Introduction

Messenger

Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life.    

Sly

Marry, I will. Let them play it. Is not a comonty a     
Christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick?    

Page

No, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff.

Sly

What, household stuff?    

Page

It is a kind of history.

Messenger

Your honor's players, hearing your amendment,    
Are come to play a pleasant comedy,
For so your doctors hold it very meet,    
Seeing too much sadness hath congealed your blood,    
And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy.    
Therefore they thought it good you hear a play
And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,    
Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life.    

Pages