Gentlemen, in a vision before my death I foresee that I am like to sustain the shame of many follies of my youth when I am shrouded in my winding-sheet. O let not injurious tongues triumph over a dead carcass. Now I am sick, and sorrow hath wholly seized on me; vain I have been; let not other men show themselves vain in reproaching my vanity. I crave pardon of you all if I have offended any of you with lascivious pamphleting. Many things I have wrote to get money which I could otherwise wish to be suppressed; poverty is the father of innumerable infirmities; in seeking to salve private wants, I have made myself a public laughing-stock. He that cometh in print setteth himself up as a common mark for everyone to shoot at; I have shot at many abuses, overshot myself in describing of some; where truth failed, my invention hath stood my friend. God forgive me all my misdemeanours; now in the best lust of my years, death I fear will deprive me of any further proceeding in security. This book hath many things which I would not have written on my tomb; I write this last; let it be my last will and testament. Farewell; if I live you shall hear of me in divinity; in the meantime, accept the will for the deed, and speak well of me when I am dead.
Yours dying,
Robert Greene .
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