The Masked Devil, To the reader
Fre…dly Reader,
INstead of a Prologue, you have here an Epilogue; not that I intend…d to barre you of the kindness usual amongst the Ancient and Modern Writers; but that as the Case is new and unheard of, so I would have the Form. You have here seen the whole matter in every Respect, as well as my w…ak Judgment can represent it to you; not but that I am satisfied in my self, that I cannot sufficien…ly express the Nature, Qualities, and Conditions of th…m, in so lively a Character as their Actions would have represented to you, had you been Spectators thereof. For any impartiality, as I have used none, so I would, as near as I could, deserve none, and expect none. You are here left sole Judges of the Case; you have on the one part heard the naked Truth and Evidence; on the other part the Circumventions, Shifts, and Stratagems. Weigh both in an equal Ballance, and let your Judgments incline to that which hath the most apparences of Truth. I barre no Reason nor Arguments, that can be used in their Defence; neither do I desire to gain any Credit (upon my own score) in any one Particular, If I cannot effectually make it appear by Evidence. The leaving my Concerns in the Ship, I am sure will be of some credit with you; beside… my staying here to justifie the same. I beg your Censure; not that I would court you to favour any thing, which were not true. But that you would satisfie the world of their Actions, and that they are not the same persons, they are taken for. In this you would do your selves (and those persons they have any thing to do withal, right, and me no wrong,
Who am Yours, Edward Maning.
FINIS.
End of the text · Edward Manning, The Masked Devil (1664)