HAving digested into six score Centuries a body of Twelve thousand Epigrams, which, for my own recreation, I had, at spare hours, composed, some few yeers ago; and having put them in a dress so suitable to the various subjects whereon they treat, that much of their perfection con­sisting in this proportion, it did not lie in the power of my skill to discern betwixt the best and worst of them; because amongst them there was not any, which (accor­ding to my opinion) did not, in some peculiar point or other surpass all the rest, supplying what was deficient in any one thing thereof, with a precellency and advantage in another point of the same.

Yet, knowing that all men are not of a like minde, and that whatsoever pleaseth some, will to others prove very distastful, I resolved to retard their Publication, until I had communicated my designe unto some friends of mine, whom nevertheless, to put (or yet my self) to [Page]the labour of reading over all, I thought it unnecessary; seeing by a few, one might as well judge of the remain­der, as of the liquor of a whole tun by one spoonful.

Therefore upon debate, what Epigrams, and how many, should be made use of as touchstones whereby to try he value of the rest, (it being supposed many would think, that to pick them out with deliberation, would in a maner be but to cozen the Reader, (as some Ken ish fruit-sellers use to do their customers, in making them pay so baskets of rotten apples the whole rate, as if the ware were sufficient) by means of the cheat of a small scantling of choice fresh Pepins, strowed on the top, which the innocent buyers rejoyce to see, thinking all the re­sidue to be of a like goodness with that deluding parcel) it was held very expedient, that, by way of centesima­tion, taking one onely out of every Century, the number should be just a hundred and twenty: and also deemed most agreeable to the ingenuity of a discreet Author, that they should be excerpted by meer chance, as fortune should adjudge, without any formality of proposed sele­ction.

To this effect, the sixscore Centenaries, in so many distinct bundles, were spread in order on a long table, upon the which was forthwith set down a very handsome and large Timber-Square, made of Box-wood, of half an inch in thickness, wherein was inscribed a Circle of four inches Radius, the whole circumference whereof was divided into an hundred equal parts, cyfred accor­dingly, and on the centre-speck fitted with a whirl­ing Index of brass, which, being to receive the turning [Page]brangle from the hand, some sixscore several times in all, and after the manifold rapid circumvolutions of each, to point, in its closing rest, at some one or other number, from an unite to an hundred inclusively, did, out of those sixscore above-written parcels, direct us to these subsequent Epigrams, one after another, and in the same order, that they are here inserted and digested.

And though I was of mine own accord engaged, to allow of the value of the remnant, by the standard of what is here set down, I may with confidence avouch, that there are many thousands amongst my other Epi­grams, equal to the best of these, and those written on Subjects, which will be infinitely more acceptable to a solid and judicious Reader: nor must it be omitted to express, that the few ensuing Epigrams have not that appearance of acumen, vivacity, grace, or lustre in this Enchiridion, which they were projected to have in the stock whereof they are but the subdecimal por­tion.

For being, in the first place, divulsed, rent, and torn from their fellow-members, unto which they were with an apposite symmetrie most methodically united, they like fingers and toes cut off from the hands and feet, (though quantified in matter of bulk as before) do not participate of that life, which by the conjunction animates the whole, and every part: and, in the next, by reason of the nature of the Lemma's or superscriptions, adorned with significant proper names, (other then are here speci­fied) which are to be prefixed to these Epigrams, when re­duced to their own peculiar stations, they suffer a great [Page]diminution of worth, with the more perceptibility of their eclipsed illustration, that, in the contexture of the afore-mentioned Lemma's and Names, there is no less of art, industry, and invention requisite, then for the contrivement of the Epigrams themselves; and much more use in matter of application, as by a thousand se­veral instances is easie to make apparent.

After this maner, when these ten dozen were pric­ked down and extracted, it pleased the aforesaid Gentle­men to grace them (after perusal) with their joynt ap­probation; which prompted me, for the better encou­ragement of Stationers and Printers, in their under­taking for the residue, to allow an Imprimatur to these.

This course seemed to me the more rational, that Sta­tioners, (who never esteem of the goodness of Books, but by the benefit which thereby accrueth to themselvs) having never been much accustomed with Tractates of this nature, and those few, brought to their hands, not proving in every thing answerable to their expectation of gain, which always fuit, est, & erit the [...] of their Profession) would have startled at the pre­sentment of the immense Volume of a Dodecachiliad, not possible to be made ready for sale, without vast dis­bursments both for paper and printing: the charge whereof they would have been the more unwilling to undergo, that (the general estimation held of books, being the chief precursor of their emolument) their hopes, in this unusual undertaking, would have in the brood been stifled by the contempt, which this kinde [Page]of Poetizing hath of late most undeservedly fallen into.

At this undervaluing of what the Muses, in their greatest frolicks, are most delighted in, I oftentimes have very much admired; nor could I conceive any other reason for it, but that the prime Poets of this Land (setting before their eyes the imitation of Vir­gil, Horace, Ovid, Ariosto, Petrarcha, Bembo, Du­bartas, Ronsard, Lopedevega, Guarini, and such-like, rather then of Martial, and others of his ingenious fra­ternity) have been pleased to couch their Fancies, (wherein, without flattery, to give them their own due, they have been and are as yet in nothing inferiour to any in the best Nations of the world) and to digest them in any other kinde of Poetry rather, then that of the Epigrammatical strain.

But what it might be which moved them so to do, who had abilities for all maner of Poems, is onely known unto thimselves: for truely I cannot imagine why, to English Poets, that maner of Versifying should not have been most agreeable, which is most consonant with the propriety of the English Idiome; and that (in my opinion) is the Epigram.

As for the precellencie, which, in the Heroick vein, the Greek and Latine have above the English, and all our other Vernaculary Languages, is easily understood by those, that are well acquainted with the majestick pace of the Dactyl and Spondae feet, which is of a much more graceful and lofty trip, then can be perform­ed by our lame Iambos.

Another sort of gallant Poesie there is, called the Lyrick, wherein are comprehended Sonnets, Madri­gals, Hymns, Ballets, Odes, (whether amorous, ru­ral, military, symposiastick, or what you will) Epi­thalamions to Nuptials, Epinicions for Victories, Ge­nethliacks on Nativities, Congratulatories, and such-like copies of Verses, which cannot be expressed by any known Language in the world with more advantage, then in the Italian: the whole words whereof, (some few syncategorematical monosyllables onely excepted, and those not above six in all) most smoothely termi­nating in vowels, and consisting of syllables (by reason of their paucity of consonants) exceeding neatly mate­riated, do afford a Phraseologie so admirably fluent, that the very sound more then most sweetly dropping in the ear, bedews (to the inexpressible ravishment of the hearers) the nimble spirits of the brain, with Nectar and Honey deliciosissimamente.

Yet in matter of Elegies, Threnodies, or any long-breathed Poem on luctiferous subjects, the Spanish and French Tongues may come in competition with the best.

The latitude of Poesie extending yet a great deal further, there is a species thereof called the Dramma­tick, which includeth Tragedies, Comedies, Inter­ludes, Masks, Entertainments, Dialogues, Satyrs, Frolicks, Georgicks, Pastorals, Piscatories, Nauti­cals, (which last three pass commonly by the name of Eclogues) and other such-like, in all which to the Eng­lish I would allow a comparative, but no superlative degree.

For that, and no less in so far as concerns the English, I would reserve to the onely Epigram, even in its ut­most extent, as it comprehendeth Epitaphs, Characters, Emblemes, Devices, Motto's, Hieroglyphicks, Defini­tions, Aphorisms, Distributions, Paradoxes, Rebus, Problemes; Charientilogetick Quirks, in facetious Encounters; Gnomologetick, in Sentences; Parae­mial, in Adages; Ethological, in Moral Precepts; Epistemonical, in Sciences; Technical, in Liberal Arts; Mechanologetick, in Manual Trades; Caba­listick, in Mysterious Speculations; Philistoretick, in Narratives; Palaestrick, in Field-exercises; Umbra­tilary, in House-games; Paidathyreutick, in Childish Sports; Androgynathletical, in Amourets betwixt man and woman: Polemick Knacks, in the Milice; Politick, in the State; Mythological, in all maner of Fables; Aenigmatick, in Riddles; Arithmologetick, in Numbers; Biographical, in the institution of a mans life; Zoopaedeutick, in observing for our in­struction the actions of meer Animals: Rhetorical Whimseys, whether Ironical for Similitudes, or Anti­pophoretick for Discrepances: Epitatick Hyperboles, in Exuperancie, or Hypocoristick in Extenuation; with all the other Tropes and Figures, not omitting the Pathologie thereto subservient; ingenious Fallacies in & extra dictionem; Encomiasticks, Vituperatories, Scoffs, Sarcasms, Witty Gybes, Jeers, Jests, Tales, Quibbles, Clinches, Quips, Bulls, Anagrams, Chrono­grams, Logogriphs, Acrosticks, Teleuticks, Palindro­mies, Retrogrades, Antistrophs, Criticisms, Dipno­sophisms. [Page]Technopaegnions, and, in a word, all maner of succinct and concise Poetry, on what subject soever, purely fancied, and in a quaint diction apparelled: for if in either of those qualifications it fail, though it may possibly merit the stile of an Epigram, yet will it always be with the addition of a scurvie, paltry, and bad one.

The Epigram therefore, I again avouch, is that which of all maner of Poetizing doth best befit the Systeme of the English Language; because it is that (I mean, the good one) which, of all Poems, requireth the richest and most pregnant conceit, a sublime and piercing acu­men in the close, to be sprucely worded, and in few terms; which last clause (to wit, shortness) being in a maner essential to the Epigram, as circularity (or more properly, orbicularity) to the Heavens, makes that kind of Poesie, by reason of the Polymonosyllabicalogies of the English, more convenient and sutable to that I­diome, then to any of the above-named Languages.

Truely, as for composing Poetical Treatises upon Didascalary subjects, as did Lucretius; Epistolary, after the maner of Ovid; Historical, like Lucan; or any other such long-winded Tractates upon serious pur­poses, whatever the subjected matter be, Divine or Hu­mane, it will not, in my opinion (still salva doctiori­bus reverentia) relish neer so well in Verse as Prose; which, set afoot once by a dextrous Writer, cannot be (with any apparence of truth) said to walk on crutches, more then Verses do: for it having answerable to the metrical feet in the learned Tongues, and parity of syllables tipped with semblable terminations (vulgarly [Page]called Rhymes) in the vernaculary, another kinde of feet, every whit as proportionable, swift, and vigorous; on which being set forward an Isocoly of members, clo­sing in correspondent desinences without Homoiotely; the discoursed or treated-on subject, will, on such lively props, run along the field of the Period, stop, change, turn, flie out again, and, with a most sprightly motion, full of alacrity, by excitating Passion, and perswading Reason, forcibly seize, at last, upon all the both upper and under faculties of the soul, and shut them up as close prisoners in the final close of the expression.

Hereby as I must acknowledge my self obliged, in the parallel of Prose with Verse, to ascribe the pre-emi­nence unto Prose, even in the English, as well as in all other Languages: so, on the other part, when one kind of Poem comes in competition with another, and that it shall be asked me, which in the English would prove most graceful, my answer truely will be, for the reason above recited, that what rank soever the Epigram keep in other Tongues, it should above all other Poetry obtain the superiority in the English.

This in very deed proved no mean motive to me, when my Genius led me in the vein of Poetizing to any favourable opportunity, of embracing a diversion with the sacred Quire of Parnassus, to set aside all o­ther maner of Poems, and lay hold on the Epigram: but that which incontroversibly may be called the main cause of that my choice, was my unavoidable want of leasure, to ply the Muses in any long purpose of great deliberation. For although my minde had been never [Page]so much bent upon the prosecuting of another strain, and that the English diction had been able to furnish me with advantages beyond any other Speech for such a task: yet for having been always so unfortunately in­volved, either in publike interests, private difficulties, businesses of friends, disturbances of foes, or other such­like entanglements, oftentimes with an accumulative impetuousness thronging upon me all together at once; that I do not remember, the sun ever shined that day, (since the time elapsed of my subferulary age) where­in I was master of the space of two whole hours, which I might be sure to call mine own, without the urgencie of some pressing interruption: I could not, with pre­text of reason, or shew of understanding the proportion of the measure of motion, to the actions thereupon de­pending, have adventured to launch forth my little Skiff of Invention, Poetically rigged, into the large and profound Ocean of Polystichetick undertakings; or yet spun out, with any deserved praise, the thread of those long-breath'd Poems, which secessum & otia quaetunt.

Thus did the Epigram become my darling-Poema­tion; because I was never thereby withdrawn from doing any thing else: proving oftentimes the more suc­cessful in it, the more I was in aliud agendo occupa­tus; and the more numerous, the less solitary I was. For very often in a day, wherein I have ridden four and twenty miles, have I composed just so many Epigrams, without hinderance to my partaking of any occurring discourse with my fellow-travellers: and as oft, when [Page]a grievous and deplorable accident, one or more (squa­drons whereof, in these, calamitous times, have been too frequently obvious to the best of the Land) would ob­trusively press in upon me, at any qua data porta of the brain, some curious Epigrammatical subjects would on a sudden be introduced by those emissary spirits, who, from the glandulary fort, seated in the middle of the Epicranidian citadel, were commissionated to flie out, and make excursion upon the disturbers of their inte­stine tranquillity; to the end that by the additional strength of such faithful and trusty confderates, they might, with the greater ease, keep off their dull and lamentable adversaries, from taking possession of any room, or quarter in the aforesaid multicellulary Gari­son: and for the better encouragement of those Epi­grammatical Auxiliaries, some of the Trained band, spirits of the souldiery of Terpsichore, would make it their employment to trim and trick them up with a la mode fancies, even to the very Codpiece and Placket, procuring thereby their admission unto a free quarter, through the favour of the Commander in chief, who, to shun deeper inconveniencies, was pleased to give way thereto: for although at first, these light aërial subjects seemed, in regard of those other ponderous objects of a trist & plangorous consideration, to be but as a Zannie, compared to a buskin'd Actor on the Stage; yet seeing a heavie, doleful, and discontented wretch, seldom ob­taineth that reception, which is allowed to a jovial, plea­sing guest, little Hilarulo Gringalet for his mirth was often entertained with welcome, when for his morosity, [Page]and sullen melancholy, Don Adolentado de Pesad­umbre Cuydoso, was for all his gravity very justly re­jected.

I will not deny, but that I found my vein to operate the more easily in these Epigrammatographical Exer­citations, that, according to my own fashion, in all other Disciplines and Faculties, (as well as that of Poetry) of preferring Reason to Testimony, and Truth to Plato, and all his disciples, I was so averse from setting be­fore mine eyes the imitation of any, that contrary to the commonly-received custom of terminating every verse with a masculine Rhyme, I chaped my lines now and then with female desinences, and sdrucciola's, which Last the Latinists call Dactyls; it not seeming very reasonable unto me, that because of the multiplicity of monosyllabical and oxytonal words in the English, we should not Rhythmically also make use of the pa­roxytonals, and proparoxytonals, whereof there is likewise great store: but unnecessarily defrand our selves of the benefit of many thousands of right im­portant teleuticks, thereby dissenting from the approved practice of all other knowing Nations, and laying of a new divisam ab orbe foundation of our own, as if we were ambitious to bring our Roesie to an elevation Antarctick to the Italians, which is incapable of any other Rhyme, but of a female or Sdrucciola; although the Tuscan Versificators, by these two alone, without the help of the male, brag that they have brought Poesie in that Language to the greatest height it did ever reach unto in any Tongue whatsoever.

Nevertheless it is my opinion, which notwithstanding I will not obtrude upon the tender credulities of any, otherwise then they shall finde good reason for their ad­herence thereto, that these Italianized Rhymes are with us to be served in with such animadvertencie, and discretion, that to no Heroick Poem in the English they ought to be admitted, nor yet to the Elegie, and, in a word, to no kinde of Verses to be set forth, either in a majestick or mourning gravity: albeit the French, even in their Alexandrian Lines, make it one of the precepts of their Poetick art, to interlace the female alternatively with the masculine Rhyme.

This liberty which I have always been pleased to as­sume unto my self, of terminating my lines promiscu­ously with what Rhythmical desinences I thought fit­ting, did hurry my vein into such a facility of Epi­grammatizing, that what number of Epigrams I have composed, is totally unto my self unknown; most part having been imbezeled, plundered, and destroyed, and a great many others dictated from my own mouth, whereof I never had any copie: yet some twelve thou­sand having providentially escaped the rage of the vi­ctorious Enemy, and villanous unworthy hands of the base unmerciful Sequestrator; I make account (Deo favente) out of that gross, to publish, by the first of Ja­nuary 1656. a Body of Three hundred sixty and six several Books, which, consisting each of Four and twen­ty Epigrams, are, in their wholes and parts, to represent the days and hours of that year, to the number of Eight thousand seven hundred eighty and four: and [Page]those so aptly adjusted with Lemma's, and other orna­ments thereto requisite, that, out of Greek, Latine, Spanish, and Italian, the four fittest of all known Lan­guages, for proper and Gentile denominations, have been by me extracted neer upon Seven thousand names, all of them in the aforesaid Volume, significant of the subject of the Epigram to which they are respectively prefixed and applied.

I verily believe it will be affirmed by many, that it exceeds the sphere of my ability, to perform what I speak of; and that, in a maner, I do but promise impossibili­ties.

Good Gentlemen, how shall I in this case con­vince these Incredulists? To offer them the usual way of reasoning, is to small purpose: for if they be ac­quainted with me, they know I have already performed greater tasks, and on harder matters: and if they never saw me, nor heard of me, they being but blinde judges of my sufficiencie, no man is bound to give any credit to their assertions.

Therefore by a new way of mine own, to reduce these Nullifidians to some kinde of conformity, and confute their irregular Positions with a Syllogistick argumentation, I will make use of this Assumption and Conclusion in Darii:

I have a minde to keep my head on my shoul­ders:

Ergo, I will publish these Three hundred sixty and six Books, by the first of January, 1656.

Now although the Dictum de omni, out of which this minor (to bring the mood to Darii) is subsumed, be altogether unreasonable; yet if any undertakers will resolvedly undergo the condition of performing the aforesaid task, or losing their life, it will in that case frame an hypothetical Syllogism, reducible to the same mood, no proposition whereof can be denied.

This engagement will I take, and enter so far into it, That if his Highness the Lord Protector will be pleased to lay a Wager against me of 20000 l. English money, that, on the first of January 1656. I shall not have published these Three hundred sixty and six books, as is aforesaid; I shall be content, for assurance on my part, in matter of their publication, to pawn all I have above the shoulders, as a pledge by me valued at a far higher rate, then the above-written sum, and which I shall subscribe my self well pleased to lose, in case of non-performance: provided violent obstructions be withheld from me, and that I may enjoy my own spirits with so much freedom, as is needful for the accomplish­ment of such an undertaking.

If my Lord will not descend so lowe, as to hearken to this overture, Then my humble desire is, that I may have my liberty granted to me, together with the enjoy­ment of my own means, and the removal of the Garison out of my house; and I shall perform it howsoever, up­on the pein above specified.

Now if none of these demands can be obtained, and that it be though expedient, I shall still continue (as I have done these whole three yeers past) totally deprived [Page]of the possession of any thing (whether of real or perso­nal estate) that is mine, nothing allowed me anywhere in compensation thereof, nor yet for my own subsistence, and nevertheless said open, and exposed without prote­ction, to the rigour and highest severity of the Laws of this Isle, and that at the suit and instance of the most injurious, unconscionable, merciless, and implacable men, that ever the earth produced; I must needs, in that case say, That so much may be said thereto, that I will say nothing.

Therefore, Gentlemen-Readers, farewel; and wish well to him, who, had he not been debarred from the fruition of his own, would before this time have presented you with that, which you would have deser­vedly valued at ten times a higher rate, then all the de­mands he ever till this hour hath made, did amount to, and likewise at this instant subscribed himself other­wise then