MAster Demetrius, I earnestly commend this bearer M. Doctor Haruey, my good frend, vnto you: being a ve­ry excellent generall Scholler. Who is desirous of your ac­quaintance and friendship, especially for the sight of some of your antiquities & monuments: and also for some con­ference touching the state of forraine countries: as your leisure may conueniently serue. You shall assuredly find the Gentleman very honest, and thankefull: and me ready to reacq uite your courtesie and fauour to him so shewen, in that I possibly may. And so with the remembrance of my hartyrecommendations, with like thankes for your two letters of forreine newes, receiued the last weeke: I com­mitte you to the Protection of the Almighty.

In steed of other nouels, I sende you my opinion, in a plaine, but true Sonnet, vpon the famous new worke, inti­tuled, A Quippe for an vpstart Courtier; or forsooth, A quaint Dispute betweene Veluet-breechcs, and Cloth-breeches: as fan­tasticall and fond a Dialogue, as I haue seene: and for some particulars, one of the most licentious, and intollerable In­uectiues, that euer I read. Wherein the leawd fellow, and impudent rayler, in an odious and desperate moode, with­out any other cause, or reason; amongst sondry other per­sons notoriously deffamed, most spitefully and villanously abuseth an auncient neighbour of mine, one M. Haruey, a right honest man of good reckoninge; and one that aboue [Page 4] twenty yeres since bare the chi [...]fest office in Walden with good credite: and hath mainetained foure sonnes in Cam­bridge and else where with gre [...]t charges: all sufficiently a­ble to aunsweare for themselues: and three, (in spite of some few Greenes) vniuersally well reputed in both Vniuer­sities, and through the whole Re [...]lme. Whereof one retur­ning sicke from Norwich to Li me, in Iuly l [...]st, w [...]s p [...]st sence of any such malicious iniury, before the public [...]tion of th [...]t vile Pamphlet. Liuor post fata quiescat: & benè à singulis au­diant, qui omnibus volunt benè.

MAister Bird, in the absence of M. Deme­trius, I deliuered your letter vnto his wife, whome I found very courteous. My next businesse was to enquire after the famous Author: who was reported to lye dan­gerously sicke in a shoemakers house neere Dow-gate: not of the plague, or the pockes, as a Gentleman saide, but of a surfett of pickle herringe and rennish wine, or as some suppose▪ of an ex­ceeding fe [...]re. For in his extreamest want, he offered ten, or rather▪then faile twenty shillinges to the printer (a huge som with him at that instant) to leaue out the matter of the three brothers: with confession of his great feare to be cal­led Coram for those forged imputations. A conscious mind, and vndaunted hart, seldome dwell together: hee was not the first, that bewrayed, & punished his owne guil­tines, with blushing for shame, or trembling for dread, or drouping for woe. Many can heape misery inough vppon their owne heads: and neede no more penalty, but, their owne contrition, and the Censure of other. I would not wish a sworne enimie to bee more basely valued, or more vilely reputed, then the common voice of the cittie estee­meth him, that sought Fame by diffamation of other, but hath vtterly discredited himselfe: and is notoriously grown a very prouerbe of Infamy, and contempt. I little delight in the rehearsall of such paltrye: but who like Elderton for Ballating: Greene for pamphletting: both, for goodfellow­ship, and bad conditions? Rayling was the Ypocras of the drunken rimester: and Quipping the Marchepane of the madde libeller. They scape faire, that goe scot-free in such [Page 6] sawcy reckoninges: I haue knowne some, read of many, and heard of more, that wantonly quipped other, & sound­ly nipped themselues. The hoattest bloud of choller may be cooled: and as the fiercest fury of wild-fire, so the fier­cest wild-fire of Fury, consumeth it selfe. Howbeit a com­mon mischiefe would be preuented: and it generally con­cerneth all, and particularly behooueth euery one, to looke about him, when he heareth the belles ringing backward, and seeth the fire running forward: and beholdeth euen Death in person, shooting his peremptory boltes. You vn­derstand me without a Glosse: and here is matter inough for a new ciuill war, or shall I say for a new Troyan siedge, if this poore Letter should fortune to come in print. I deale directly: and will plainly tell you my fancy, if Titius con­tinue to vpbraid Caius with euery thing, & nothing. I nei­ther name Martin-mar-prelate: nor shame Papp wyth a hatchet: nor mention any other, but Elderton, and Greene: two notorious mates, & the very ringleaders of the riming, and scribbling crew. But Titius, or rather Zoilus in his spite­full vaine, will so long flurt at Homer: and Thersites in his peeuish moode, so long fling at Agamemnon; that they wil become extremely odious & intollerable to all good Lear­ning, and ciuill Gouernement: and in attempting to pull downe, or disgrace other without order, must needes fi­nally ouerthrow themselues without relief. Oratours haue challenged a speciall Liberty: and Poets claimed an abso­lute Licence: but no Liberty without boundes: nor any Licence without limitation. Inuectiues by fauour haue bene too bolde: and Satyres by vsurpation too-presump­tuous: I ouerpasse Archilochus, Aristophanes, Lucian, Iulian, Aretine, and that whole venemous and viperous brood, of old & new Raylers: euen Tully, and Horace otherwhiles [Page 7] ouer-reched: and I must needes say, Mother Hubbard in heat of choller, forgetting the pure sanguine of her sweete Feary Queene, wilfully ouer-shott her malcontented selfe: as elsewhere I haue specified at larg, with the good leaue of vnspotted friendshipp. Examples in some ages doe ex­ceeding-much hurt. Salust, and Clodius learned of Tully, to frame artificiall Declamations, & patheticall Inuectiues against Tully himselfe, and other worthy members of that most-florishing State: if mother Hubbard in the vaine of Chawcer, happen to tel one Canicular tale; father Elderton, and his sonne Greene, in the vaine of Skelton, or Scoggin, will counterfeitan hundred dogged Fables, Libles, Ca­lumnies, Slaunders, Lies for [...]he whetstone, what not, & most currishly snarle, & bite where they should most kind­ly fawne, and licke. Euery priuate excesse is daungerous: but such publike enormities, incredibly pernitious, and insuportable: and who can tell, what huge outrages might amount of such quarrellous, and tumultuous causes? Ho­nour is precious: worship of value: Fame inualuable: they perillously threaten the Commonwealth, that goe­about to violate the inuiolable partes thereof. Many will sooner loose their liues, then the least Iott of their reputa­tion. Lord, what mortall feudes, what furious combats, what cruell bloudshed, what horrible slaughterdome haue bene committed, for the point of Honour, and some few Courtly cerimonies? Though meaner persons do not so highly ouerprise their credite; yet who taketh not dis­courtesie vnkindly, or slaunder displeasingly? For mine owne part, I am to make an vse, of my aduersaries abuse: and will endeuour to reforme any default, where of I may iustly, or probably be empeached. Some Emulation hoth already done me good: both for supply of great imper­fections: [Page 8] & for encrease of small perfections. I haue, and who hath not, found it better, to be tickled & stinged of a busy ennemy: then to be coyed, & lulled of an idle frend. Plutarch is grauely wise: & Macchiauell subtilly politike: but in either of them, what sounder, or finer piece of cunning, then to reape commodity by him, that seeketh my displea­sure: & to play vpon the aduauntage of his detection of my infirmities? Other cauilling, or mote-spying Malice con­foundeth it selfe: & I continue my accustomed simplicity, to aunswere vanity with silence: though peraduenture not without daunger of inuiting a newe iniury, by intertaining an old. Patience hath trained mee to pocket-vp more hai­nous indignities: & euen to digest an age of Iron. They that can doe little, must be contented to suffer much. My betters neede not take it grieuously, to be taunted, or reproched in that booke, where Saint Peter, & Christ himselfe are Lucianically & scoffingly alleadged: the one for begging, the other for graunting A foolish boone; (pretended euer since the fatall destiny of the gentle crafte.) Some men wil haue their fwinge, & their bugges-woordes, though it be against all Gods-forbid: & what Cesars might, or Catoes integrity, or what Saints deuotion can stop such mouths? yet neither themselues the better: nor other the woorse: that depend not on their allowance, but rely on their owne iustification: and desire to confute their impudency not with words, but with deeds. Howbeit I am not to preiu­dice my Brother aliue: or to smoother the wrong, offered to my Brother deceased: or to tollerate the least diffama­tion of my good Father▪ whome no illwiller could euer touch with any dishonesty, or discredite in any sort. No­thing more deere, or inestimable, then a mans good name: & albeit I contemne such pelting iniuries, vainely deuised [Page 9] against my selfe, yet am I not to neglecte so intollerable a wrong, so notoriously pubished against them. There is law for desperatest out-lawes: & order for most disorderly fellowes. They that cannot gouerne themselues, must bee ruled by other; and pay for their folly. Whiles I was thus, or to like effecte, resoluing with my selfe, and discoursing with some speciall frendes: not onely writing vnto you" I was suddainely certified, that the king of the paper stage (so the Gentleman tearmed Greene) had played his last part, & was gone to Tarleton: whereof I protest, I was nothing glad, as was expected, but vnfainedly sory: aswell because I could haue wished, he had taken his leaue with a more charitable farewell: as also because I was depriued of that remedy in Law, that I entended against him, in the behalfe of my Father, whose honest reputation I was in many due­ties to tender. Yet to some conceited witt, that could take delight to discouer knaueries, or were a fitte person to aug­ment the history of Conny-catchers: O Lord, what a pre­gnant occasion were here presented, to display leaud vani­ty in his liuely coullours, & to decipher the very misteries of that base Arte? Petty Cooseners are not woorth the na­ming: he they say, was the Monarch of Crosbiters, and the very Emperour of shifters. I was altogether vnaquain­ted with the man, & neuer once saluted him by name: but who in London hath not heard of his dissolute, and licen­tious liuing; his fonde disguisinge of a Master of Arte with ruffianly haire, vnseemely apparell, and more vnseemelye Company: his vaineglorious and Thrasonicall brauinge: his piperly Extemporizing, and Tarletonizing; his apishe counterfeiting of euery ridiculous, and absurd toy: his fine coosening of Iuglers, and finer iugling with cooseners: hys villainous cogging, and foisting; his monstrous swearinge, [Page 10] and horrible forswearing; his impious profaning of sacred Textes: his other scandalous, and blasphemous rauinge; his riotous, and outragious surfeitinge: his continuall shif­ting of lodginges: his plausible musteringe, and banquet­tinge of roysterly acquaintaunce at his first comminge; his beggarly departing in euery hostisses debt; his infamous re­sorting to the Banckeside, Shorditch, Southwarke, and o­ther filthy hauntes: his obscure lurkinge in basest corners: his pawning of his sword, cloake, and what not, when mo­ney came short; his impudent pamphletting, phantasticall interluding, and desperate libelling, when other coosening shiftes failed: his imployinge of Ball, (surnamed, cuttinge Ball) till he was intercepted at Tiborne, to leauy a crew of his trustiest companions, to guarde him in daunger of Ar­restes: his keping of the foresaid Balls sister, a sorry ragged queane, of whome hee had his base sonne, Infortunatus Greene: his forsaking of his owne wife, too honest for such a husband: particulars are infinite▪ his contemning of Su­periours, deriding of other, and defying of all good order? Compar [...] base fellowes, and noble men together: & what in a manner wanted he of the ruffianly, and variable nature of Catiline, or Antony, but the honourable fortunes of Cati­line, and Antony? They that haue seene much more, then I haue heard; (for so I am credibly infourmed) can relate straunge, & almost incredible Comedies of his monstrous disposition: wherewith I am not to infect the Aire, or de­file this paper. There be inough, and inough such Histo­ries, both dead, and liuing: though youth bee not corrup­ted, or age accloyed with his Legendary. Truely I haue beene ashamed, to heare some ascertayned reportes of hys most woefull, and rascall estate: how the wretched fellow, or shall I say the Prince of beggars, laid all to gage for some [Page 11] few shillinges: and was attended by lice: and would pitti­fully beg a penny-pott of Malmesie: and could not gett a­ny of his old acquaintance to comfort, or visite him in his extremity, but Mistris Appleby, and the mother of Infor­tunatus. Alas, euen his fellow-writer, a proper yong man, if aduised in time, that was a principall guest at that fatall banquet of pickle herring, (I spare his name, and in some respectes wish him well) came neuer more at him: but ei­ther would not, or happily could not performe the duty of an affectionate, and faithfull frend. The poore Cordwai­ners wife was his onely nurse: and the mother of Infortu­natus hys sole companion: but when Mistrisse Appleby came, as much to expostulate iniuries with her, as to visite him. God helpe good fellowes, when they cannot helpe themselues. Slender reliefe in the predicamente of priuati­ons, and fained habites. Miserable man, that must pearish: or be succoured by counterfeite, or impotente supplies. I once bemoned the decayed and blasted estate of M. Ga­scoigne: who wanted not some commendable parts of con­ceit, and endeuour: but vnhappy M. Gascoigne, how Lord­ly happy, in comparison of most-vnhappy M. Greene? He neuer enuyed me so much, as I pittied him from my hart: especially when his hostisse Isam, with teares in her eies, & sighes from a deeper fountaine, (for she loued him derely) tould me of his lamentable begging of a penny-pott of Malmesy: and sir reuerence how lowsy he, and the mother of Infortunatus were (I would her Surgeon found her no worse, then lowsy:) and how he was faine poore soule, to borrow her husbandes shirte, whiles his owne was a wa­shing: and how his dublet. and hose, and sword were sold for three shillinges: and beside the charges of his winding sheete, which was foure shillinges; and the charges of hys [Page 12] buriall yesterday in the New-churchyard neere Bedlam, which was six shillinges, and foure pence; how deeply hee was indebted to her poore husbande: as appeered by hys owne bonde of tenne poundes: which the good woman kindly shewed me: and beseeched me to read the writting beneath: which was a letter to his abandoned wife, in the behalfe of his gentle host: not so short as persuasible in the beginning, and pittifull in the ending.

Oh what notable matter were here for a greene head, or Lucianicall conceit: that would take pleasure in the paine of such sorry distressed creatures? whose afflicted case, to euery charitable, or compassionate mind cannot but seeme most commiserable, if not for their owne cause, yet for Gods sake: who deserueth infinitely of them, whome hee acquitteth, not according to iudgement, but according to mercy. I rather hope of the deade, as I wish to the liuinge, that Grace might finally abounde, where wickednesse did ouerflow: and that Christ in his diuine goodnesse shoulde miraculously forgiue the man, that in his diuelish badnesse blasphemously reuiled God. The dead bite not: and I am none of those, that bite the dead. When I begin to conflict with Ghostes, then looke for my Confutation of his fine Quippe, or quaint Dispute, whome his sweete hostisse for a tender farewell, crowned with a Garlande of Bayes: to shew, that a tenth Muse honoured him more being deade; then all the nine honoured him aliue. I know not, whether Skelton, Elderton, or some like flourishing Poet were so en­terred: [Page 13] it was his owne request, and his Nurses deuotion: and happily some of his fauourites may imitate the exam­ple. One that wished him a better lodging, then in a poore Iourneymans house, & a better graue, then in that Church­yard in Bedlam, hath perfourmed a little peece of a greater duety to a Laureat Poet.

Which an other no sooner read, but he immediatly sub­scribed: as speaking to the ignorant passenger.

Other Epitaphes, and funerall deuotions I am promised by some, that deepely affect inspired Bardes, and the adop­ted sonnes of the Muses: but you may imagine, I haue smal superfluity of leysure, to entend such businesse: and yet no­thing of frend, or foe, can be vnwelcome vnto mee, that sa­uoureth of Witte, or rellisheth of Humanity, or tasteth of any good. In the meane, as euer before for a generall De­fence, so still for a speciall Apology, I referre my selfe to e­uery indifferent Iudgement: and presume they will con­ceiue well, that perceiue no ill. Charity recommendeth Fauour to superiours; Amity to equalls: and good-will to all; that either reuerence Diuinity, or regarde Humanity. Friendes haue Affection; and the wiser sort Reason, to va­lue men, not by others report, but by their owne desart, or probable hope: which I would willingly nourish, as I ho­nestly may▪ till it shall please God to affoord some conue­nient occasion of more actuall proofe. And as for Enuy, or hatred to any party: I did euer abhorre them both: and I i­magine [Page 14] there is not any, that either more resolutely disday­neth the one, or, more peremptorily detesteth the other: as perhaps may yer long visibly appeere: if some other requi­sites concurre with my intention, or fall-out aunsweareable to my expectation. Promise is debt: and I h [...]dd rather per­fourme, then promise any thinge: but a minde, desirous to pleasure frendes, to reconcile foes, to displease fewe, to dis­pleasure none. They that haue little else, to winne or conti­nue credite, had neede haue Humanity, in supply of other defectes. Let the worlde deale with simple men, as it plea­seth: I loath to be odious to any: and would be loth to bee tedious to you. The next weeke, you may happily haue a letter of such French occurrences, and other intelligences, as the credible relation of inquisitiue frendes, or imployed straungers shall acquaint me withall. That most valorous, and braue king wanteth no honourable prayses, or zealous prayers. Redoubted Parma was neuer so matched: and in so many woorthy histories, aswell new, as olde; how few comparable either for Vertue, or Fortune? The Spanyard, politique inough, and not ouer-rashly audatious, will bee aduised, before he entangle himselfe with mo [...]e warres at­tonce: knowing how the braue Earle of Essex, woorthy sir Iohn Norrice, and their valiant knightes, haue fought for the honour of England; and for the right of Fraunce, of the Low countries, and of Portugall. Thrise happy Fraunce; though how vnhappy Fraunce, that hast such a Soueraine Head, such resolute Hartes, and such inuincible Handes to fight for thee: that will either recouer thee most mightily, or die for thee most honourably. Were I of sufficient dis­course, to record the valiauntest, and memorablest actes of the world; I would count it a felicity, to haue the oportu­nity of so egregious, and heroicall an argument: not plea­surably [Page 15] deuised in counterfaite names, but admirably re­presented to the eie of France, and the eare of the world, in the persons of royall, and most puissaunt knightes: how singularlie worthy of most glorious, and immortal fame? Gallant wits, and braue pennes may honorably bethinke themselues: and euen ambitiouslye frame their stile to a noble emulation of Liuy, Homer, and the diuinest spirits of all ages: I returne to my priuate businesse. Good mai­ster Birde, commende me to my good friendes: and fare you hartely wel.

ALbeit for these twelue, or thirteene yeares, no man hath beene more loth, or more scrupulous, then my selfe, to vnderlie the censure of euery curious conceite, or rigorous iudgement, that pretendeth a deepe insight in the perfe­ctions of wits and stiles, insomuch that euen Actions of Silence and Patience haue bene commenced against me: and although I stil dwel in the same opinion, that nothing would be committed to a publike view, that is not exact­ly laboured both for matter and maner: and that impor­teth not some notable vse, to one, or other effecuall pur­pose: Yet partlie the vehemente importunity of some affectionate friends, and partly mine owne tender regard [Page 16] of my fathers, and my brothers good reputation, haue so forcibly ouer-ruled me, that I haue finally condescen­ded to their passionate motion: and in an extraordinarie case, haue respectiuely yeelded my consent to an extraor­dinary course. Which I would vnpartially commend to the reasonable allowance of euery indiferent peruser that carrieth Courtesie in his Tongue, or honesty in his Hart. For mine own iniury, the more I consider, the lesse I esti­mate the same: as one born to suffer, & made to contemne iniuries. He that in his youth flattered not himselfe with the exceeding commendations of some greatest schollets in the worlde: cannot at these yeares, either be discoura­ged with misreporte, or daunted with misfortune. A pre­meditate, & resolute minde lightly shaketh off the heaui­est crosses of malice, and easely passeth ouer a thousande grieuances with a smile. Some haue learned of Reason, some of Philosophy, some of History, some of Diuinitie, some of Experience, some of all, to endure patiently, whatsoeuer befalleth, & euen to make the cruellest paine pleasant, as some make the swetest pleasure painefull. I had rather name Titius, or Sempronius, then my selfe: But the vrgent entreaty of friends, and your eager expectati­on haue suddainely obtained that, which no personall em­peachment, or real enforcement could in many yeres ex­tort. Howbeit I shall hardly content them, to satisfy you: that am neither to offend any, but in case of not oriety: nor to defend my selfe, but in case of necessity, or honesty. If anie haue charged mee, or do charge mee with insuffici­ency, I confesse: perfection is no common gifte: if with ignorance, I graunt: many seeme, fewe are learned: if with simplicity, I yeeld: wondrous wittes are rare birdes: if with ill-lucke, I deny not: good lucke is not euerie mans [Page 17] lotte: yet who euer hearde me complaine of ill-lucke, or once say, Fortune my Foe? But in the plainnesse of my na­ture, and simplicitie of my Arte, I can easely defie the proudest, that dareth cal my credite in question: or ac­cuse me of any dishonest, or scandelous parte, either in deede, or in word. Many thinges are made offensiue in the handling, that are tollerable inough in their owne na­ture: or fie on an odious circumstaunce, where the sub­stance it selfe might be more gratious. Letters may bee priuately written, that would not bee publikely diuul­ged: I was then yong in yeares, fresh in courage, greene in experience, and as the manner is, somewhat ouer­weeninge in conceit: and for varietie of study, and some deeper intelligence in the affayres of the worlde, other­whiles reading inuectiues, and Satyres, artificially am­plifyed in the most exaggerate and hyperbolicall kinde, I coulde hardlye refraine from discoueringe some little part of my reading: I had curiously laboured some exact, and exquisite poyntes of studie and practise, and greatly misliked the preposterous and vntoward courses of di­uers good wits, ill directed; there wanted not some sharpe vndeserued discourtesies to exasperate my mind: shall I touch the vlcer? it is no such mysterye, but it may be re­uealed: I was supposed not vnmeet for the Oratorship of the vniuersity, which in that springe of mine age, for my Exercise, and credite I earnestly affected: but mine owne modest petition, my friendes diligent labour, our high Chauncelors most-honourable and extraordinarye com­mendation, were all peltingly defeated, by a slye practise of the olde Fox: whose acts, and monumentes shal neuer dye: some like accidents of dislike, for breuity I ouerslip: young bloud is hot: youth hasty: ingenuity open: abuse [Page 18] impatiente: choler stomachous: temptations busie: the Inuectiue vaine, a sturring, and tickeling vaine: the Saty­ricall humour, a puffinge, and swellinge humor: Conceit penneth, leisure peruseth, and Curtesy commendeth ma­ny needlesse discourses: Idlenesse, the greatest Author & variablest Reader in the world: some familiar friendes pricked me forward: and I, neither fearing daunger, nor suspecting ill measure, (poore credulitie sone beguiled) was not vnwilling to content them, to delight a few other and to auenge, or satisfie my selfe, after the manner of shrewes, that cannot otherwise ease their curst hearts, but by their owne tongues, & their neighbours eares. Signor Immerito (for that name will be remembred) was then, and is still my affectionate friend, one that could very wel abide Gascoignes Steele glasse, and that stoode equallie iudifferent to either part of the state Demostratiue: ma­ny communications, and writings may secretlie passe be­tweene such, euen for an exercise of speech, and stile that are not otherwise conuenient to be disclosed: it was the si­nister hap of those infortunate Letters, to fall into the left handes of malicious enemies, or vndiscreete friends: who aduentured to imprint in earnest, that was scribled in iest, (for the moody fit was soone ouer:) and requited their pri­uate pleasure with my publike displeasure: oh my inesti­mable, and infinite displeasure. When there was no re­medie, but melancholy patience: and the sharpest parte of those vnlucky Letters had bene ouer read at the Coun­cell Table: I was aduised by certaine honourable, and di­uers worship full persons, to interpreate my intention in more expresse termes: and thereupon discoursed euerie particularitie, by way of Articles or Positions, in a large Apology of my duetiful; and entier affection to that flou­rishing [Page 19] Vniuersitie, my deere Mother: which Apology, with not so few as forty such Academicall Exercises, and sundry other politique Discourses, I haue hitherto sup­pressed, as vnworthie the view of the busie world, or the entertainement of precious Time: but peraduenturethese extraordinarie prouocations may worke extraordinarilie in me; and though not in passion, yet in conceit sturre me vp, to publish many Traictes, and Discourses, that in certaine considerations I meant euer to conceale, and to Dedicate vnto none, but vnto obscure Darkenesse, or fa­mous Vulcane. It were pittie, but wonderous wits (giue enemies their due) should become more woonderous by comparison, conference maketh excellent things ap­peare more admirablie: & I am so far frō being a Saturnist by nature, or a Stoick by discipline, that I can easily frame a certaine pleasurable delight vnto my selfe, by ministring some matter vnto them, that now are faine to make some thing of nothing: and wittily to plaie with their own sha­dowes. It goeth somewhat hard in my harsh Legend, whē the father of Musicke must be mocked, not Tubulcain, as he mistearmeth him, but Tuball, whom Genesis voutsa­feth honourable mention: and the Hexameter verse flou­ted▪ whereof neither Homer in Greeke, nor Virgill in La­tine, (how valorous Autors?) nor Alexander in conquest nor Augustus in maiesty, (how puissaunt Princes?) were ashamed: but accompted it the onely gallant trompet of braue, and Heroicall Acts: and I wis, the English is no­thing too-good to imitat the Greeke, or Latine, or other eloquent Languages, that honour the Hexameter, as the soueraigne of verses, and the high Controwler of Rimes. If I neuer deserue anye better remembraunce, let mee ra­ther be Epitaphed, The Inuentour of the English Hexa­meter: [Page 20] whome learned M. Stanihurst imitated in his Vir­gill; and excellent Sir Phillip Sidney disdained not to fol­low in his Arcadia, & elsewhere: then be chronicled, The greene maister of the Blacke Arte: or the founder of vg­ly oathes: or the father of misbegotten Infortunatus: or the Scriuener of Crosbiters: or as one of his owne sectaries termed him the Patriarch of shifters. Happy man I, if these two be my hainousest crimes, and deadliest sinnes, To bee the Inuentour of the English Hexameter, and to bee orderlie clapt in the Fleete for the foresaide Letters: where he that sawe me, sawe mee at Constantinople. In­deede Sir Iames Croft (whome I neuer touched with the least tittle of detractions) was cunningly incensed, and reincensed against mee: but at last pacified by the volun­tarie mediation of my honourable fauourers, M. Secre­tary Wilson, and Sir Walter Mildmay: vnrequested by any line of my hand, or any woord of my mouth. Neither did I otherwise sollicite, or intreate Sir Iames, till I had assured notice of his better satisfaction: when I writte vnto him, as became mee, in respectiue, and ductifull sorte: not for feare of any daunger, but for loue of houou­rable fauour. Which Letters, albeit not so ceremonious­lie pleasing, as effectually contenting, the wise knight not onely receiued courteously, but accepted fauoura­blie, and commended honourablye: and for my selfe, earnestly affirmed, I was first wronged by other, and then mistaken by him: but now found another man, then I was supposed. As for my olde Controwler, Doctor Perne (for he indeed was the man, that otherwhiles flattered me ex­ceedingly, otherwhiles ouerthwarted me crosly, alwaies plaied fast, and loose with me) he was old enough, to aun­sweare for himselfe, and should not bee defended by him. [Page 21] Onely he wished me to proceede louinglywith the Vni­uersity, howsoeuer I dealt with that Doctor. And that was all the Fleeting, that euer I felt: sauing that an other com­pany of speciall good fellowes, (whereof he was none of the meanest, that brauely threatned to coniure-vpp one, which should massacre Martins witt, or should bee lam­backd himself with ten yeares prouision) would needs for­sooth verye courtly perswade the Earle of Oxforde, that some thing in those Letters, and namely the Mirrour of Tuscanismo, was palpably intended against him: whose noble Lordeship I protest, I neuer meante to dishonour with the least preiudicial word of my Tongue, or pen: but euer kept a mindefull reckoning of many bounden duties toward The-same: sincein the prime of his gallātest youth, hee bestowed Angels vpon mee in Christes Colledge in Cambridge, and otherwise voutsafed me many gratious fauours at the affectionate commendation of my Cosen, M. Thomas Smith, the sonne of Sir Thomas, shortly af­ter Colonel of the Ardes in Ireland. But the noble Earle, not disposed to trouble his Iouiall mind with such Satur­nine paltery, stil continued, like his magnificent selfe: and that Fleeting also proued, like the other: a silly bullbeare, a sorry puffe of winde, a thing of nothing. But a strong imagination pierceth deepely: and the Paper Fleete will not bee so aunswered. Iesu, what would such notable fel­lowes write, or rather would they not write, if they could probably say, or fantastically surmize by me, as I can e­uidently proue by them? But I seeke not the condemna­tion of the deade, or the disgrace of the liuing: but the good amendement of the one, by the naughty example of the other. And for mine own farther iustification in the premisses, or otherwise: I had rather my larger writings [Page 22] and other actions should plead for mee, then this, or any slighte Letter: wherein I am not to infourme pregnant conceits, that may imagine more by a little: or to addresse any peece of mine own history, though wiser men in case of vnworthy reproch, haue not made nice to vndertake their owne defence, and euen to labour their owne com­mendation. The plausible Examples of Tully, Cato, Ma­rius, Scipio, diuers such vertuous Romanes, and sundry excellent Greekes, are famously knowen: but not greatly fit for euery mannes imitation. Were other of my dispo­sition, small time should be lost in auenging, or debating verball iniuries, especially to my selfe: who can verie well suffer poore spite, to shoote at mee, and to hitte himselfe: and sometime smile at the silly flie, that will needs martyr it selfe in my candle. But me thinkes, the wildest head, and desperatest mind should consider: they that speake il must not looke to heare well: the worlde is not giuen to pocket vp infamies: who cannot returne-home a Quippe, or re­quite one libell with an other? nothing more common in bookes, or more readye in mouthes, then the Inuectiue vaine, and the whole Arte of railing: some schollers haue choyce of nimble pennes, & smooth tongues at cōman­dement: & there was a time, when paraduenture I coulde speake with them, that talked we me. Though the case be altered: and I now, none of the hastiest to striue for those bucklers: yet a general, a special, a glowing, a piercing in­dignitie may rekindle some little sparkes of courage, and affection wil be affection, though not in proper reuenge, yet the common duetie. I am not to dispute the nature of Force▪ or the force of nature, who knoweth not, how vio­lentlie force prouoketh force: or how mightilie nature worketh in compatible natures? But how far publike ob­iectiōs, [Page 23] or famous imputations require publike aunswers: or how insufficient the formallest Iudiciall remedie in a­ny one Court, may seeme, in case of a printed diffamati­on, that with the wings of Mallice in some, of Enuie in more, and of Leuity in most, flieth through the Realme, and ouer the Sea: bee it indifferentlie decided by euerie discreete iudgement, or reasonable consideration. Espe­cially when the guiltie part is deceased: and the iniury not the lesse, but the more notorious. The best is, the per­sons abused, are not altogether vnknowen, they haue not so euell a neighbour, that euer reade, or hearde those op­probrious villanies, (it is too-mild a name, for my brother Richardes most abhominable Legend, who frameth him­selfe to liue as chastely, as the leawde writer affected to liue beastly) but hath presentlie broken out into some such earnest, or more passionate speeches▪ ô pestilent kna­uery, who euer heard such arrant forgeries, and ranke lies? A mad world, where such shameful stuffe is bought, and sould: and where such roisterly Varlets may be suffered to play vpon whome they lust, and how they lust. Is this Greene with the running Head, and the scribling Hand, that neuer linnes putting-forth new, newer, & newest bookes of the maker? If his other bookes bee as holesome geere, as this, no maruaile, though the gay-man conceiue trim­lie of himselfe, and statelye scorne all beside. Green, vile Greene, would thou wearest halfe so honest, as the worst of the foure, whom thou vpbraidest: or halfe so learned, as the vnlearnedst of the three. Thanke other for thy borrowed▪ & filched plumes of some little Italianated brauery: & what remaineth, but flat Impudencie, and grosse Detra­ction: the proper ornaments of thy sweete vtterance? I alleadge not mine owne inuentions, (who cannot forget [Page 24] the two Athenian Temples of Impudencie, and Calum­nie, when I remember him:) I could nominate the Gen­tlemen, and substantiall Yeoman, Gentlemens fellowes, that vttered much more by his life, and can hardlie for beare him since his death: and who of acquaintance with him, or them, whome hee depraueth, could either parti­allie excuse the one, or reasonablie accuse the other? Their liues effectually speake for themselues: and he that liued not, to see nine and twentie yeares, died not, till the Vniuersitie of Cambridge had bestowed vpō him a grace to bee a Doctor of his facultie, and till hee was reputed in Northfolke, where he practised phisicke, a proper toward man, and as skilfull a Phisition for his age, as euer came there: how well beloued of the chiefest Gentlemen, and Gentlewomen in that Shire, themselues testifie. That is gone to Heauen, cannot bee recouered on Earth: it is our comfort, that he liued in good credite, and died in good minde. I must euer remember some of his notable sayings (for in deede so they were): and can neuer forget that sweete voice of the dying Cignet: ó frater, Christus est op­timus Medicus, & meus solus Medicus. Vale Gal [...]ne, valete hu­manae Artes: nihil diuinum in terris, praeter animum aspirantem ad coelos. That best and his onelie Phisition knoweth, what spiritual phisicke I commended vnto him, when I beheld in his meager and ghastly countenance, that I cannot re­hearse without some fit of compassion. Wee must in or­der follow him, that shoulde in nature haue gone before him, and I know not by what destinie, hee followed him first, that foled him last. How he departed, his ghostly mo­ther Isam, can truliest, and will fauourabliest report: how he liued, London remembreth. Oh, what a liuelie picture of Vanity? but oh what a deadlie Image of miserie? And [Page 25] oh what a terrible Caueat for such & such? I am not to ex­tenuate or preiudice his wit, which could not any way be great, though som way not the least of our vulgar writers & mani-waies very vngracious: but who euer estemed him either wise, or learned, or honest or anyway credible? how many Gentlemen, and other say of him? Let the paltry fel­low go: Lord, what a lewde Companion was hee? What an egregious makeshift, Where should Conny-catch­ers haue gotten such a Secretarie: How shal cosenage do for a new Register: or Phantasticallitye for a new Autor, They wronge him much with their Epitaphes, and other solemne deuises, that entitle him not at the least, The se­cond Toy of London; the Stale of Poules, the Ape of Eu­phues, the Vice of the Stage, the mocker of the simple world: the flowter of his friendes, the Foe of himselfe: and so foorth. What durst not hee vtter with his tongue: or diuulge with his Penne: or countenance with his face? Or whome cared hee for, but a carelesse crewe of his own associates? Peruse his famous bookes: and in steede of, Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit vtile dulci (that forsooth was his professed Poesie) Loe a wilde head, ful of mad braine and a thousande crochets: a Scholler, a Discourser, a Courtier, a ruffian, a Gamester, a Louer, a Souldier, a Trauailer, Merchaunt, a Broker, an Artificer, a Botcher, a Petti-fogger, a Player, a Coosener, a Rayler, a beggar, an Omnigatherum, a Gay nothing: a Stoarehouse of bald and baggage stuffe, vnwoorth the aunswering, or rea­ding: a Triuiall, and triobular Autor for knaues, & fooles: an Image of Idlenes: an Epitome of fantasticalitie: a Mirrour of Vanitie: Vanitas Vanitatum, & omnia vanitas. Alasse, that anie shoulde say, as I haue heard diuers af­firme: His witte was nothing, but a minte of knauerie: [Page 29] himselfe a deuiser of iugling feates: a forger of coue­tous practises: an Inuentour of monstruous oathes: a derider of all religions: a contemner of God, and man: a desperate Lucianist: an abhominable Aretinist: an Arch-Athiest: and he arch-deserued to be well hanged seauen yeares agoe. Twenty, and twentie such familiar speeches I ouer passe: and bury the whole Legendary of his Life, & Death, in the Sepulchre of eternall Silence. I will not condemne, or censure his workes, which I neuer did so much as superficially ouer-runne, but as some fewe of thē occursiuly presented themselues in Stationers shops, and some other houses of my acquaintaunce. But I pray God, they haue not done more harme by corruption of manners, then good by quickening of witte: and I would, some Buyers had either more Reason to discerne, or lesse Appetite to desire such Nouels. The world is full inough of fooleries: though the humor be not feasted with such luxurious, and riotous Pamphlets. Howe vnlike Tullies sweete Offices: or I socrates pithy instuctiōs: or Plutarches holesome Morrals: or the dilicate Dialogues of Xenophon, and Plato: or the sage Tragedies of Sophocles, and Euripides or the fine Comedies of the dainetiest Atticke wittes: or other excellent monumentes of antiquity, neuer suffici­entlie perused? yet the one as stale, as oldest fashions: and what more freshly current for a while, then the other? E­uen Guicciardines siluer Historie, and Ariostos golden Can­toes, grow out of request & the Countesse of Pēbrookes Arcadia is not greene inough for queasie stomackes, but they must haue Greenes Arcadia: and I beleeue, most ea­gerlie longed for Greenes Faerie Queene. O straunge fan­cies▪ ô monstrous newfanglednesse. The wittier sort tast­eth, & flieth▪ at the Dog from Nilus: other wantons find [Page 27] Experience the mistris of fooles: and need no other pen­nance but their owne repentaunce. The verie Time con­futeth Vanitie: and the verie place requireth sobrietie. No publike security without priuate moderation: and the more bondes of gouernment, the more indefeasible as­surance. Due Circumspection may do much good: and an aboundant Cautele can do little hurt. Youth is youth: & age corruptible: better an hundred Ouides were bani­shed, then the state of Augustus endangered, or a soue­raigne Empire infected. Especially in a tumultuous age, and in a world of warre: wherin not Bacchus, but Mars: not Venus, but Mercury, not Ryot, but Valour, not Phan­sy, but Pollicy must strike the stroke. Gallant Gentlemen, be-thinke your selues of the olde Romane Discipline, and the newe Spanish industry: and I am not to trouble you with any other accusation of them, that condemne them selues, and neede no other shame, or punishment, but their own woorkes. Onely I request some busy pennes to stay their wisedomes: and either to publish a iustifyable trueth, or to conceale their bad disposition. Woe to that study, that mispendeth pretious Time, and consumeth it self, in needlesse, and bootlesse quarrels. Comparisons, they say, are odious: but Inuectiues more odious: & what so abhominable, as forged & suborned calumnies? One, or two miserable examples may stand for an hundred: I will not aggrauate or discourse particulars: A pitiful case, that such lusty beginninges should haue such sorry ends: and who can tell, what dowty yoonker may next gnash with his teeth? Terrible Creatures, and the curst Cowe, haue sometime short hornes. The wildest Colte is soone ta­med: and be like neither Death, nor Shame, nor Misery are affraid of them, that vaunt themselues, Like vnto [Page 28] Death, and Will Sommer, in sparing none. God helpe, and Charity pittie thē, that haue neither hability to help, nor witt to pitie themselues: but will needs try a conclusi­on betweene their heads, and the next wall. I haue heard of Gyants in conceit, and Pigmeis in performance: yong Phaetons, younge Icary, young Choroebi, and I shall say young Babingtons, and how many millions of greene youthes, haue in ouermounting, most ruefully dismoun­ted, and left behinde them full-lamentable Histories? For the very mention of some direfull Tragedies, were horri­ble, and what so wretched, as headlong enterprises: or so hideous, as the desperate attempt of Impossibilities? Phi­lostratus in his Icones, pleasurably reporteth, according to to the tradition of Greeke Poets, how on a time, A reso­lute bande of dowty Pigmies, triumphantly marched to in uade Hercules a sleepe. Woe to such braue aduentures. Aesops Toade, A proud aspiring Creature, shamefullie ouermatched her swelling, and bursten selfe. Great, and small things may in some proportion be compared toge­ther: and beholde as miserable a spectacle, in their kinde. Flourishing M. Greene is most-wofully faded, and whilest I am bemoaning his ouer-pittious decay; & discoursing the vsuall successe of such ranke wittes. Loe all on the suddaine, his sworne brother, M. Pierce Penni-lesse, (still more paltery, but what remedy? we are already ouer shoes and must now goe through) Loe his inwardest compani­on, that tasted of the fatall herringe, cruelly pinched with want, vexed with discredite, tormented with other mens felicitie, and ouerwhelmed with his owne misery; in a ra­ving, and franticke moode, most desperately exhibiteth his supplication to the Diuell. A strange title, an od wit, and a mad hooreson, I warrant him: doubtles it wil proue [Page 29] some dainty deuise, quiently contriued by way of humble Supplication To the high, and mighty Prince of Darke­nesse: not Dunsically botched-vp, but right-formally cō ­ueied, according to the stile, and tenour of Tarletons pre­sident, his famous play of the seauen Deadly sinnes: which most-dealy, but most liuely playe, I might haue seene in London: and was verie gently inuited thereunto at Ox­ford, by Tarleton himselfe, of whome I merrily demaun­ding, which of the seauen, was his owne deadlie sinne, he bluntly aunswered after this manner; By God, the sinne of other Gentlemen, Lechery. Oh but that, M. Tarleton, is not your part vpon the stage, you are too-blame, that dissemble with the world & haue one part for your frends pleasure, an other for your owne. I am somewhat of Do­ctor Pernes religion, quoth he: and abruptlie tooke his leaue. Surely it must needes bee current in matter, and autentical in forme, that had first such a learned president: and is now pleasantlie interlaced with diuers new-founde phrases of the Tauerne: and patheticallie intermixt with sundry dolefull pageantes of his own ruinous, & begger­lie experience. For the poore Tennement of his Purse, (quoth himselfe, gramercy good Tarlelon) hath bene the Diuels Dauncing schoole, a nie time this halfe yeare, and I pray God, (quoth another) the poore Tennement of his Heart, hath not also beene the Diuels Fencing Schoole, twise as long. Particulars, and Circumstances are tedious, especially in sorrowfull, and forlorne causes, the summe of summes is. He tost his imagination a thousand waies, and I beleeue, searched euery corner of his Grammer-schoole witte, (for his margine is as deepelie learned, as Fauste precor gelida) to see if he coulde finde anie meanes to re­lieue his estate, but all his thoughtes, and marginal notes, [Page 30] consorted to his conclusion. That the worlde was vncha­ritable, and he ordained to be miserable. It were cruelty, to ad affliction to afflictiō: what flintly Heart would not sigh or rather melt, to heare the bewailefull moane of that sob­bing, and groning Muse, the daughter of most-pregnant, but most-wretched Niobe?

And a little after:

And so foorth most-hideouslie.

For the Text is much more dolefull, then the Glosse: and who woulde not be moued with more pittifull com­punction, to heare the lamentable Farewell.

Then to read that profound Quotation,

Which was thought Patheticall out of crie.

Now good sweete Muse, I beseech thee by thy delicate witte, and by all the queintest Inuentions of thy deuiseful braine, cast not thy drearie selfe headlong into the horri­ble Gulph of Desperation: but being a Creature of so sin­gular, and wonderfull hope, as thy inspired courage di­uinelie suggesteth, and still reare-vp mountaines of high­est Hope: and either gallantlie aduance thy vertuous self, maugre Fortune: (what impossible to aspiring industry?) or mightilie enchant some magnificent Mecoenas, (for thou canst doe it) to honour himselfe in honouring thee; [Page 31] and to blisse the eies of the gazing worlde, with behol­ding those Miracles, which some round liberality, and thy super-thankfull minde, would hugelie enable thee to worke. Let it neuer be said, that the Minion of the Muses, should forfake himself, or abandon them, whose very sha­dowes he adoreth. A braue Hart, in extreamest distresse, neuer languisheth: no such affrig hting Death, or gnash­ing Hell, as the deuouring Abysse of dispaire. Yet better a man without money, then money without a man: Pen­nilesse is not his purse but his minde: not his reuenue, but his resolution: A mā is a man though he haue but a hose vpon his head: for euerie curse, there is a blessing, for eue­rie malady, a remedie, for euerie winter, a sommer: for euerie night a day, a dog hath a day.

Right magnanimitie neuer droupeth, sweet Musike re­quickeneth the heauiest spirites of dumpish Melancholy: fine Poetry abhorreth the loathsome, and vgly shape of forlorne pensiuenes: what gentle minde detesteth not cursed, and damnable desperation? All abiect dolefulnes, is woefully base, and baselie woefull. The die, the ball, the sponge, the siue, the wheele of Fortune, Fortune hirselfe, a trifle, a iest, a toy in Philosophy, & diuine resolution. Be a Musitian, & Poet vnto thy self, that art both, and a Ring­leader of both, vnto other, be a Man, be a Gentleman, be a Philosopher, be a Diuine, be thy resolute selfe; not the Slaue of Fortune, that for euery fleabiting crieth out-alas & for a few hungry meales, like a Greeke Parasite, misuseth the Tragedy of Hecuba: but the friend of Vertue, that is richest in pouerty, freest in bondage, brauest in ieopardie, cheerefullest in calamitie, be rather wise, and vnfortunate, with the siluer Swanne, then fortunate & vnwise, with the [Page 32] golden Asse: remember thine owne marginal Embleme, Fortuna fauet fatuis. Oh, solace thy miraculous selfe, and cheere the Muses in cheering thy daintie soule, sweetelie drunken with their delitious Helicon, and the restoratiue Nectar of the Gods. What can I say more? That cordial liquor, and that heauenly restoratiue, bee thy soueraigne comfort: and scorne the basenes of euerie crased, or fain­ting thought, that may argue a degenerate minde. And so much briefly touching thy deere selfe: who me I hope ne­uer to finde so pathetically distressed, or so Tragically dis­guised againe. Now a word, or two concerning him, who in charitie kisseth thy hand, and in pitie wisheth thee bet­ter lucke. May it please gentle Pierce, in the diuine fury of his rauished spirite, to be graciouslie good vnto his poore friendes, who would be somewhat loath, to be silly sheepe for the wolfe, or other sheepe-biter: I dare vndertake, the abused Autor of the Astrologicall discourse, (euerie page thereof, vnder correction of inspired and superna­turall conceits, discouereth more Arte, and Iudgement, thē the whole Supplicatiō of the Parturient Mountaine) notwithstanding the notorious Diabolicall discourse of the saide Pierce, a man better acquainted with the Diuels of Hell, then with the Starres of Heauen: shall vnfained­ly pray for him: and onely pray him to report the knowen truth, of his approoued learning, & liuing, without fauor. Otherwise, it were not greatlie amisse, a little to consider, that he, which in the ruffe of his freshest ioility, was faine to cry, M. Churchyard, a mercy in printe, may be orderlie driuen to crie more peccauies, then one. I would thinke the Counter, M Churchyard, his bostisse Penia, and such other sensible Lessons, might sufficientlie haue taught him, that Pennilesse is not Lawlesse: and that a Poets, or [Page 33] Painters Licence, is a poore security, to priuiledge debt, or diffamacion. I woulde wish the burned child not to for­get the hot Element: and would aduise ouer-weening youthes, to remember themselues, and the good auncient oracle of sage Apollo There is a certaine thing, called Mo­destie, if they could light vpon it: and by my younge Ma­sters leaue, some pritty smacke of discretion would relish well. The Athenians were noted for lauish amplifieng▪ the Cretensians for craftie lying, the Thessalians for sub­tle cogging: the Carthaginians for deceitfull perfidie: Hanniball, Fabius, Agathocles, Iphicrates, Vlisses, and a thou­sand such, for counterfeit pollicie, but all their forgeries were seasoned with the salt of probabilitie, & onelie vsed at occasions of aduauntage: and although the Grecians generallie were ouer-lightheaded, and vaine-spoken, yet their leuitie sauored of elegant wittinesse, and the flying birde carried meate in the mouth. Euen Lucians true Tales are spiced with conceite: and neither his, nor Apu­leius Asse, is altogether an Asse. It is a piece of cunning in the most fabulous Legends, to interlace some credible narratiōs, & verie probable occurrences, to countenance and authorize the excessiue licentiousnesse of the rest. Vnreasonable fictions palpably bewray their odious gros­nesse: and hee that will be a famous deuiser in folio, must be content with the rewarde of a notable Lier, not to be credited, when he auoweth a trueth. The pleasant man tal­keth of a Batchelers hoode, turned ouer his eares, for abusing of Aristotle: and imagineth goodlie matters of casting the Heauens water: of an atomizing the skies in­trailes: of the vniuersal adulterie of Planets▪ of the bawd of those celestial bodies▪ how Saturne, & Iupiter proued ho­nester men, then al the world took thē for [...]o braue Tarlton [Page 34] thou wert hee, when all is done, had not Aretine bene A­retine, when he was, vndoubtedlie thou hadst beene A­retine, gramercy capricious, and transcendent witte, the onelie high Pole Artique▪ and deepe Minerall of an incō ­parable stile. Yet Tarltons lests not sufficient: but Roscius must haue his Stale, to make him more admirable▪ al were nothing, vnlesse Eldertons ale-crammed nose, had beene consumed to nothing, in beare-baiting him, with whole bundels of ballats: that forsooth is not so good a gentle­man, (for euery heire of a Nash is a good gentleman at the least as the heard of Thomas Nash, the maister butler of Pembrooke Hal whose graue countenance, like Cato able to make him runne out of his wittes for feare, if he looke sternely vpon him, and I wot not what, and what trumpe­rie else, as childish, & garish stuffe, as euer came in print, yet what packe of vanity is not in print, I will not cry, Ab­surde, Absurde: as hee madly exclaimeth, Monstrous, Monstrous: But who in that Vniuersity can deny, but M. Haruey read the publike Philosophie Lecture with spe­cial good liking, and many will say with singular commē ­dation, when this mightie lashing Gentleman (now well read in the late exploites of Vntrusse, and for Tarletons amplifications A perfe A) was not so much as idoneus audi­tor ciuilis scientia. What hee is improued since, excepting his good olde Flores Poetarum, and Tarletons surmoun­ting Rhetorique, with a little Euphuisme, and Greenesse inough, which were all prettily stale, before he put hand [...]o penne. I report me to the fauourablest opinion of those that know his Prefaces, Rimes, and the very Timpanye of his Tarltonizing wit, his Supplication to the Diuell, oh that is the Diuell & al. I am so farre from doting vppon mine owne, or my Brothers Writinges, in any matter of [Page 35] moment, that I vse to censure them with a more curious and rigorous iudgement, then I examine any thing else, wherein my eare is so loath to flatter me, & my con­ceit so affraid to cosen me, that my mind euer remaineth vnsatisfied, & nothing hitherto could fulfill my desire, in­satiably couetous to do better. But as those perfunctorie Discourses are, (which were more hastilie, then speedilie published without my priuity) let the best of them goe for wast paper, & serue the basest shops, if the worst of them importe not more publike, or priuate vse, then his gayest­flower, that may thanke Greene, & Tarlton for his Garland. Were my brother, not my brother, but some familiar ac­quaintance, I might in Trueth, & should in Reason, make other comparisons, with applause inough: (for what in­differencie seeth not the difference? or what so silly, as he could make Pierce, with voice, or pen? notwithstanding those Miracles of the white rauen in the cloudes): But the Vniuersitie, the Cittie, the whole Realme, all good Lear­ning, & ciuil Gouernement, be their Iudge, & my mouth especially in this Martinish and Counter-martinish age: wherein the Spirit of Contradiction reigneth, and euerie one superaboundeth in his owne humor, euen to the an­nihilating of any other, without rime, or reason. Some would bee Mutes, if they might bee suffered to be, as were meetest for them, and onelie to dwell in the excellente monuments of diuine wittes, whose sweet company they cannot enioy inough, but what is to be done, when vo­wels are coursed, & Mutes haunted, and that heauenlie conference hellishlie disturbed, God, or good Order, cir­cumcise the Tongues, and Pennes, that slaunder without [...]ause, and raile without effect, euen in the superlatiue de­gree of rauing. Aretine, and the Diuels Oratour might [Page 36] very-well bee spared in Christian, or Piliticke Comon­wealthes: which cannot want contagion inough, though they bee not poysened with the venemous potions of Inckhorne witches. Fine plesant witt was euer commen­dable: and iudiciall accusation lawfull: but fie on grosse scurility, and impudent calumny: that wil rather goe to Hell in iest, then to heauen in earnest, and seeke not to re­forme any vice, to backebite, and depraue euery person, that feedeth not their humorous fancy, A vile mind: and what a pestelenter villany? but some odd wittes forsooth, will needes bee accompted terrible Bull Beggars, and the onely Killcowes of their age: for how should they other­wise keepe the simple world in awe: or scare multitudes of plaine folke, like idiot crowes, and innocent dooues? All the Inuectiue, and Satyricall Spirites, are their Fami­liars: scoffing, and girding is their daily bread: other pro­fesse other faculties: they professe the Arte of railing: Noble, Reuerend, or whatsoeuer, al pesants, and clownes: gowty Diuels, and buckram Giants: Midasses, and gol­den Asses: Cormorants, and Drones, Dunces, and hy­pocriticall hoat spurres Earth-wormes, and Pinchefart Penny-fathers: that feede not their hungry purses, and eager stomackes: they haue termes, quoth a maruellous doer, steeped in Aqua Fortis, and Gunnepouder, that shal rattle through the skies, and make Earthquakes in such pesauntes eares, as shall dare to sende them awaie with a flea in their eare: (howe might a man purchase the sight of those puissant, and hideous termes?) they can lash poore slaues, and spurgall Asses mightily, they can tell parlous Tales of Beares and Foxes, as shrewdlye as mo­ther Hubbard, for her life: they will dominiere in Ta­uernes, and Stationers shops, to die for't: they will be as [Page 37] egregiouslly famous, as euer was Herastratus, or Pausanias, or Kett, or Scoggin: Agrippa, and Rabelays but Ciphers to them: they haue it onely in them. Would Christ, they had more discretion in them, and lesse rancour against other, that neuer wished them the least euill, but still beseech GOD to encrease the best, and to pardon the worst in them. The Quippe knoweth his rewarde, and the Supplication to the Diuell, expressly dedicated to the Prince of Darkenesse, I comitte to the censure of Wisedome, and Iustice, with fauour: onelye requesting that mightie Bombarder of termes, to spare quiet men that meane him no harme, and to keepe the huge maine; shot of his ratling Babies for Buckrame Giants. Alasse,-what should I touch their parents, or twit thē by their o­ther friendes: Let it be one of their iolities to offer, & one of our simplicities to suffer that iniury: which neither im­paireth the reputation of the Father: nor abaseth the cre­dite of the Sonnes: nor argueth any thing, but the im­pudente despightfulnesse of the Libeller. Fewe Sonnes haue felinger cause to loue, or reuerence, or defend their Fathers, then my selfe: but his dealing is such, where he tradeth: and his liuing such where he conuerseth, that he may easely shame himselfe, which goeth-about to shame him, or vs in him. I will not trouble you with the rehear­sall of his inheritance, which I could haue wished more then it was, yet was it more, by the fauour of that terri­ble Thundersmith of termes, thē the inheritances of both their Fathers together. Put case, I haue inquired, what speciall cause the Pennilesse Gentleman hath, to bragge of his birth: which giueth the woefull poueretto good leaue, euen with his Stentors voice, & in his ratling terms to reuiue the pittifull historie of Don Lazarello de Thoe­mes: [Page 38] to contend with colde, to conuerse with scarcitie: to be laid-open to pouertie: to accuse Fortune: to raile on his patrons, to bite his penne, to rend his papers, to rage in all points, like a mad man, to totment himselfe in that agony a long time, to be miserable, to be vacuus viator: to haue opus and vsus knocking at his doore twenty times a weeke, when he is not within: to seek his dinner in poules with Duke humfrey: to licke dishes, to be a beggar.

to be the Diuelsdistressed Orator, to proclaime his owne desolate and abiect estat, in these & such other most-base, and shamefull complaints, scarcely beseeming the rascal­lest siser in an Vniuersity, or the beggarliest mendicant frier in a country.

I, but who so excessiuely thankefull to his other friends? One kind freend, more worth then two vnfreendlie kinse­men. Affection will relieue, where nature faileth: he must needes abound in deuoted and bountifull freendes, that sheweth himselfe so meritoriously freendlie, and so vn­speakeably gratefull.

I had nigh-hand ouer-skipped the learned allegation in the margine, solemnely auouched with a very-patheti­call Pol, Polme occidistis Amici. All which, and most of the Premisses, I had altogether omitted, but that the two vn­meete Companions, a Lordes heart, and a beggars purse must somewhat remember themselues, or be a little, as it were pulled by the ragged sleeue. Young schollers can tel how Vlysses handeled [...]rus, and olde Truants haue not al­together forgotten, howesawsie the Harpies were, till [Page 41] they were interteined accordingly. But what though the decayed Gentleman, so commendeth his owne woorship­full birth, and trusty freendes? Many noble Houses haue seene their own ruines: and sometime the brothers of the Prodigall Sonne, will not stick to curse, wher they should reuerently blesse. The Table-fellow of Duke Humfrey, & Tantalus, might learne of him to curse Iupiter, and to ban not onely the four Elementes, but also the seauen Planets, and euen the twelue houses of Heauen. And what though the other sorry Magnifico, as very a Bisonian, as he for hys life, would sweare in a brauery, his Father was of foure & twenty religions: and himselfe a Diuine from his mothers womb: an Image of both Churches, & both Synagogues too: a naturall Perne artificially emproued: the thrise-and thrise-learned sonne, of his foure & twenty times-learned father? So Greene would flourish. Euery man is to answere for hys owne defaultes: my trespasse is not my fathers, nor my fathers mine: A Gibeline may haue a Guelph to his sonne, as Barthol saith: & hath neuer a Saint had a Repro­bate to his father? are all worthy minds, the issues of noble houses: or all base mindes, the ofsprings of rascall stockes? Were it not a felicity, to be the woorst of a thousande, that being descended of meanest parentage, haue prooued, as Histories testify, & the world daily confirmeth? Or might not Greene, and his Complices, haue beene much better, then they were, or are, although their Parentes had beene much worse, then they were, or are? What faith the affli­cted Suppliant himselfe?

Haue we not a nomber of excellente industrious men and valorous knights, not greatly beholding vnto Fortune [Page 42] for their progeny?

Malo pater tibi sit Thersites, who knoweth not that onely Arte of Heraldry?

Quàmte Thersitae similem producat Achilles. The Argument of Nobility, is a gallant, and plausible argument: but what Common-place so braue, and honourable, as the Com­mon-place of vertue? Can any thinge bee obscure, where desert is famous: or any thing famous, where desert is ob­scure? Gramercy sweete margine, for that notable Poesy: Meritis expendite causam: in earnest, a singular Rule of in­fallible iudgemente: and I imagine, himselfe deserueth somethinge, that specially alleadgeth Deserte. It is longe, since I declaimed vpon any Theame: but who would not pleade Vertues cause, in whatsoeuer subiecte? or what ho­nest Eloquence is not furnished with Catilinaries, & Phil­lippiques against Vice? Not the Father, & the Sonne, but Vertue, and Vice, the efficientes of Honour, and Disho­nour. He onely base, he onely simple, he onely contemp­tible, that hath Vice to his father, & Ignoraunce to his mo­ther: the onely Parentes of rascality. And may I not truly affirme, that not only Osorius, or Patritius gallantly proue, but all wise Autors seriously approue, and euen Vertue, & Skill themselues, with their owne soueraine mouth, hono­rably professe? No right sonne, & heire apparant of theirs, either vnnoble in himselfe, or obscure in the world: or de­spised in the highest, or vnregarded of the lowest▪ or disho­norable in his Life, or inglorious after his Death. I speake not for any person, but for the matter: and cannot eyther condignely praise the valorous seede of the one: or suffi­ciently blisse the fruitfull wombe of the other. And what so vngentle in Nature, or so vnnoble in Fortune, as their Con­traries: how barbarously opposed against that diuine race, [Page 43] and heauenly generation: that cannot sturre, vnaccompa­nied with Enuy, and a worlde of moates? Yet neither the vnhappiest creature vtterly deuoide of all graces: (I praise somethinge in Elderton, and Greene:) nor the excellentest personage thoroughly accomplished with all perfections: (ah, that Sir Humfrey Gilbert, and Sir Phillip Sidney, hadd bene as cautelous, as aduenturous:) nor they, that obiect, nor we, that answeare, nor any, but a few singular men, the Miracles of the world; either for wit wondrous, or for Art exquisite, or for action admirable, or for integrity notable. I▪wis, we little neede, to be charged with our fathers offen­ces: it is inough for one, yea for the best one, to carry the burthen of his owne transgressions, and errours. Errours are infinite: and follies how vniuersally rife, euen of the wisest sorte? Oh that vertues were as like the starres of heauen, or the birds of the Aire, as vices are like the sandes of the Sea, and the Beastes of the Earth: hee that seeith leaste, seeith much amisse: the fine Discouerer, and curious Intelligen­cer, goe inuisible, & stratagematically discry many hidden priuities of publique, and priuate misgouernment: there is an eie, that pierceth into the secretest sinnes, and most-in­scrutable thoughtes of profoundest Hypocrisy: in whose pure sight nothing is iustifiable, but by pardon. Diuinity flyeth highe: and wadeth deepe: But euen in Humanity, & in the view of the world, who liueth inculpable? or who is not obnoxious to some criminall, or ciuill actions? or,

And so foorth: for the verse is not vnknowen: & run­neth in one of those vnsatyricall Satyres, which M. Spencer long since embraced with an ouerloouing Sonnet: A to­ken of his Affection, not a Testimony of hys▪ Iudgement. What should I labour a needlesse point? or what should I weary you with tediousnesse, that may much-better be­stow your vacant houres? Enough, to any is inough: to some, ouer-much. God knoweth, and who knoweth not, how sensually corrupt some good fellowes were, and are, that so sharpely, and bitterly noted, and do note, so many imaginatiue corruptions in other. Would God, they had bene as quietly disposed, as their parentes: or as aduisedly stayed, as some of their frendes, that wished them a milder course; & some of our pens might haue bene employed to better vse, then this idle businesse, or rather busy idle­nesse. Wherof I desire no other fruite, but some little con­tentation of friendes, and some reasonable mittigation of ill-willers: vnto whose good I am diligently to addresse, & euen affectionately to dedicate any my endeuour. If in some tearmes I haue vsed a little plaine dealing, albeit not without respecte, (but euery one seeith not into an others considerations: & diuers Circumstances alter the case) I craue pardon for the least ouersight: and will be as ready to commend any little good, euen in an aduersary: as I was vnwillinge. but enforced to touch soome palpable badd: which I would wish amended, where it may be redressed: [Page 45] and quite forgotten, where it ought to be buried. My mea­ning was not, to displeasure, or discredite any: but onely to satisfie the pleasure, and mainetaine the credite of those, vn­to whome I owe many dueties, aswell in speciall conside­ration, as in naturall affection. Had I not bene more depely stinged in them, then in my selfe: who haue made Come­dies of such Tragedies; and with pleasure giuen such hoat­spurres leaue, to run themselues out of breath: what folio of folly might not for me haue passed vntouched? or who for me, might not haue flourished, or lashed in Poules Church yarde, Cum gratia & Priuilegio? It were good, that they, which haue a dexterity in writing trimly vppon euery mat­ter, white, or blacke: should also haue a felicity in speaking well vppon euery person, that deserueth not ill: especially such as can say something, and thinke more. The terriblest tearmes may be repayed-home with aduauntage: I haue knowen the raylingest Sophister in an Vniuersity, sett non plus: and haue seene the mad-braynest Roister-doister in a countrey, dashte out of countenaunce. There is Logicke i­nough, to aunsweare Carters Logicke: and playe inough, to tame Horse-play. Wronged men are seldome tounge­tied: the patientest Creature wanteth not bloud in his hart, or incke in his penne: and although his bloud be not wild­fire, yet it is bloud; that will not be cooled with a Carde, or daunted with bugs-wordes: and although his incke, be not pitch, or poison, yet it is incke; that will neither blushe for shame, nor waxe pale for feare; but will holde his owne, when perhaps gayer coullours shal loose their coullor; and Aqua fortis valiantly eate his owne harte. Good sweete Ma­sters quiet your selues: or thincke not much, to beare a lit­tle for company, that are so forward to load other without mercy. No man loather then my selfe, to contend with de­sperate [Page 46] Malecontentes: or to ouerthwart obstinate Humo­ristes: or to encounter Incke-horne Aduentures: nor to quarrell with any sorte of wrangling Companions: (skol­dinge is the language of shrewes: and raylinge the stile of Rakehells:) or so much as to call busy heads, by their vsu­all, and proper names: (the thinges are paltry: and the ve­ry names sauour of rascallity:) but there is a time, when such douty warriours must be appeased; & such wise men answeared according to their wisedome. Howbeit, in fa­uour of a priuate, and publike quietnesse, I will thanke the honest fellowes the more, the lesse occasion they geue me, to interrupt better exercises: to trouble the world with tri­flinge discourses vppon peltinge matters: to disease them­selues: to pleasure none, but the printer, & idle creatures, the onely busy readers of such Nouellets. I would gladly be specially beholdinge vnto them for this courtesy: and dare vndertake it shall redounde more to their credite, to approue their desire of reconciliation, by silence: then to continue the opinion of their rooted despight, by sturring more coales. I hope this winde hath not shaken any suche corne, but fellow-schollers, (as Doctor Caius would say) and now forsooth fellow-writers, may bee made friendes, with a cup of white wine, and some little familliar confe­rence, in calme and ciuile termes. I offer them my hande: and request their: which I will accept thanckfully: & kisse louinglye: and euer commende the good Nature, that would; and the better Gouernemente, that coulde master Affection with Reason, and sweeten gall with Humanity. For it is not my energeticall persuasion, but their owne pa­theticall motion, that must doe it: as the enchanting Muse of Orpheus redeemed the ghastly ghost of his owne Euri­dice out of Hell. Such an Experimente of profounde, and [Page 47] diuine Arte, as I woulde compassionately recommend to euery amiable minde, disguised with hellishe passion: the foulest deformity of any fayre wit. Otherwise, if it stande more with their credite, to be reputed willfull, then wise: or if a peruerse, and froward resolution, be the better polli­cy: they are free-men: and haue incke at will, and paper at commaundement: and a number of greedy Eares, that e­gerly longe, and as it were daunce attendaunce, to heare those dreadfull inuincible termes, steeped in Aqua fortis, & Gunpowder. The intoxicate sprite of the grisly Euridice (I speake to a Poet: and cannot more mildly terme that in­fernall Fury) may eftsoones returne to her accursed lod­ginge, and in steede of heauenly Orpheus, embrace the hellish Oratour of the Blacke Prince: whome I will not any way make worse, but wold wish infinitely better, then he hath made himselfe. For I thancke God, Iam neither so profanely vncharitable, as to send him to the Sancebell, to trusse-vp his life with a trice: nor so abiectly timorous, as for extreme fearefulnes to wish, with a professed deuotion: So be it: Pray Penne, Incke, and Paper on their knees, that they may not bee troubled with him any more. Good Lorde, what fantasticall panges are these? who euer en­dighted in such a stile, but one diuine Aretine in Italy, & two heauenly Tarletons in England: the sole platformers of odd Elocution, and onely singularities of the plaine worlde? Two of them, that so wantonly played with the highest and deepest subiectes of spirituall contemplation: Heauen, and Hell, Paradise, and Purgatory: know their locall repose: and seriously admonish the third, to be ad­uised, how he lauish in such dalliance. No variety, or infi­nity so infinite, as Inuention: which hath a huge worlde, and a maine Ocean of scope, to disport, and raunge it selfe, [Page 48] though it arreare not vayne Hyperboles of the reuerende mysteries of God. Good sweete Oratour, be a deuine Poet indeede: and vse heauenly Eloquence indeede: and em­ploy thy golden talent with amounting vsance indeede: and with heroicall Cantoes honour right Vertue, & braue valour indeede: as noble Sir Philip Sidney, and gentle Maister Spencer haue done, with immortall Fame: and I will bestow more complements of rare amplifications vp­on thee, then euer any bestowed vppon them: or this Tounge euer affoorded: or any Aretinish mountaine of huge exaggerations can bring-foorth. Right artificiality, (whereat I once aimed to the vttermost power of my slen­der capacity,) is not mad-brained, or ridiculous, or absurd, or blasphemous, or monstrous: but deepe-conceited, but pleasurable, but delicate, but exquisite, but gratious, but admirable: not according to the fantasticall mould of A­retine, or Rabelays, but according to the fine modell of Or­pheus, Homer, Pindarus, & the excellentest wittes of Greece, and of the Lande, that flowed with milke, and hony. For what Festiuall Hymnes, so diuinely dainty, as the sweete Psalmes of King Dauid, royally translated by Buchanan? or what sage Gnomes, so profoundly pithy, as the wise Prouerbes of King Salomon; notably also translated: but how few Buchanans? Such liuely springes of streaming E­loquence: & such right-Olympicall hilles of amountinge witte: I cordially recommend to the deere Louers of the Muses: and namely to the professed Sonnes of the-same; Edmond Spencer, Richard Stanihurst, Abraham France, Tho­mas Watson, Samuell Daniell, Thomas Nash, and the rest: whome I affectionately thancke for their studious ende­uours, commendably employed in enriching, & polishing their natiue Tongue, neuer so furnished, or embellished, [Page 49] as of-late. For I dare not name the Honorabler Sonnes, & Nobler Daughters of the sweetest, & diuinest Muses, that euer sang in English or other language: for feare of suspi­tion of that, which I abhorre: and their owne most dele­ctable, and delicious Exercises, (the fine handy-worke of excellent Nature, and excellenter Arte combined) speake incomparably more, then I am able briefly to insinuate. Gentle mindes, and flourishing wittes, were infinitely to­blame, if they should not also for curious imitation, pro­pose vnto themselues such faire Types of refined, and en­graced Eloquence. The right Noouice of pregnante, and aspiring conceit, wil not ouer-skippe any precious gemme of Inuention, or any beautifull floure of Elocution, that may richly adorne, or gallantly bedecke the trimme gar­land of his budding stile. I speake generally to euery sprin­ging wit: but more specially to a few: and at this instante singularly to one: whom▪ I salute with a hundred blessings: and entreate with as many prayers, to loue them, that loue all good wittes: and hate none, but the Diuell, and his in­carnate Impes, notoriously professed. I protest, it was not thy person, that I any-way disliked: but thy rash, and des­perate proceeding against thy well-willers: which in some had bene vnsufferable: in an youth, was more excusable: in a reformed youth is pardonable: and rather matter of concordance, then of aggrieuance. I persuade my selfe, ra­ther to hope the best, then to feare the worst: & euer wish vnto other, as I would wish other, to wish vnto mee. It is my earnest desire, to begin, and ende such friuolous alter­cations at once: and were it not more for other, then for my selfe, assuredly I would be the first, that should cancell this impertinent Pamflet: and throw the other twoo Let­ters, with the Sonnets annexed, into the fire. Let them [Page 50] haue their swinge, that affect to be terribly singular: I desire not to be a blacke Swanne: or to leaue behind me any Pe­riod in the stile of the Diuels Oratour: or any verse in the vaine of his Dammes Poet: but rather couet to be nothing in printe, then any thinge in the stampe of needelesse, or fruitlesse Contention. As I am ouer-ruled at this presente, and as it standeth now: I am not to be mine owne Iudge, or Aduocate: but am contente to bee sentenced by euery courteous, or indifferente peruser, that regardeth honesty in persons, or trueth in testimonies, or reason in causes. Or seeing some matters of Fame are called in question: I am not onely willing, but desirous to vnderlye the verdicte, e­uen of Fame her-selfe; and to submit our whole credites, to the voice of the people, as to the voice of Equity, and the Oracle of God: to whose gratious fauours he recom­mendeth your Courtesy, that neither flattereth the best: nor slaundereth the woorst: nor willfully wrongeth any: but professeth duety to his superiours: humanity to his e­quals: fauour to his inferiours: reason to all: And by the same Rule, oweth you amends for the premisses: not spe­dily dispatched, but hastily bungled-vp, as you see.

HOnest Gentlemen (for vnto such I especially write) giue me leaue in this slender Pamflet, onely to fulfill the im­portune requestes of a fewe: with your small delighte, and mine owne lesse contentmente: and pardon mee, though I no way affect to feede the dainty humour of curious conceites, carried with an insatiable expectation of I wot not what imagined perfe­ction: which may easely display it selfe, wher it is, but cannot pos­sibly appeere, where it is not. I presume, I cannot lesse satisfie any, then I haue satisfied my selfe: who hauing wedded my selfe to pri­uate study, and deuoted my mind to publike quietnesse, tooke this troublesom penne in hand, with such an alacrity of courage, as the sorry Beare goeth to the stake: & now reioyce in that, which with more hast, then speede is dispatched; as AEsops Hart, with more affection, then reason, gloried in his Hornes, till he found his fugi­tiue legges, his surer friends. For in many cases, I take it a better Pollicy, to vse the flying Legge, then the cumbersome Horne: and at this instant, I should much more haue pleased my selfe, if I had still practised my former resolution, to scorne the stinginge of a pieuish waspe: or the biting of an eluish gnat: or the quipp of a mad companion: and rather to pocket-vp a pelting iniury, then to entangle my selfe with trifling businesse: or any-way to accrew to the most-contemptible fellowship of the scribblinge crew, that an­noyeth this Age, and neuer more accloyed the world. Alas, he is pi­tifully bestead, that in an Age of Pollicy, and in a world of Indu­stry, (wherein the greatest matters of Gouernement, and Valour, seeme small to aspiring capacities) is constrained to make woefull Greene, and beggarly Pierce Pennylesse, (as it were a Gra­shopper, and a Cricket, two pretty musitians, but silly creatures) the argumente of his stile: and enforced to encounter them, who onely in vanity are somthing: in effect, nothing: in account, lesse [Page 52] then nothinge: howsoeuer the Grashopper enraged, would bee no lesse then a greene Dragon: and the Cricket male-contented, not so little as a Blacke Bellwether: but the only Vnicorne of the Mu­ses. Some in my case, would perhaps be content for their owne cre­dite, to haue them notoriously so reputed: and in cunning, would per aduenture not sticke, to straine at a Gnatt, as it were at a Ca­mell: but plain dealing vseth no such Rhethorick: they that haue Eies, can see: and they that haue Eares, can heare, as sensibly as I: and I must in reason leaue them, as in proofe I finde them: ei­ther meere Paper-bugs, and Inckehorne-pads: or a greate deale worse: so far, as the Ringleaders of leaud Licentiousnes, are more pestilent, then the Platformers of vaine Fantasticallity: or the poison of corrupted mindes, is more pernitious, then the venome of disguised witts. Any slightnesse, curious inough: and any cost, too-much, vpon such an argumente: a subiecte of losse to the wri­ter; of gaine to none: but duety must obey: and courtesy yeelde: and it is the lucke of some pelting Comedies, to busy the Stage, as well as some grauer Tragedies. Were nothing els discoursiuely in­serted, (as some little else occasionally presented it selfe) what pa­per more currently fit for the basest mechanicall vses, then that, which containeth the vile misdemeanours, and Truth will say, the abhominable villanies of such base shifting companions: good for nothinge, in the opinion of good mindes, but to cast-away them­selues, to spoile their adherentes, to pray vppon their fauourers, to dishonour their Patrons, to infecte the Aire, where they breath. Might Pierce be entreated, to quallifye his distempered veine; and to reclaime his vnbrideled selfe: as some bold Gawins, vppon milder consideration haue bene glad to doe: (good Pierce be good to thy good friendes: and gentle to thy gentle selfe:) I assuredly would be the first, that should wrapp-vp such memorials, not in a sheete of wast-paper, but in the winding-sheete of Obliuion: and will not sticke, to embalme the dead corps of a professed ennemy, to [Page 53] sweeten the liuing spirite of a wished friend: howsoeuer extreame­ly meane, or famously obscure. The gratious Lawe of Amnesty, a soueraine Law: but the diuine Law of Charity, the Law of Lawes. Who cannot contemne the insolentest arrogancy? but who must not condescend to any reasonable accord? Hee that was neuer di­smayed with any necessary distresse, yet euer escheweth all vnne­cessary trouble: and he that least feareth the swoord of vniust Ca­lumny, yet most dreadeth the scabbard of iust Infamy: and would gladly auoide the lightest suspition of that, which hee abhorreth. Though the painted sheath bee, as it is, (for it needeth no other Painter, to pourtray it selfe) yet neuer childe so delighted in his ratling baby; as some old Lads of the Castell, haue sported them­selues with their rappinge bable. It is the proper weapon of their profession: they haue vsed it at-large, and will vse it at pleasure, howsoeuer the patient heale himselfe at their cost. It were a worke of importance, to aunsweare that weapon: I long since gaue them ouer in the plaine field: and am now become a suter to their to­wardest schollers, to remember the glorious conquest of their wit­ty Masters. I would willingly please, or not displease, as I may: but no Life, without self-contentment: no performance of any action without Resolution. The least may thinke vppon Fabius Maxi­mus: who with an honourable obstinacy pursued the course of his owne platforme, notwithstanding a thousand empeachments: & although slowly, with much murmuringe, yet effectually, with more reputation, atchieued his politicke purpose: like an experte Pilot, that in a hideous tempest regardeth not the foolishe shric­kinges, or vaine outcries of disorderly passengers, but bestirreth himselfe, and directeth his marriners, according to the wise rules of orderly Nauigation. Awauering and fleeting minde, seldome, or neuer accomplisheth any negotiation of value. It is none of the least comfortes in distresse, that Patience is an excellent quality: and Constancy the honourablest vertue in the world. I am not to [Page 54] dilate, where a sentence is a discourse, and a woorde more then inough. It hath bene my desire, to conforme my intentions to my quality, and my exercises to my intentions: but as they are, it shall go very-hard, before I begin to abandon hope: or relente to friuolous motions: or forget my selfe, and my friends, to remem­ber my ennemies: who are best remembred, when they are most forgotten. Some are cunning: & can imaginatiuely cast beyonde the Moone: but he is a simple Temporiser, that would attempt to raise a fantasticall, or putatiue opinion in an actiue worlde: and who so kindly cooseneth himselfe, as he that seeketh a cloak, to co­uer his owne sluggish Idlenesse, or vnweeldy insufficiency? Let them affect mysticall commendation, that professe occult Philo­sophy: and let them crosbite themselues, that can finde no other Conny-catchers, to play that part. It was a principall Maxim in Socrates discipline, That euery one should contend to be indeede, whatsouer he would couet to seeme in apparance: some that haue often recommended that Maxim vnto other, and often called it the soueraine Rule of sound, and honourable proceeding; were ne­uer forwarder to allow his precept in discourse, then ready to fol­low his example in practise. There bee other inough, to make a gallant show: and some trim fellowes, will not stick to maintaine a braue Paradoxe, that the opinion, and semblaunce of thinges, neither euer was, nor is now, inferiour to the very thinges them­selues: but in preferment and reputation many times superiour. I am not here to argue the case: Fortune is a fauourable Lady to some forward aduenturers: they may easely swim, that are holden vp by the chinne: such, & such haue liued in estimation, & pur­chased landes: but what did they euer effectuate of any worth: or wherin appered ther sufficiency, to discharg any weighty function, or to performe any notable act? A reed is a sory staffe: & Fortune as changeable, as the Moone: no counterfeit, or pretended com­mendation endureth long: only desert holdeth-out infallibly, when [Page 55] many a goodly gentleman be [...]hreweth himselfe: I must not stand vpon particularities: no Education to the Trainement of Cy­rus: nor any proceding, to the emploiment of Cesar. Pregnant Rules auail much: but visible Examples amount incredibly: Ex­perience, the onely life of perfection, & onely perfection of life. Whatsoeuer occasion causeth me to be mistaken, as ouer-much ad­dicted to Theory, without respect of action: (for that is one of the especiallest points, which I am importuned to resolue:) I neuer made account of any study, meditation, conference, or Exercise, that importeth not effectual vse, & that aymeth not altogether at action: as the singuler marke, whereat euery Arte, & euery ver­tue is to leuell. I loue Method: but honour Practise: must I shew the difference? Either Arte is obscure, or the quickest capacity dull: and needeth Methode, as it were the bright Moone, to illuminate the darkesome night: but Practise is the bright Sun, that shineth in the day, & the soueraigne Planet, that gouerneth the world: as else-where I haue copiously declared. To excell, ther is no way but one: to marry studious Arte to diligent Exercise: but where they must be vnmarried, or diuorced, geue me rather Exercise without Arte, then Arte without Exercise. Perfect vse worketh masteries: and disgraceth vnexperienced Arte. Exam­ples are infinite: and dayly display themselues. A world without a Sunne: a Boddy without a Soule: Nature without Arte: Arte without Exercise: sory creatures. Singular practise the only sin­guler, and admirable woorkeman of the world. Must I dispatch the rest, that is exacted? It is no fit place: and the least little wil seme too-much. As in other thinges, so in Artes, formality doth well: but materiality worketh the feat. Were Artists as skillfull, as Artes are powerfull, wonders might be atchieued by Arte em­prooued: but they that vnderstand little, write much: and they that know much, write little. The vayne Peacocke, with his gay coullours, and the pratling Parrat with his ignorant discourses, [Page 56] (I am not to offend any, but the Peacocke, and the Parrat) haue garishly disguised the worthiest Artes, and deepely discredited the profoundest Artistes, to the pitifull defacement of the one, and the shamefull preiudice of the other. Rodolph Agricola, Philip Melancthon, Ludouike Viues, Peter Ramus, and diuers excellent schollers, haue earnestly complaned of Artes corrupted, and notably reformed many absurdities: but still corruption in­gendreth one vermine or other: and still that pretious Traine­ment is miserably abused, which should be the fountaine of skill, the roote of vertue, the seminary of gouernment, the foundation of all priuate, and publike good. The Methodist, & Discouser might be more materiall: the Theorist, and Practitioner more formall: all fower more effectuall: or how commeth it to passe, that much more is profe ssed, but much lesse perfourmed, then in former ages? especially in the Mathematikes, and in naturall Magic: which beeing cunningly and extensiuely imployed (after the manner of Archimedes, Archytas, Apollonius Regiomontanus, Bacon, Cardan, and such like industrious Philosophers, the Secretaries of Art, and Nature,) might won­derfully bestead the Commonwealth: with many puissant engins, and other commodious deuises, for warre, and peace. In actuall Experimentes, and Polymechany, nothing too-profound: a super­ficiall slightnesse, may seeme fine for sheetes, but proueth good for nothinge: as in other businesse, so in learninge, as good neuer a whit, according to the Prouerbe, as neuer the better: one perfect Mechanician worth ten vnperfect Philosophers: an ignorant man lesse shameth himself, lesse beguileth his frend, lesse disableth the Common-wealth, then a putatiue Artiste: a whole naturall wit more seruiceable, and more sufficient, then a Demi-scholler: who presuming on that, which he hath not, abateth the force of that, which he hath. He must not dreame of perfection, that em­proueth not the perfectest Art, with most perfect industrie. A [Page 57] snatch, and away, with Neoptolemus, and the common sort of studentes, may please a little, but profiteth nothing. It is the Bo­dy, not the shadow, that dispatcheth the businesse. The flower de­lighteth to-day, and fadeth to-morrow: the fruite edifieth, and endureth: the visard, the painted sheath, and such terrible bra­ueries, can best report their owne entertainment: the peacock, and the parrat haue good leaue to prancke vppe themselues, and leysure inough to reuiue, and repolish their expired workes. What can last allwayes, quoth the neat Tayler, when his sine seames be­gan to cracke their credite at the first drawing-on. I appeale to Poules Churchyard, whether lines be like vnto seames: and whe­ther the Deft writer be as sure a workeman, as the neat Taylor. There may be a fault in the Reader, aswell as in the weauer: but euery manne contente himselfe, to beare the burthen of his owne faultes: and good sweete Autors infourme your selues, before you vndertake to instruct other. Excellent effectes must slow from the spring of excellent causes: and nothing notable without notable Endeuour. The Print is abused, that abuseth: and earnestly be­seecheth flourishing writers, not to trouble the Presse, but in case of vrgent occasion, or important vse. Or if you conceiue extraor­dinarily of your owne pregnancy: and will needes imploy your youthfull Tallent: remember, that corruptions in manners, and absurdities in Arte, haue too-lately ouerflowed the banckes of all good Modestly, and discretion. Hee that hath but halfe an Eie, can see no lesse: & he that hath but halfe a Tonge, may say more: I onely note by the way, that hindereth many a gallant wit in the way: and without empeachment to any, wish all rather to be ex­cellent, with Socrates, then to seeme famous, with the Philoso­pher of the Court. My meaning is not, to teach, but to touch: & albeit I haue cursorily spoken somethinge for my selfe, and some­thing as it were against other; yet the one little, and the other lesse, are both vttered with a mind, that will rather excuse other, [Page 58] then my selfe; and rather accuse my selfe, then other: wheresoe­uer I find the least reason for them, or the least cause against my selfe: and if in any thing I am any thing, it is in nothing so much, as in a zealous desire, to see Learning flourish: Vertue prosper: the good proceede from better to better: the bad amend: the Bo­dy cherrish the members: the Members tender the body: all ge­nerally maintaine Concord with all: euery one particularly nur­rish accord with euery one. Howbeit at this instant I must craue licence, to stand vpon such tearmes, not as I would most willing­ly choose, but as the present occasion forcibly suggesteth. No man loather, to minister the least, or to take the greatest occasion of pu­blike contention, or priuate discontentment: choler is as soone in­flamed, as flaxe; and small sparkles of dissention, haue kindled horrible fires of faction: there be wrangling, & quarreling hoat­spurres inough, though I be none: Ignis fatuus neuer so spritish­ly busy: neuer so many threatning Comets: neuer such a terrible sky of Blasing, and falling stars: neuer such lusty stirring of liue­ly coales, and dead cinders: euery Martin Iunior, and Puny Pierce, a monarch in the kingdome of his owne humour: euery pert, and crancke wit, in one odd veine, or other, the onely man of the Vniuersity, of the Citty, of the Realme, for a flourish or two: who but he, in the flush of his ouerweening conceit? giue him his peremptory white rod in his hand, and God-night all distinction of persons, and all difference of estates: his Pen is his mace, his launce, his two-edged sword, his scepter, his Hercules club: and will beare a predominant sway, in despight of vaineglorious Ti­tles, and ambitious Degrces. Lordes must take heede, how they Lord-it in his presencc: but he forsooth may play the Lord Great-Maister, cum gratia: & a sawcy Sophister take vpon him, like a mighty Tyrant, cum Priuilegio. God helpe, when Ignorance, and want of Experience, vsurping the chayre of scrupulous, and rigorous Iudgement, will in a fantasticall Imagination, or per­case [Page 59] in a melancholy moode, presume farther, by infinite degrees, then the learnedest men in a ciuill Common-wealth, or the sagest counsellours in a Princes Court. Our new-new writers, the Load­stones of the Presse, are wonderfully beholdinge to the Asse; in a manner the onely Autor, which they alledge: the world was euer full inough of fools, but neuer so full of Asses in print: the very E­lephant, a great Asse: the Camell, a huge Asse: the Beare, a mon­strous Asse: the Horse, an absurd Asse: the Fox himselfe, a little Asse, or for variety, an Ape: who not an Asse, or an Ape in good plaine English, that chanceth to come in the wise Asse-makers, & mighty Ape-dubbers way? they are fine men, & haue many sweete phrases: it is my simplicity, that I am so slenderly acquainted with that dainty stile; the only new fashion of current Eloquēce in Esse: far surpassing the stale vein of Demosthenes, or Tully: Iewel, or Harding: Whitgift, or Cartwright: Sidney, or Spencer. But I could wish, Ignorance would fauour it selfe: & it were not amisse, that want of Experience should be content to be a little mo­dest, or somewhat quiet: & both enforce les occasion to be termed, as they will needes notoriously proclaime themselues: as it were, with a publike Oh-is, or a generall Nouerint vniuersi per prae­sentes. For if any thing indeede, be a right Asse in print, it is the one: and if any thing indeede, be a right Calse in print, it is the other: Ignorance, the famousest Asse; and want of Experience, the notablest Calfe in the world: Yet the one, the terrible controwler: the other the singuller Refourmer of the world: both, the busiest aduenturers, and dowteest doers in a world. They trouble many much: some exceedingly: themselues most: mee little: who can very well leaue them to the iollity of their owne swinge: or onely pray them to stay the nimble course of their forwarde wisdomes, till they haue soberly reade, and hearde a little, and a little more: (for I wis something resteth vnconsidered:) and till they haue effectually seene, and tried a great-deale, and a great-deale more: [Page 60] (for much remaineth vnaprooued:) I loue not to sollicite them greatly, that loue to importune all other excessiuely: that little I haue done, I haue done compelled, and would wish vndone, rather then any storme of Dcbate, or the least fit of Mallice should insue thereof: let them glory in Pen-scolding, and Paper-brabling, that list: I must not, I cannot, I will not: I hate to intend such arrant paltry, not for feare, but for contempt, not for lasinesse, but for weightier businesse: good honest youthes spare an olde Truante, meeter now to play the Dumme Dog, with some auncientes, then the bauling Cur, or the hissing Snake, with you springals: a thou­sand Examples pierce deepe, and ouer-sensibly teach me the mise­rable inconuenience of such mischiefe, and the miserable mischief of such inconuenience: better a pecke of troubles, then a load of a­gonies: no plague to irkesome vengeance: no ioy, or treasure to in dustrious imploiment: no felicity, to a commodious intercourse of sweete study, sweeter conuersation, and sweetest action: that wanteth, must be supplied, as sufficient as it may: extraordina­ry incombrances little neede: Time is pretious, and would not be prodigally wasted in wast▪ paper, or contemptuously thrust out by the shoulders: my first Letter, was in a manner voluntary: my second, in sort necessary: this, wholy superfluous, but violently extorted after the rest: all wearysome vnto me; but this most te­dious: and any thing more, would seeme intollerable: Especially in the Inuectiue veine: the little Fury of this Age, & great In­cendiary of the world: whose vnmeasurable outrage I would ra­ther mittigate with twenty Insinuatiue, & persuasiue Orations, then any-way aggrauate with one Offensiue, or defensiue Letter. Some Comicall Iars may be endured: but no act so ioyfull, as the Plaudite: & whatsoeuer the beginning happeneth to be, I would allwayes wish a pleasant, or amicable end: the scope whereat I as dilligently aime, as any, that most religiously affecteth vnity. Only my determination is, rather to be a Sheepe in Wolfes printe, then [Page 61] to suffer my selfe, or my deerest frendes, to be made Sheepe in the wolfes walke: and onely my request is, that euery discreete, and courteous minde, will as considerately weigh the cause, as censo­riously note the effect. I hope, there neither is, nor shalbe any de­fault committed, but may in conuenient time bee redressed with some reasonable amendes: vntill which time, I am not to dedi­cate any thing vnto any personage of name; but a mind, affectio­nately desirous to honour the worthiest: to reuerence the wisest: to commend the learnedest: to embrace the best: to appease the worst: to iniury none: to render euery one, the vttermost of his desart, or other quality. Which mind I entierly recommend vnto you all: and you all vnto God: whome I beseech, to accomplish that, which I cannot effect: and euen to worke a miracle vppon the dease.