hearings we may not of Princely courtesie passe by and not honor with our kisse the mouth from whence so many sweete ditties golden poems haue issued But me thinks at these words I heare some smilingly say I would be loath to lacke liuing of my own till the Prince gaue me a maner of new Elme for my riming And another to say I haue read that the Lady Cynthia came once downe out of her skye to kisse the faire yong lad Endimion as he lay a sleep many noble Queenes that haue bestowed kisses vpon their Princes paramours but neuer vpon any Poets The third me thinks shruggingly saith I kept not to sit sleeping with my Poesie till a Queene came and kissed me But what of all this Princes may giue a good Poet such conuenient countenaunce and also benefite as are due to an excellent artificer though they neither kisse nor cokes them and the discret Poet lookes for no such extraordinarie fauours and aswell doth he honour by his pen the iust liberall or magnanimous Prince as the valiaunt amiable or bewtifull though they be euery one of them the good giftes of God So it seemes not altogether the scorne and ordinarie disgrace offered vnto Poets at these dayes is cause why few Gentlemen do delight in the Art but for that liberalitie is come to fayle in Princes who for their largesse were wont to be accompted th' onely patrons of learning and first founders of all excellent artificers Besides it is not perceiued that Princes them selues do take any pleasure in this science by whose example the subiect is commonly led and allured to all delights and exercises be they good or bad according to the graue saying of the historian Rex multitudinem religione impleuit quae semper regenti similis est And peraduēture in this iron malitious age of ours Princes are lesse delighted in it being ouer earnestly bent and affected to the affaires of Empire ambition whereby they are as it were inforced to indeuour them selues to armes and practises of hostilitie or to entend to the right pollicing of their states and haue not one houre to bestow vpon any other ciuill or delectable Art of naturall or morall doctrine nor scarce any leisure to thincke one good thought in perfect and godly contemplation whereby their troubled mindes might be moderated and brought to tranquillitie So as it is hard to find in these dayes of noblemē or gentlemen any good Mathematiciā or excellent Musitian or notable Philosopher or els a cunning Poet because we find few great Princes much delighted in the same studies Now also of such among the Nobilitie or gentrie as be very well seene in many laudable sciences and especially in making or Poesie it is so come to passe that they haue no courage to write if they haue yet are they loath to be a knowen of their skill So as I know very many notable Gentlemen in the Court that haue written commendably and suppressed it agayne or els suffred it to be publisht without their owne names to it as if it were a discredit for a Gentleman to seeme learned and to shew himselfe amorous of any good Art In other ages it was not so for we read that Kinges Princes haue written great volumes and publisht them vnder their owne regall titles As to begin with Salomon the wisest of Kings Iulius Caesar the greatest of Emperours Hermes Tresmegistus the holiest of Priestes and Prophetes Euax king of Arabia wrote a booke of precious stones in verse Prince Auicenna of Phisicke and Philosophie Alphonsus a king of Spaine his Astronomicall Tables Almansor a king of Marrocco diuerse Philosophicall workes and by their regall example our late soueraigne Lord king Henry the eight wrate a booke in defence of his faith then perswaded that it was the true and Apostolicall doctrine though it hath appeared otherwise since yet his honour and learned zeale was nothing lesse to be allowed Queenes also haue bene knowen studious and to write large volumes as Lady Margaret of Fraunce Queene of Nauarre in our time But of all others the Emperour Nero was so well learned in Musique and Poesie as when he was taken by order of the Senate and appointed to dye he offered violence to him selfe and sayd O quantus artisex pereo as much to say as how is it possible a man of such science and learning as my selfe should come to this shamefull death Th'emperour Octauian being made executor to Virgill who had left by his last will and testament that his bookes of the Aeneidos should be committed to the fire as things not perfited by him made his excuse for infringing the deads will by a nomber of verses most excellently written whereof these are part Frangatur potiùs legum veneranda potestas Quà m tot congestos noctésque diésque labores Hauserit vna dies And put his name to them And before him his vncle father adoptiue Iulius Caesar was not ashamed to publish vnder his owne name his Commentaries of the French and Britaine warres Since therefore so many noble Emperours Kings and Princes haue bene studious of Poesie and other ciuill arts not ashamed to bewray their skils in the same let none other meaner person despise learning nor whether it be in prose or in Poesie if they them selues be able to write or haue written any thing well or of rare inuention be any whit squeimish to let it be publisht vnder their names for reason serues it and modestie doth not repugne CHAP. IX How Poesie should not be imployed vpon vayne conceits or vicious or infamous VVHerefore the Nobilitie and dignitie of the Art considered aswell by vniuersalitie as antiquitie and the naturall excellence of it selfe Poesie ought not to be abased and imployed vpon any vnworthy matter subiect nor vsed to vaine purposes which neuerthelesse is dayly seene and that is to vtter conceits infamous vicious or ridiculous and foolish or of no good example doctrine Albeit in merry matters not vnhonest being vsed for mans solace and recreation it may be well allowed for as I said before Poesie is a pleasant maner of vtteraunce varying from the ordinarie of purpose to refresh the mynde by the eares delight Poesie also is not onely laudable because I said it was a metricall speach vsed by the first men but because it is a metricall speach corrected and reformed by discreet iudgements and with no lesse cunning and curiositie then the Greeke and Latine Poesie and by Art bewtified adorned brought far from the primitiue rudenesse of the first inuentors otherwise it might be sayd to me that Adam and Eues apernes were the gayest garmentes because they were the first and the shepheardes tente or pauillion the best housing because it was the most auncient most vniuersall which I would not haue so taken for it is not my meaning but that Art cunning concurring with nature antiquitie vniuersalitie in things indifferent and
the principall man in this profession at the same time was Maister Edward Ferrys a man of no lesse mirth felicitie that way but of much more skil magnificence in his meeter and therefore wrate for the most part to the stage in Tragedie and sometimes in Comedie or Enterlude wherein he gaue the king so much good recreation as he had thereby many good rewardes In Queenes Maries time florished aboue any other Doctour Phaer one that was well learned excellently well translated into English verse Heroicall certaine bookes of Virgils Aeneidos Since him followed Maister Arthure Golding who with no lesse commendation turned into English meetre the Metamorphosis of Ouide and that other Doctour who made the supplement to those bookes of Virgils Aeneidos which Maister Phaer left vndone And in her Maiesties time that now is are sprong vp an other crew of Courtly makers Noble men and Gentlemen of her Maiesties owne seruauntes who haue written excellently well as it would appeare if their doings could be found out and made publicke with the rest of which number is first that noble Gentleman Edward Earle of Oxford Thomas Lord of Bukhurst when he was young Henry Lord Paget Sir Philip Sydney Sir Walter Rawleigh Master Edward Dyar Maister Fulke Greuell Gascon Britton Turberuille and a great many other learned Gentlemen whose names I do not omit for enuie but to auoyde tediousnesse and who haue deserued no little commendation But of them all particularly this is myne opinion that Chaucer with Gower Lidgat and Harding for their antiquitie ought to haue the first place and Chaucer as the most renowmed of them all for the much learning appeareth to be in him aboue any of the rest And though many of his bookes be but bare translations out of the Latin French yet are they wel handled as his bookes of Troilus and Cresseid and the Romant of the Rose whereof he translated but one halfe the deuice was Iohn de Mehunes a French Poet the Canterbury tales were Chaucers owne inuention as I suppose and where he sheweth more the naturall of his pleasant wit then in any other of his workes his similitudes comparisons and all other descriptions are such as can not be amended His meetre Heroicall of Troilus and Cresseid is very graue and stately keeping the the staffe of seuen and the verse of ten his other verses of the Canterbury tales be but riding ryme neuerthelesse very well becomming the matter of that pleasaunt pilgrimage in which euery mans part is playd with much decency Gower sauing for his good and graue moralities had nothing in him highly to be commended for his verse was homely and without good measure his wordes strained much deale out of the French writers his ryme wrested and in his inuentions small subtillitie the applications of his moralities are the best in him and yet those many times very grossely bestowed neither doth the substance of his workes sufficiently aunswere the subtilitie of his titles Lydgat a translatour onely and no deuiser of that which he wrate but one that wrate in good verse Harding a Poet Epick or Historicall handled himselfe well according to the time and maner of his subiect He that wrote the Satyr of Piers Ploughman seemed to haue bene a malcontent of that time and therefore bent himselfe wholy to taxe the disorders of that age and specially the pride of the Romane Clergy of whose fall he seemeth to be a very true Prophet his verse is but loose meetre and his termes hard and obscure so as in them is litle pleasure to be taken Skelton a sharpe Satirist but with more rayling and scoffery then became a Poet Lawreat such among the Greekes were called Pantomimi with vs Buffons altogether applying their wits to Scurrillities other ridiculous matters Henry Earle of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyat betweene whom I finde very litle differēce I repute them as before for the two chief lāternes of light to all others that haue since employed their pennes vpon English Poesie their conceits were loftie their stiles stately their conueyance cleanely their termes proper their meetre sweete and well proportioned in all imitating very naturally and studiously their Maister Francis Petrarcha The Lord Vaux his commendatiō lyeth chiefly in the facillitie of his meetre and the aptnesse of his descriptions such as he taketh vpon him to make namely in sundry of his Songs wherein he sheweth the counterfait actiō very liuely pleasantly Of the later sort I thinke thus That for Tragedie the Lord of Buckhurst Maister Edward Ferrys for such doings as I haue sene of theirs do deserue the hyest price Th' Earle of Oxford and Maister Edwardes of her Maiesties Chappell for Comedy and Enterlude For Eglogue and pastorall Poesie Sir Philip Sydney and Maister Challenner and that other Gentleman who wrate the late shepheardes Callender For dittie and amourous Ode I finde Sir Walter Rawleyghs vayne most loftie insolent and passionate Maister Edward Dyar for Elegie most sweete solempne and of high conceit Gascon for a good meeter and for a plentifull vayne Phaer and Golding for a learned and well corrected verse specially in translation cleare and very faithfully answering their authours intent Others haue also written with much facillitie but more commendably perchance if they had not written so much nor so popularly But last in recitall and first in degree is the Queene our soueraigne Lady whose learned delicate noble Muse easily surmounteth all the rest that haue writtē before her time or since for sence sweetnesse and subtillitie be it in Ode Elegie Epigram or any other kinde of poeme Heroick or Lyricke wherein it shall please her Maiestie to employ her penne euen by as much oddes as her owne excellent estate and degree exceedeth all the rest of her most humble vassalls THE SECOND BOOKE OF PROPORTION POETICAL CHAP. I. Of Proportion Poeticall IT is said by such as professe the Mathematicall sciences that all things stand by proportion and that without it nothing could stand to be good or beautiful The Doctors of our Theologie to the same effect but in other termes say that God made the world by number measure and weight some for weight say tune and peraduenture better For weight is a kind of measure or of much conueniencie with it and therefore in their descriptions be alwayes coupled together statica metrica weight and measures Hereupon it seemeth the Philosopher gathers a triple proportion to wit the Arithmeticall the Geometricall and the Musical And by one of these three is euery other proportion guided of the things that haue conueniencie by relation as the visible by light colour and shadow the audible by stirres times and accents the odorable by smelles of sundry temperaments the tastible by sauours to the rate the tangible by his obiectes in this or that regard Of all which we leaue to speake returning to our poeticall proportion which holdeth of the Musical because as we sayd before Poesie is a
I said before and then ought neither to be engrauen nor hanged vp in tables I haue seene them neuertheles vpon many honorable tombes of these late times erected which doe rather disgrace then honour either the matter or maker CHAP. XXIX A certaine auncient forme of poesie by which men did vse to reproch their enemies AS frendes be a rich and ioyfull possession so be foes a continuall torment and canker to the minde of man and yet there is no possible meane to auoide this inconuenience for the best of vs all he that thinketh he liues most blamelesse liues not without enemies that enuy him for his good parts or hate him for his euill There be wise men and of them the great learned man Plutarch that tooke vpon them to perswade the benefite that men receiue by their enemies which though it may be true in manner of Paradoxe yet I finde mans frailtie to be naturally such and alwayes hath beene that he cannot conceiue it in his owne case nor shew that patience and moderation in such greifs as becommeth the man perfite and accomplisht in all vertue but either in deede or by word he will seeke reuenge against them that malice him or practise his harmes specially such foes as oppose themselues to a mans loues This made the auncient Poetes to inuent a meane to rid the gall of all such Vindicatiue men so as they might be a wrecked of their wrong neuer bely their enemie with slaunderous vntruthes And this was done by a maner of imprecation or as we call it by cursing and banning of the parties and wishing all euill to a light vpon them and though it neuer the sooner happened yet was it great easment to the boiling stomacke They were called Dirae such as Virgill made aginst Battarus and Ouide against Ibis we Christians are forbidden to vse such vncharitable fashions and willed to referre all our reuenges to God alone CHAP. XXX Of short Epigrames called Posies THere be also other like Epigrammes that were sent vsually for new yeares giftes or to be Printed or put vpon their banketting dishes of suger plate or of march paines such other dainty meates as by the curtesie custome euery gest might carry from a common feast home with him to his owne house were made for the nonce they were called Nenia or apophoreta and neuer contained aboue one verse or two at the most but the shorter the better we call them Posies and do paint them now a dayes vpon the backe sides of our fruite trenchers of wood or vse them as deuises in rings and armes and about such courtly purposes So haue we remembred and set forth to your Maiestie very briefly all the commended fourmes of the auncient Poesie which we in our vulgare makings do imitate and vse vnder these common names enterlude song ballade carroll and ditty borrowing them also from the French al sauing this word song which is our naturall Saxon English word The rest such as time and vsurpation by custome haue allowed vs out of the primitiue Greeke Latine as Comedie Tragedie Ode Epitaphe Elegie Epigramme and other moe And we haue purposely omitted all nice or scholasticall curiosities not meete for your Maiesties contemplation in this our vulgare arte and what we haue written of the auncient formes of Poemes we haue taken from the best clerks writing in the same arte The part that next followeth to wit of proportion because the Greeks nor Latines neuer had it in vse nor made any obseruation no more then we doe of their feete we may truly affirme to haue bene the first deuisers thereof our selues as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to haue borrowed it of any other by learning or imitation and thereby trusting to be holden the more excusable if any thing in this our labours happen either to mislike or to come short of th'authors purpose because commonly the first attempt in any arte or engine artificiall is amendable in time by often experiences reformed And so no doubt may this deuise of ours be by others that shall take the penne in hand after vs. CHAP. XXXI Who in any age haue bene the most commended writers in our English Poesie and the Authors censure giuen vpon them IT appeareth by sundry records of bookes both printed written that many of our countreymen haue painfully trauelled in this part of whose works some appeare to be but bare translatiōs other some matters of their owne inuention and very commendable whereof some recitall shall be made in this place to th' intent chiefly that their names should not be defrauded of such honour as seemeth due to them for hauing by their thankefull studies so much beautified our English tong as at this day it will be found our nation is in nothing inferiour to the French or Italian for copie of language subtiltie of deuice good method and proportion in any forme of poeme but that they may compare with the most and perchance passe a great many of them And I will not reach aboue the time of king Edward the third and Richard the second for any that wrote in English meeter because before their times by reason of the late Normane conquest which had brought into this Realme much alteration both of our langage and lawes and there withall a certain martiall barbarousnes whereby the study of all good learning was so much decayd as long time after no man or very few entended to write in any laudable science so as beyond that time there is litle or nothing worth commendation to be founde written in this arte And those of the first age were Chaucer and Gower both of them as I suppose Knightes After whom followed Iohn Lydgate the monke of Bury that nameles who wrote the Satyre called Piers Plowman next him followed Harding the Chronicler then in king Henry th' eight times Skelton I wot not for what great worthines surnamed the Poet Laureat In the latter end of the same kings raigne sprōg vp a new company of courtly makers of whom Sir Thomas Wyat th' elder Henry Earle of Surrey were the two chieftaines who hauing trauailed into Italie and there tasted the sweete and stately measures and stile of the Italiā Poesie as nouices newly crept out of the schooles of Dante Arioste and Petrarch they greatly pollished our rude homely maner of vulgar Poesie from that it had bene before and for that cause may iustly be sayd the first reformers of our English meetre and stile In the same time or not long after was the Lord Nicholas Vaux a man of much facilitie in vulgar makings Afterward in king Edward the sixths time came to be in reputation for the same facultie Thomas Sternehold who first translated into English certaine Psalmes of Dauid and Iohn Hoywood the Epigrammatist who for the myrth and quicknesse of his conceits more then for any good learning was in him came to be well benefited by the king But
men and a thing which better becommeth hory haires then beardlesse boyes they seeme to ground it vpon this reason age say they and most truly brings experience experience bringeth wisedome long life yeldes long vse and much exercise of speach exercise and custome with wisedome make an assured and volluble vtterance so is it that old men more then any other sort speake most grauely wisely assuredly and plausibly which partes are all that can be required in perfite eloquence and so in all deliberations of importance where counsellours are allowed freely to opyne shew their cōceits good perswasion is no lesse requisite then speach it selfe for in great purposes to speake and not to be able or likely to perswade is a vayne thing now let vs returne backe to say more of this Poeticall ornament CHAP. III. How ornament Poeticall is of two sortes according to the double vertue and efficacie of figures THis ornament then is of two sortes one to satisfie delight th' eare onely by a goodly outward shew set vpon the matter with wordes and speaches smothly and tunably running another by certaine intendments or sence of such wordes speaches inwardly working a stirre to the mynde that first qualitie the Greeks called Enargia of this word argos because it geueth a glorious lustre and light This latter they called Energia of ergon because it wrought with a strong and vertuous operation and figure breedeth them both some seruing to giue glosse onely to a language some to geue it efficacie by sence and so by that meanes some of them serue th' eare onely some serue the conceit onely and not th' eare there be of them also that serue both turnes as commō seruitours appointed for th' one and th' other purpose which shal be hereafter spoken of in place but because we haue alleaged before that ornament is but the good or rather bewtifull habite of language and stile and figuratiue speaches the instrument wherewith we burnish our language fashioning it to this or that measure and proportion whence finally resulteth a long and continuall phrase or maner of writing or speach which we call by the name of stile we wil first speake of language then of stile lastly of figure and declare their vertue and differences and also their vse and best application what portion in exornation euery of them bringeth to the bewtifying of this Arte. CHAP. IIII. Of Language SPeach is not naturall to man sauing for his onely habilitie to speake and that he is by kinde apt to vtter all his conceits with sounds and voyces diuersified many maner of wayes by meanes of the many fit instruments he hath by nature to that purpose as a broad and voluble tong thinne and mouable lippes teeth euē and not shagged thick ranged a round vaulted pallate and a long throte besides an excellent capacitie of wit that maketh him more disciplinable and imitatiue then any other creature then as to the forme and action of his speach it commeth to him by arte teaching and by vse or exercise But after a speach is fully fashioned to the common vnderstanding accepted by consent of a whole countrey natiō it is called a language receaueth none allowed alteration but by extraordinary occasions by little little as it were insensibly bringing in of many corruptiōs that creepe along with the time of all which matters we haue more largely spoken in our bookes of the originals and pedigree of the English tong Then when I say language I meane the speach wherein the Poet or maker writeth be it Greek or Latine or as our case is the vulgar English when it is peculiar vnto a countrey it is called the mother speach of that people the Greekes terme it Idioma so is ours at this day the Norman English Before the Conquest of the Normans it was the Anglesaxon and before that the British which as some will is at this day the Walsh or as others affirme the Cornish I for my part thinke neither of both as they be now spoken and ponounced This part in our maker or Poet must be heedyly looked vnto that it be naturall pure and the most vsuall of all his countrey and for the same purpose rather that which is spoken in the kings Court or in the good townes and Cities within the land then in the marches and frontiers or in port townes where straungers haunt for traffike sake or yet in Vniuersities where Schollers vse much peeuish affectation of words out of the primatiue languages or finally in any vplandish village or corner of a Realme where is no resort but of poore rusticall or vnciuill people neither shall he follow the speach of a craftes man or carter or other of the inferiour sort though he be inhabitant or bred in the best towne and Citie in this Realme for such persons doe abuse good speaches by strange accents or ill shapen soundes and false ortographie But he shall follow generally the better brought vp sort such as the Greekes call charientes men ciuill and graciously behauoured and bred Our maker therfore at these dayes shall not follow Piers plowman nor Gower nor Lydgate nor yet Chaucer for their language is now out of vse with vs neither shall he take the termes of Northern-men such as they vse in dayly talke whether they be noble men or gentlemen or of their best clarkes all is a matter nor in effect any speach vsed beyond the riuer of Trent though no man can deny but that theirs is the purer English Saxon at this day yet it is not so Courtly nor so currant as our Southerne English is no more is the far Westerne mās speach ye shall therfore take the vsuall speach of the Court and that of London and the shires lying about London within lx myles and not much aboue I say not this but that in euery shyre of England there be gentlemen and others that speake but specially write as good Southerne as we of Middlesex or Surrey do but not the common people of euery shire to whom the gentlemen and also their learned clarkes do for the most part condescend but herein we are already ruled by th' English Dictionaries and other bookes written by learned men and therefore it needeth none other direction in that behalfe Albeit peraduenture some small admonition be not impertinent for we finde in our English writers many wordes and speaches amendable ye shall see in some many inkhorne termes so ill affected brought in by men of learning as preachers and schoolemasters and many straunge termes of other languages by Secretaries and Marchaunts and trauailours and many darke wordes and not vsuall nor well sounding though they be dayly spoken in Court Wherefore great heed must be taken by our maker in this point that his choise be good And peraduenture the writer hereof be in that behalfe no lesse faultie then any other vsing many straunge and vnaccustomed wordes and borrowed from other
likeliest long to last Againe in a ditty to a mistresse of ours where we likened the cure of Loue to Achilles launce The launce so bright that made Telephus vvound The same rusty salued the sore againe So may my meede Madame of you redownd Whose rigour vvas first authour of my paine The Tuskan poet vseth this Resemblance inuring as well by Dissimilitude as Similitude likening himselfe by Implication to the flie and neither to the eagle nor to the owle very well Englished by Sir Thomas Wiat after his fashion and by my selfe thus There be some fowles of sight so prowd and starke As can behold the sunne and neuer shrinke Some so feeble as they are faine to vvinke Or neuer come abroad till it be darke Others there be so simple as they thinke Because it shines to sport them in the fire And feele vnware the vvrong of their desire Fluttring amidst the flame that doth them burne Of this last ranke alas am I a right For in my ladies lookes to stand or turne I haue no povver ne find place to retire Where any darke may shade me from her sight But to her beames so bright whilst I aspire I perish by the bane of my delight Againe in these likening a wise man to the true louer As true loue is content with his enioy And asketh no witnesse nor no record And as faint loue is euermore most coy To boast and brag his troth at euery vvord Euen so the vvise vvithouten other meede Contents him vvith the guilt of his good deede And in this resembling the learning of an euill man to the seedes sowen in barren ground As the good seedes sowen in fruitfull soyle Bring foorth foyson when barren doeth them spoile So doeth it fare when much good learning hits Vpon shrewde willes and ill disposed wits And in these likening the wise man to an idiot A sage man said many of those that come To Athens schoole for vvisdome ere they went They first seem'd wise then louers of wisdome Then Orators then idiots which is meant That in wisdome all such as profite most Are least surlie and little apt to boast Againe for a louer whose credit vpon some report had bene shaken he prayeth better opinion by similitude After ill crop the soyle must eft be sowen And fro shipwracke we sayle to seas againe Then God forbid whose fault hath once bene knowen Should for euer a spotted wight remaine And in this working by resemblance in a kinde of dissimilitude betweene a father and a master It fares not by fathers as by masters it doeth fare For a foolish father may get a wise sonne But of a foolish master it haps very rare Is bread a wise seruant where euer he wonne And in these likening the wise man to the Giant the foole to the Dwarfe Set the Giant deepe in a dale the dwarfe vpon an hill Yet will the one be but a dwarfe th' other a giant still So will the wise be great and high euen in the lowest place The foole when he is most aloft will seeme but low and base Icon. or Resemblance by imagerie But when we liken an humane person to another in countenaunce stature speach or other qualitie it is not called bare resemblance but resemblaunce by imagerie or pourtrait alluding to the painters terme who yeldeth to th' eye a visible representatiō of the thing he describes and painteth in his table So we commending her Maiestie for wisedome bewtie and magnanimitie likened her to the Serpent the Lion and the Angell because by common vsurpation nothing is wiser then the Serpent more couragious then the Lion more bewtifull then the Angell These are our verses in the end of the seuenth Partheniade Nature that seldome vvorkes amisse In vvomans brest by passing art Hath lodged safe the Lyons hart And feately fixt vvith all good grace To Serpents head an Angels face And this maner of resemblaunce is not onely performed by likening of liuely creatures one to another but also of any other naturall thing bearing a proportion of similitude as to liken yealow to gold white to siluer red to the rose soft to silke hard to the stone and such like Sir Philip Sidney in the description of his mistresse excellently well handled this figure of resemblaunce by imagerie as ye may see in his booke of Archadia and ye may see the like of our doings in a Partheniade written of our soueraigne Lady wherein we resemble euery part of her body to some naturall thing of excellent perfection in his kind as of her forehead browes and haire thus Of siluer vvas her forehead hye Her browes two bowes of hebenie Her tresses trust vvere to behold Frizled and fine as fringe of gold And of her lips Two lips vvrought out of rubie rocke Like leaues to shut and to vnlock As portall dore in Princes chamber A golden tongue in mouth of amber And of her eyes Her eyes God wot vvhat stuffe they are I durst be sworne each is a starre As cleere and bright as woont to guide The Pylot in his vvinter tide And of her breasts Her bosome sleake as Paris plaster Helde vp two balles of alabaster Eche byas was a little cherrie Or els I thinke a strawberie And all the rest that followeth which may suffice to exemplifie your figure of Icon or resemblance by imagerie and portrait But whensoeuer by your similitude ye will seeme to teach any moralitie or good lesson by speeches misticall and darke Parabola or Resemblance misticall or farre fette vnder a sence metaphoricall applying one naturall thing to another or one case to another inferring by them a like consequence in other cases the Greekes call it Parabola which terme is also by custome accepted of vs neuerthelesse we may call him in English the resemblance misticall as when we liken a young childe to a greene twigge which ye may easilie bende euery way ye list or an old man who laboureth with continuall infirmities to a drie and dricksie oke Such parables were all the preachings of Christ in the Gospell as those of the wise and foolish virgins of the euil steward of the labourers in the vineyard and a number more And they may be fayned aswell as true as those fables of Aesope and other apologies inuented for doctrine sake by wise and graue men Finally if in matter of counsell or perswasion we will seeme to liken one case to another such as passe ordinarily in mans affaires Paradigma or a resemblance by example and doe compare the past with the present gathering probabilitie of like successe to come in the things wee haue presently in hand or if ye will draw the iudgements precedent and authorized by antiquitie as veritable and peraduenture fayned and imagined for some purpose into similitude or dissimilitude with our present actions and affaires it is called resemblance by example as if one should say thus Alexander the great in his expedition to Asia did thus so did Hanniball
more then the image or character of speech they shall goe together in these our obseruations And first wee wil sort you out diuers points in which the wise and learned men of times past haue noted much decency or vndecencie euery man according to his discretion as it hath bene said afore but wherein for the most part all discreete men doe generally agree and varie not in opinion whereof the examples I will geue you be worthie of remembrance though they brought with them no doctrine or institution at all yet for the solace they may geue the readers after such a rable of scholastical precepts which be tedious these reports being of the nature of matters historicall they are to be embraced but olde memories are very profitable to the mind and serue as a glasse to looke vpon and behold the euents of time and more exactly to skan the trueth of euery case that shall happen in the affaires of man and many there be that haply doe not obserue euery particularitie in matters of decencie or vndecencie and yet when the case is tolde them by another man they commonly geue the same sentence vpon it But yet whosoeuer obserueth much shal be counted the wisest and discreetest man and whosoeuer spends all his life in his owne vaine actions and conceits and obserues no mans else he shal in the ende prooue but a simple man In which respect it is alwaies said one man of experience is wiser than tenne learned men because of his long and studious obseruation and often triall And your decencies are of sundrie sorts according to the many circumstances accompanying our writing speech or behauiour so as in the very sound or voice of him that speaketh there is a decencie that becommeth and an vndecencie that misbecōmeth vs which th' Emperor Anthonine marked well in the Orator Philiseus who spake before him with so small and shrill a voice as the Emperor was greatly annoyed therewith and to make him shorten his tale said by thy beard thou shouldst be a man but by thy voice a woman Phauorinus the Philosopher was counted very wise and well learned but a little too talkatiue and full of words for the which Timocrates reprooued him in the hearing of one Polemon That is no wonder quoth Polemon for so be all women And besides Phauorinus being knowen for an Eunuke or gelded man came by the same nippe to be noted as an effeminate and degenerate person And there is a measure to be vsed in a mans speech or tale so as it be neither for shortnesse too darke nor for length too tedious Which made Cleomenes king of the Lacedemonians geue this vnpleasant answere to the Ambassadors of the Samiens who had tolde him a long message from their Citie and desired to know his pleasure in it My maisters saith he the first part of your tale was so long that I remember it not which made that the second I vnderstoode not and as for the third part I doe nothing well allow of Great princes and graue counsellers who haue little spare leisure to hearken would haue speeches vsed to them such as be short and sweete And if they be spoken by a man of account or one who for his yeares profession or dignitie should be thought wise reuerend his speeches words should also be graue pithie sententious which was well noted by king Antiochus who likened Hermogenes the famous Orator of Greece vnto these fowles in their moulting time when their feathers be sick and be so loase in the flesh that at any little rowse they can easilie shake them off so saith he can Hermogenes of all the men that euer I knew as easilie deliuer from him his vaine and impertinent speeches and words And there is a decencie that euery speech should be to the appetite and delight or dignitie of the hearer not for any respect arrogant or vndutifull as was that of Alexander sent Embassadour from the Athenians to th'Emperour Marcus this man seing th'emperour not so attentiue to his tale as he would haue had him said by way of interruption Caesar I pray thee giue me better eare it seemest thou knowest me not nor from whom I came the Emperour nothing well liking his bold malapert speech said thou art deceyued for I heare thee and know well inough that thou art that fine foolish curious sawcie Alexāder that tendest to nothing but to combe cury thy haire to pare thy nailes to pick thy teeth and to perfume thy selfe with sweet oyles that no man may abide the sent of thee Prowde speeches and too much finesse and curiositie is not commendable in an Embassadour And I haue knowen in my time such of them as studied more vpon what apparell they should weare and what countenaunces they should keepe at the times of their audience then they did vpon th' effect of their errant or commission And there is decēcy in that euery mā should talke of the things they haue best skill of and not in that their knowledge and learning serueth them not to do as we are wont to say he speaketh of Robin hood that neuer shot in his bow there came a great Oratour before Cleomenes king of Lacedemonia and vttered much matter to him touching fortitude and valiancie in the warres the king laughed why laughest thou quoth the learned mā since thou art a king thy selfe and one whom fortitude best becommeth why said Cleomenes would it not make any body laugh to heare the swallow who feeds onely vpon flies to boast of his great pray and see the eagle stand by and say nothing if thou wert a man of warre or euer hadst bene day of thy life I would not laugh to here thee speake of valiancie but neuer being so speaking before an old captaine I can not choose but laugh And some things and speaches are decent or indecent in respect of the time they be spoken or done in As when a great clerk presented king Antiochus with a booke treating all of iustice the king that time lying at the siege of a towne who lookt vpon the title of the booke and cast it to him againe saying what a diuell tellest thou to me of iustice now thou seest me vse force and do the best I can to bereeue mine enimie of his towne euery thing hath his season which is called Oportunitie and the vnfitnesse or vndecency of the time is called Importunitie Sometime the vndeceny ariseth by the indignitie of the word in respect of the speaker himselfe as whan a daughter of Fraunce and next heyre generall to the crowne if the law Salique had not barred her being set in a great chaufe by some harde words giuen her by another prince of the bloud said in her anger thou durst not haue said thus much to me if God had giuē me a paire of c. and told all out meaning if God had made her a man and not a woman she had bene king of
call them tugges and so wee vse to say that shrewd boyes tugge each other by the eares for pull Another of our vulgar makers spake as illfaringly in this verse written to the dispraise of a rich man and couetous Thou hast a misers minde thou hast a princes pelfe a lewde terme to be spoken of a princes treasure which in no respect nor for any cause is to be called pelfe though it were neuer so meane for pelfe is properly the scrappes or shreds of taylors and of skinners which are accompted of so vile price as they be commonly cast out of dores or otherwise bestowed vpon base purposes and carrieth not the like reason or decencie as when we say in reproch of a niggard or vserer or worldly couetous man that he setteth more by a little pelfe of the world than by his credit or health or conscience For in comparison of these treasours all the gold or siluer in the world may by a skornefull terme be called pelfe so ye see that the reason of the decencie holdeth not alike in both cases Now let vs passe from these examples to treate of those that concerne the comelinesse and decencie of mans behauiour And some speech may be whan it is spoken very vndecent and yet the same hauing afterward somewhat added to it may become prety and decent as was the stowte worde vsed by a captaine in Fraunce who sitting at the lower end of the Duke of Guyses table among many the day after there had bene a great battaile foughten the Duke finding that this captaine was not seene that day to do any thing in the field taxed him priuily thus in al the hearings Where were you Sir the day of the battaile for I saw ye not the captaine answered promptly where ye durst not haue bene and the Duke began to kindle with the worde which the Gentleman perceiuing said spedily I was that day among the carriages where your excellencie would not for a thousand crownes haue bene seene Thus from vndecent it came by a wittie reformation to be made decent againe The like hapned on a time at the Duke of Northumberlandes bourd where merry Iohn Heywood was allowed to sit at the tables end The Duke had a very noble and honorable mynde alwayes to pay his debts well and when he lacked money would not stick to sell the greatest part of his plate so had he done few dayes before Heywood being loth to call for his drinke so oft as he was dry turned his eye toward the cupbord and sayd I finde great misse of your graces standing cups the Duke thinking he had spoken it of some knowledge that his plate was lately sold said somewhat sharpely why Sir will not those cuppes serue as good a man as your selfe Heywood readily replied Yes if it please your grace but I would haue one of them stand still at myne elbow full of drinke that I might not be driuen to trouble your men so often to call for it This pleasant and speedy reuers of the former wordes holpe all the matter againe whereupon the Duke became very pleasaunt and dranke a bolle of wine to Heywood and bid a cup should alwayes be standing by him It were to busie a peece of worke for me to tell you of all the partes of decencie and indecency which haue bene obserued in the speaches of man in his writings and this that I tell you is rather to solace your eares with pretie conceits after a sort of long scholasticall preceptes which may happen haue doubled them rather then for any other purpose of institutiō or doctrine which to any Courtier of experience is not necessarie in this behalfe And as they appeare by the former examples to rest in our speach and writing so do the same by like proportion consist in the whole behauiour of man and that which he doth well and commendably is euer decent and the contrary vndecent not in euery mans iudgement alwayes one but after their seuerall discretion and by circumstance diuersly as by the next Chapter shal be shewed CHAP. XXIIII Of decencie in behauiour which also belongs to the consideration of the Poet or maker ANd there is a decēcy to be obserued in euery mans actiō behauiour aswell as in his speach writing which some peraduēture would thinke impertinent to be treated of in this booke where we do but informe the cōmendable fashions of language stile but that is otherwise for the good maker or poet who is in decēt speach good termes to describe all things and with prayse or dispraise to report euery mās behauiour ought to know the comelinesse of an actiō aswell as of a word thereby to direct himselfe both in praise perswasiō or any other point that perteines to the Oratours arte Wherefore some exāples we will set downe of this maner of decēcy in behauiour leauing you for the rest to our booke which we haue written de Decoro where ye shall see both partes handled more exactly And this decencie of mans behauiour aswell as of his speach must also be deemed by discretion in which regard the thing that may well become one man to do may not become another and that which is seemely to be done in this place is not so seemely in that and at such a time decent but at another time vndecent and in such a case and for such a purpose and to this and that end and by this and that euent perusing all the circumstances with like cōsideration Therefore we say that it might become king Alexander to giue a hundreth talentes to Anaxagoras the Philosopher but not for a beggerly Philosopher to accept so great a gift for such a Prince could not be impouerished by that expence but the Philosopher was by it excessiuely to be enriched so was the kings action proportionable to his estate and therefore decent the Philosophers disproportionable both to his profession and calling and therefore indecent And yet if we shall examine the same point with a clearer discretion it may be said that whatsoeuer it might become king Alexander of his regal largesse to bestow vpon a poore Philosopher vnasked that might aswell become the Philosopher to receiue at his hands without refusal and had otherwise bene some empeachement of the kings abilitie or wisedome which had not bene decent in the Philosoper nor the immoderatnesse of the kinges gift in respect of the Philosophers meane estate made his acceptance the lesse decent since Princes liberalities are not measured by merite nor by other mens estimations but by their owne appetits and according to their greatnesse So said king Alexander very like himselfe to one Perillus to whom he had geuen a very great gift which he made curtesy to accept saying it was too much for such a mean person what quoth the king if it be too much for thy selfe hast thou neuer a friend or kinsman that may fare the better by it But peraduenture