read Luther against the Pope Sadolet Longolius Omphalius Osorius against Luther Caluin against Sadolet Melanchthon against Longolius Sturmius against Omphalius Haddon against Osorius Baldwin againste Caluin Beza againste Baldwin Erastus against Beza Trauers against Erastus Sutcliff against Trauers and so foorth for there is no ende of endlesse controuersies nor Bellarmine shall euer satisfye the Protestantes nor Whittaker contente the Papistes nor Bancroft appease the Precisians nor any reason pacify affection nor any authority resolue obstinacy you that haue most diligently read these and these and sundry other reputed excellente in their kindes cast them all away and read him alone that can schoole them all in their tearmes inuectiue and teacheth a new-found Arte of confuting his all-onely Arte. Martin himselfe but a meacocke and Papp-hatchet himselfe but a milkesop to him that inditeth with a penne of fury and the incke of vengeance and hath cart-loades of papershot and chainshot at commaundement Tush no man can blason his Armes but himselfe Behold the mighty Champion the dubble sword-bearer the redowtable fighter with both handes that hath robbed William Conquerour of his surname and in the very first page of his Straunge Newes choppeth-off the head of foure Letters at a blow Hee it is that hath it rightly in him indeede and can roundly doe the feate with a witnesse Why man he is worth a thousand of these pidlinge and driblinge Confuters that sitt all day buzzing vpon a blunt point or two and with much adoe drisle-out as many sentences in a weeke as he will powredowne in an howre It is not long since the goodlyest graces of the most-noble Commonwealthes vpon Earth Eloquence in speech and Ciuility in manners arriued in these remote parts of the world it was a happy reuolution of the heauens and worthy to be chronicled in an English Liuy when Tiberis flowed into the Thames Athens remoued to London pure Italy and fine Greece planted themselues in rich England Apollo with his delicate troupe of Muses forsooke his old mountaines and riuers and frequented a new Parnassus and an other Helicon nothinge inferiour to the olde when they were most-solemnely haunted of diuine wittes that taught Rhetorique to speake with applause and Poetry to sing with admiration But euen since that flourishing transplantation of the daintiest and sweetest lerning that humanitie euer tasted Arte did but springe in such as Sir Iohn Cheeke and M. Ascham witt budd in such as Sir Phillip Sidney M. Spencer which were but the violetes of March or the Primeroses of May till the one begane to sprowte in M. Robart Greene as in a sweating Impe of the euer-greene Laurell the other to blossome in M. Pierce Pennilesse as in the riche garden of pore Adonis both to growe to perfection in M. Thomas Nashe whose prime is a haruest whose Arte a misterie whose witt a miracle whose stile the onely life of the presse and the very hart-blood of the Grape There was a kind of smooth and clenly and neate and fine elegancy before proper men handsome giftes but alacke nothinge liuelie and mightie like the braue vino de monte till his frisking penne began to playe the Sprite of the buttry and to teach his mother-tongue such lusty gambolds as may make the gallantest French Italian or Spanish gagliards to blushe for extreame shame of their ideot simplicitie The difference of wittes is exceeding straung and almost incredible Good lord how may one man passe a thousand and a thousande not compare with one Arte may giue out precepts and directoryes in communi forma but it is superexcellent witt that is the mother pearle of precious Inuention and the goulden mine of gorgeous Elocution Na it is a certaine pregnant and liuely thing without name but a queint mistery of mounting conceit as it were a knacke of dexterity or the nippitaty of the nappiest grape that infinitly surpasseth all the Inuention and Elocution in the world and will bunge Demosthenes owne mouth with new-fangled figures of the right stampe maugre all the thundering and lightninge Periodes of his eloquentest orations forlorne creatures I haue had some prettie triall of the finest Tuscanisme in graine and haue curiously obserued the cunningest experiments and brauest complements of aspiring emulation but must geeue the bell of singularity to the humorous witt and the garland of victory to the dominiering Eloquence I come not yet to the Praise of the olde Asse it is young Apuleius that feedeth vpon this glory and hauing enclosed these rancke commons to the proper vse of himselfe the capricious flocke adopteth whom he listeth without exception as Alexander the great had a huge intention to haue all men his subiectes and all his subiectes called Alexanders It was strange newes for some to be so assesied and a worke of Supererogation for him so bountifully to voutchsafe his golden name the appropriate cognisance of his noble stile God-night poore Rhetorique of sorry bookes adieu good old Humanity gentle Artes and Liberall Sciences content your selues Farewell my deere moothers sometime floorishing Vniuersities some that haue long continued your sonnes in Nature your apprentises in Arte your seruauntes in Exercise your louers in affection and your vassalles in duety must either take their leaues of their sweetest freendes or become the slaues of that dominiering eloquence that knoweth no Art but the cutting Arte nor acknowledgeth any schoole but the Curtisan schoole The rest is pure naturall or wondrous supernaturall Would it were not an infectious bane or an incroching pocke Let me not bee mistaken by sinister construction that wreasteth and wrigleth euery sillable to the worst I haue no reference to my selfe but to my superiours by incomparable degrees To be a Ciceronian is a flowting stocke poore Homer a wofull wight may put his finger in a hole or in his blind eye the excellentest histories and woorthiest Chronicles inestimable monumentes of wisdome and valour what but stale Antickes the flowers and fruites of delicate humanity that were wont to be dainetily and tenderly conserued now preserued with dust as it were with sugar and with hoare as it were with hoony That frisking wine that liuely knacke in the right capricious veine the onely booke that holdeth-out with a countenance and will be heard when woorme-toungued Oratours dust-footed Poets and weatherwise historians shall not bee allowed a woord to cast at a dogg There is a fatall Period of whatsoeuer wee terme flourishinge the worlde runneth on wheeles and there must be a vent for all thinges The Ciceronian may sleepe til the Scogginist hath plaid his part One sure Conny-catcher woorth twenty Philosophers A phantasticall rimester more vendible then the notablest Mathematician no profession to the faculty of rayling all harsh or obscure that tickleth not idle phantasies with wanton dalliance or ruffianly iestes Robin Good-fellow the meetest Autor for Robin Hoodes Library the lesse of Cambridge or Oxforde the fitter to compile woorkes of Supererogation and wee that were simply trayned
praysed the olde Asse giue the young Asse leaue to praise himselfe and to practise his minion Rhetorique vppon other There is no dealinge where there is no healinge To striue with dirt is filthy to play with edged tooles daungerous to trie masteries with a desperate aduersary hazardous to encounter Demosthenes Viper or Apolloes Basiliske deadly To intende your owne intentions with an inuiolable constancy and to leuell continually at your owne determined scope without respecte of extrauagant endes or cumbersome interruptions the best course of proceeding and onely firme cheerefull gallant and happy resolution Euery by-way that strayeth or gaddeth from that direct Path a wandring errour and a perillous or threatninge by-way a forrest of wilde beastes Hande touch not the ranckeling byle and throw-away the launcing instrument I could conceiue no lesse then thus and thus when I beganne first to surview that brauing Emprese and euer me thought Aut nunc aut nunquam seemed to prognosticate greate tempestes at hande and euen such valorous workes of Supererogation as woulde make an employed man of Florence or Venice to breake day with any other important businesse of state or traffique I went on on still and still loking for those presaged woondermentes thought it Platoes great yeare till I hadd runne-thorough the armed pikes and felte the whole dinte of the two vengeable vnlawfull weapons But I beleeue neuer poore man found his Imagination so hugely mocked as this cōfuting Iugler coosened my expectation without measure as if his whole drift had bene nothinge else but a pleasurable Comedy or a mad Stratagem like those of Bacchus and Pan queintlye deuised to defeate the opinion of his ◅edulous reader and to surprise simple minds with a most vnlikely euent A fine peece of conu◅lance in some pageantes and a braue deseigne in fi◅t place Arte knoweth the pageants and pollicy the place In ernest I expected nether an Oratour of the stewes nor a Poet of Bedlam nor a knight of the alehowse nor a qu◅an of the Cuckingstole nor a broker of baggage stuffe nor a pedler of straunge newes nor anye base trumperye or meane matters when Pierce should racke his witt and Penniles stretch-out his courage to the vttermost extent of his possibility But with out more circumlocution pryde hath a fall and as of A Catt so of Pierce himselfe howsoeuer inspired or enraged you can haue but his skinne puffed vp with winde and bumbasted with vanitye Euen when he stryueth for life to shewe himselfe brauest in the flaunt-aflaunt of his courage and when a man would verily beleeue he should nowe behold the stately personage of heroicall Eloquence face to face or see such an vnseene Frame of the miracles of Arte as might amaze the heauenly eye of Astronomy holla sir the sweete Spheres are not too-prodigall of their soueraine influences Pardon mee S. Fame What the first pang of his diuine Furie but notable Vanitie what the seconde fitte but woorthy vanitye what the thirde career but egregious vanity what the glory of his ruffian Rhetorique and curtisan Philosophy but excellent villany That that is Pierces Supererogation and were Penniles a person of any reckoning as he is a man of notorious fame that that perhaps in regarde of the outragious singularity might be supposed a Tragicall or Heroicall villany if euer any villany were so intituled The present consideration of which singularity occasioneth me to bethinke me of One that this other day very soberlie commended some extraordinary giftes in Nashe and when he had grauesie maintayned that in the resolution of his conscience he was such a fellowe as some wayes had few fellowes at last concluded somewhat more roundly Well my maisters you may talke your pleasures of Tom Nash who yet sleepeth secure not without preiudice to some that might be more ielous of their name but assure your selues if M. Pen◅iles had not bene deepely plunged in a profound exstasic of kna◅ery M. Pierce had neuer written that famous worke of Super◅rogation that now stayneth all the bookes in Paules-churchyard and setteth both the vniuersites to schoole Till I see your finest humanitie bestow such a liber all exhibition of conceit and courage vpon your neatest wittes pardon me though I prefer one smart Pamster of knauery before ten blundring volumes of the nine Muses Dreaming and smoke amount alike Life is a gaming aiugling a scoulding a lawing a skirmishing a warre a Comedie a Tragedy the sturring witt a quintessence of quicksiluer and there is noe deade fleshe in affection or courage You may discourse of Hermes ascending spirit of Orpheus enchāting harpe of Homers diuine furie of Tyrtaeus enraging trumpet of Pericles bounsinge thunderclaps of Platos enthusiasticall rauishment and I wott not what maruelous egges in mooneshine but a flye for all your flying Speculations when one good fellow with his oddiestes or one madd knaue with his awke hibber-gibber is able to putt downe twentye of your smuggest artificiall men that simper it so nicely and coylie in their curious pointes Try whē you meane to be disgraced neuer giue me credit if Sanguine witt putt not Melancholy Arte to bedd I had almost said all the figures of Rhetorique must abate me an ace of Pierces Supererogation and Penniles hath a certayne nimble and climbinge reach of Inuention as good as a long pole and a hooke that neuer fayleth at a pinch It were vnnaturall as the sweete Emperour Marcus Antoninus said that the fig-tree should euer want iuice You that purpose with great sum◅es of ◅uddy candles to purchase the worshipfull names of Dunses Dodipoles may closely sitt or sokingly ly at your bookes but you that intende to be fine companionable gentlemen smirkinge wittes and whipsters in the world betake yee timely to the liuely practis of the minion profession and enure your Mercuriall fingers to frame semblable workes of Supererogation Certes other rules are fopperies and they that will seeke out the Archmistery of the busiest Modernistes shall find it nether more nor lesse then a certayne pragmaticall secret called Villany the verie science of sciences and the Familiar Spirit of Pierces Supererogation Coosen not your selues with the gay-nothings of children schollers no priuiti◅ of learning or inspiration of witt or reuelation of misteryes or Arte Notory counteruayleable with Pierces Supererogation which hauing none of them hath them all and can make them all Asses at his pleasure The Book-woorme was neuer but a pickgoose it is the Multiplying spirit not of the Alchimist but of the villanist that knocketh the naile one the head and spurreth cutt farther in a day then the quickest Artist in a weeke Whiles other are reading wryting conferring arguing discoursing experimēting platforminge musing buzzing or I know not what that is the spirrit that with a woondrous dexterity shapeth exquisite workes and atchicueth puissant exploites of Supererogation O my good frends as ye loue the sweete world or tender your deare selues be not vnmindfull what is good for the
Grinuile most vigorously impetuously attempted the extreamest possibilities of valour and fury for breuity I ouerskipp many excellent Traicts the same or the like nature but reade these and M. William Borrowghes notable discourse of the variation of the compas or magneticall needle annexed to the new Attractiue of Robert Norman Hydrographer vnto which two Ingland in some respectes is as much beholding as Spayne vnto Martin Cortes Peter de Medina for the Arte of Nauigation and when you haue obserued the course of Industry examined the antecedents and consequents of Trauail compared Inglish and Spanish valour measured the Forces of both parties weighed euery circumstance of Aduantage considered the Meanes of our assurance and finally found proffit to be our pleasure prouision our security labour our honour warfare our welfare who of reckoning can spare anye lewde or vaine tyme for corrupt pamphlets or who of iudgment will not cry away with these paultringe fidlefaddles When Alexander in his conquerous expeditions visited the ruines of Troy and reuolued in his minde the valiant actes of the Heroicall Woorthies there atchieued One offered to bring his Maiesty the Harpe of Paris Let it alone quoth hee it is the Harpe of Achilles that must serue my turne Paris vppon his harpe sang voluptuous lasciuious Carols Achilles harpe was an instrument of glory and a quier of diuine Hymnes consecrated to the honour of valorous Captaines and mighty Conquerours He regarded not the dainety Lydian Iônian or Aeolian Melody but the braue Dorian and impetuous Phrygian Musique and waged Zenophantus to inflame and enrage his courage with the furious notes of Battail One Alexander was a thousand Examples of Prowesse but Pyrrhus the redoubted king of the Epirots was an other Alexander in tempestuous execution and in a most-noble resolution contemned the Vanities of vnnoble Pastimes in so much that when one of his Barons asked his Maiestie whether of the twoo Musitians Charisius or Python pleased his Highnesse better Whether of the two quoth Pyrrhus marry Polysperces shall go for my money He was a braue Captaine for the eie a fitt Musitian for the eare of Pyrrhus Happy Polysperces that serued such a master and happy Pyrrhus that commaunded such a seruaunt Were some demaunded whether Greenes or Nashes Pamflets were better penned I beleeue they would aunsweare Sir Roger Williams Discourse of War for Militare Doctrine in Esse and M. Thomas Digges Stratioticos for Militare Discipline in Esse And whiles I remember the Princely care of Gelo a famous Tyrant of Sicill many tyrants of Sicill were very politique that commaunded his great horse to be brought into the banquetting house where other Lordes called for the Harpe other Knightes for the Waites I cannot forget the gallant discourse of Horsemanship penned by a rare gentleman M. Iohn Asteley of the Court whome I dare intitle our Inglish Xenophon and maruell not that Pietro Bizzaro a learned Italian proposeth him for a perfect Patterne of Castilios Courtier And thinking vpon worthy M. Asteley I cannot ouerpasse the like labour of good M. Thomas Blundeuil without due commendation whose painefull and skillfull bookes of Horsemanship deserue also to be registred in the Catalogue of Xenophontian woorkes What should I speake of the two braue Knightes Musidorus and Pyrocles combined in one excellent knight Sir Philip Sidney at the remembrance of whose woorthy and sweete Vertues my hart melteth Will you needes haue a written Pallace of Pleasure or rather a printed Court of Honour Read the Countesse of Pembrookes Arcadia a gallant Legendary full of pleasurable accidents and proffitable discourses for three thinges especially very notable for amorous Courting he was young in yeeres for sage counselling he was ripe in iudgement and for valorous fighting his soueraine profession was Armes and delightfull pastime by way of Pastorall exercises may passe for the fourth He that will Looue let him learne to looue of him that will teach him to Liue furnish him with many pithy and effectuall instructions delectably interlaced by way of proper descriptions of excellent Personages and common narrations of other notable occurrences in the veine of Salust Liuy Cornelius Tacitus Iustine Eutropius Philip de Comines Guicciardine and the most sententious Historians that haue powdred their stile with the salt of discretion and seasoned their iudgement with the leauen of experience There want not some suttle Stratagems of importance and some politique Secretes of priuitie and he that would skillfully and brauely manage his weapon with a cunning Fury may finde liuely Precepts in the gallant Examples of his valiantest Duellists especially of Palladius and Daiphantus Zelmane and Amphialus Phalantus and Amphialus but chiefly of Argalus and Amphialus Pyrocles and Anaxius Musidorus and Amphialus whose lusty combats may seeme Heroicall Monomachies And that the valor of such redoubted men may appeere the more conspicuous and admirable by comparison and interview of their contraries smile at the ridiculous encounters of Dametas Dorus of Dametas and Clinias and euer when you thinke vpon Dametas remember the Confuting Champion more surquidrous then Anaxius and more absurd then Dametas and if I should alwayes hereafter call him Dametas I should fitt him with a name as naturally proper vnto him as his owne Gallant Gentlemen you that honor Vertue and would enkindle a noble courage in your mindes to euery excellent purpose if Homer be not at hand whome I haue often tearmed the Prince of Poets and the Poet of Princes you may read his furious Iliads cunning Odysses in the braue aduentures of Pyrocles and Musidorus where Pyrocles playeth the dowty fighter like Hector or Achilles Musidorus the valiant Captaine like Pandarus or Diomedes both the famous errant Knightes like AEneas or Vlysses Lord what would himselfe haue prooued in fine that was the gentleman of Curtesy the Esquier of Industry and the Knight of Valour at those yeeres Liue euer sweete Booke the siluer Image of his gentle witt and the golden Pillar of his noble courage and euer notify vnto the worlde that thy Writer was the Secretary of Eloquence the breath of the Muses the hoony-bee of the dayntiest flowers of Witt and Arte the Pith of morall intellectuall Vertues the arme of Bellona in the field the toung of Suada in the chāber the spirite of Practise in esse and the Paragon of Excellency in Print And now whiles I consider what a Trompet of Honour Homer hath bene to sturre-vp many woorthy Princes I cannot forget the woorthy Prince that is a Homer to himselfe a Golden spurre to Nobility a Scepter to Vertue a Verdure to the Spring a Sunne to the day and hath not onely translated the two diuine Poems of Salustius du Bartas his heauenly Vrany and his hellish Furies but hath readd a most valorous Martial Lecture vnto himselfe in his owne victorious Lepanto a short but heroicall worke in meeter but royal meeter fitt for a Dauids harpe Lepanto first the glory of Christendome against the
London not a wenche sooner creepes out of the shell but she is of the ReligioÌ„ The Court I dare not touch but suerlie there be many falling Starres and but one true Diana Not a wenche a very Vniuersall Proposition in so large and honourable a Citty and but One a very short Exception to a generall rule of the Court. Floorishing London the Staple of Wealth Madame-towne of the Realme is there no place so lewde as thy selfe and Noble Court the Pallace of Honour and Seate of Maiesty hast thou but One true Diana Is it not nigh-hand time the young haddock were caught that can already nibble so prettily Was he thinke you lodged in Cappadocia for sleeping by the Sunne and studying by the Moone Whom or what will not he shortly confute with an ouerrunning furie that so brauely aduentureth vpon London and the Court all-attonce Honour regard thy good reputation and staunch the ranke bloud of this arrant Autor as honest a man as some honest wooman I could name that keepeth her honesty as she doth her Friday fast Suffer him to proceede as he presumeth to end as he beginneth and looke for a rarer beast in England then a Woolfe and a straunger monster in Print then the diuine Ruffian that intituled himselfe Flagellum Principum and prooued Pestis Rerumpublicarum My Toungue is an infant in his Idiotisme and I had rather blesse my pestilentest enemy then curse any but some little plaine dealing dooith not otherwhiles amisse where nothing but flat and ranke grosenesse blotteth the paper infecteth the aier depraueth the good encourageth the badd corrupteth youth accloieth age and annoyeth the world Good faith is my witnesse I neither affect to obscure any light in an aduersary nor desier to quench any honest courage in an enemy but wish euery gift of heaueÌ„ or earth of minde or body of nature or fortune redoubled in both euen in the greenest aduersary and wildest enemy in whom I honour the highest and looue the lowest degree of excellency but am not easely coosened by Imperfection branded with the counterfait marke of perfection I am ouer-ready to pardon young ouersights and forgiue inconsiderate offences but cannot flatter Folly or fawne vpon Vanity or cocker Ignoraunce or sooth-vp Vntruth or applaude to Arrogancy either in foe or freÌ„d It coÌ„cerneth euery man to looke into his owne estate with his owne eyes but the young man that will neither know himselfe nor acknowledge other must be told in brief what the coÌ„mon opinion reporteth at large He hath little witt lesse learning lest iudgement no discretion Vanity enough stomacke at will superabundance of selfe-conceit outward liking to fewe inward affection to none his defence of Greene a more bâ—…ting condemnation then my reproofe no reuerence to his patrons no respect to his superiours no regard to any but in contemptuous or ceÌ„sorius sort hatred or disdaine to the rest coÌ„tinuall quarrels with one or other not such an other mutterer or murmurer eueÌ„ against his familiarest acquaintance an euer-grudging repining mind a rauenous throte a gluttonous mawe a droÌ„ken head a blasphemous tongue a fisking witt a shittle nature a reuolting and rennegate disposition a broking and huckstering penne store of rascall phrases some little of a brabling Schollar more of a rauing scould most of a roisterly sâ—…uing nothing of a Gentleman lesse then nothing of a fine or cleanly Artist And as for termes of honesty or ciuility without which the sharpest Inuention is Vnsauery and the daintiest elocution lothsome they are Gibridge vnto him and he a Iewish Rabbin or a Latin Dunse with him that vseth any such forme of monstrous termes Aretine and the Diuels Oratour would be ashamed to be conuicted or endighted of the least respectiue or ceremonious phrase but in mockage or coofenage They neither feare Goodman Sathan nor master Beelzebub nor Sir Reuerence nor milord Gouernement himselfe ô wretched Atheisme Hell but a scarecrow and Heauen but a woonderclout in their doctrine all vulgar stale and simple that is not a note abooue Goddes-forbid Whom durst not he appeach reuile or blaspheme that forged the abominablest booke in the world De tribus impostoribus mundi and whom will he forbeare in any reason or conscience that hath often protested in his familiar hauntes to confute the worthy Lord du Bartas and all the famousest moderne-writers sauing him onely who onely meriteth to be confuted with vnquenchable Volumes of Heauen-and Hell-fier Perionius deciphreth the fowle preceptes and reprobate examples of his Morall Philosophy in an inuectiue Declamation generally addressed vnto all the Princes of Christendome but especially directed vnto the most-Christian French king Henry the Second Agrippa detesteth his monstrous veneries and execrable Sodomies Cardan blasoneth him the most-impudent Ribald that euer tooke penne in hand Manutius inuesteth him the Ring leader of the corruptest bawdes and miscreantest rakehells in Italy His familiar acquaintance Sansouino doth him neuer awhitt more creddit then needeth Tasso disdaineth his insolent and insupportable affectation of singularitie Iouius in his Elogies voutsaueth him not the naming Doubtlesse he was indued with an exceedingodd witt and I neuer read a more surpassing-hyperbolicall stile Castilios Courtier after a pleasurable sort graceth him with a deepe insight in the highest Types and Idees of humane perfections whereunto he most curiously and insatiably aspired His wanton disciples or Vain-conceited fauorites such crowes such egges in their fantasticall Letters and Bacchanall Sonnets extoll him monstrously that is absurdly as the onely Monarch of witt that is the Prodigall sonne of conceit and the mortall God of all Vertue that is the immortall Diuell of all Vice Oh what grandiloquous Epithits and supereminent Titles of incredible and prodigious excellency haue they bestowed vpon the Arch-miracle of the world Signior Vnico not so little as the huge Gargantua of prose and more then the heauen-surmounting Babell of Ryme But what approoued man of learning wisedome or iudgement euer deigned him any honour of importance or commeÌ„dation of note but the young darling of S. Fame Thomas Nash alià s Pierce Penniles the second Leuiathan of Prose and an other Behemoth of ryme He it is that is borne to glorifie Aretine to disgrace Bartas and to vndooe me Say I write I or dooe I what I can he will haunt and trounce me perpetually with spritish workes of Supererogation incessant tormentours of the Ciuilian and Deuine Yet some-boddy was not woont to endight vpon aspen leaues of paper and take heede Sirrha of the Fatall Quill that scorneth the sting of the busie Bee or the scratch or the kittish shrew A Bee a drone a dorre a dor-bettle a dormouse A shrewe a drab a hag a flibber-gibbet a make-bate the pickthanke of Vanity the pickpocket of foolery the pickpurse of all the palteries and knaueries in Print She doth him no wrong that doth him right like Astraea and hath stiled him with an immortal penne the Bawewawe of Schollars the Tutt of Gentlemen the Tee-heegh
thrise-excellent Impostours These these were the Onely mē that I euer dreaded especially thatsame od mā Triū Litterarū that for a linsy-woolsie wit a cheuerell consciēce was A Per se A other braggardes or threatners whatsoeuer I feare as I feare Hobgoblin the Bugges of the night Whē I haue sought-vp my day-charmes and night-spelles I hope their power to hurt shal be as ridiculously small as their desire to affright is outragiously great I neuer stood stifly in defēce of mine own hability or sufficiency they that empeach me of imperfection in learning or practise in discoursing or endighting in any art or profession cōfute me not but confirme mine own cōfessiō It is onely my honesty credit that I endeuour to maintaine other defectes I had rather supply by industry thē cloake by excuse referre the decisiō of such points to the arbitremēt of Indifferēcy to which also I preferre the Prayses of my dispraisers beseech Equity to rēder them their due with a largesse of fauour Iudgement is the wisest reader of Bookes and no Art of distinctions so infallible as grounded Discretion which will soone discerne betweene White and Blacke and easely perceiue what wanteth what superaboundeth what becommeth what misbecommeth what in this or that respect deserueth commendation what may reasonably or probably be excused what would be marked with an Asteriske what noted with a blacke coale As in mettals so in stiles he hath slender skill that cannot descry copper from gold tinne from siluer iron from steele the refuse from the rich veyne the drosse from the pure substance It is little of Value either for matter or manner that can be performed in such perfunctory Pamflets on either side but how little soeuer it be or may appeare for mine owne part I refuse not to vnderly the Verdict of any curteous or equall censure that can discerne betwixt chalke and cheese Touching the matter what wanteth or might be expected here shall be particularly and largely recompensed aswell in my Discourses intituled Nashes S. Fame which are already finished and attend the Publication as also in other Supplemēts thereof especially those of the aboue-mētioned Gentlewoman whō after some aduisemēt it pleased to make the Straunge Newes of the railing Villan the cussionet of her needles and pinnes Though my scriblings may fortune to continue awhile and then haue their desert according to the laudable custome what should toyes or dalliances liue in a world of businesse yet I dare vndertake with warrant whatsoeuer she writeth must needes remaine an immortall worke and will leaue in the actiuest world an eternall memory of the silliest vermin that she shall voutsafe to grace with her bewtifull and allectiue stile as ingenious as elegant Touching the manner I take it a nice and friuolous curiositie for my person to bestow any cost vpon a trifle of no importance and am so ouershaddowed with the floorishing braunches of that heauenly plant that I may seeme to haue purposely preuented all comparison in yeelding that homage to her diuine witt which at my handes she hath meritoriously deserued Albeit I protest she was neither bewitched with entreaty nor iuggled with persuasion nor charmed with any corruption but onely moued with the reason which the Equity of my cause after some little cōmunication in her Vnspotted Conscience suggested They that long to aduaunce their owne shame I alwayes except a Phenix or two may brauely enter the listes of comparison do her the highest honour in despite that they could possibly deuise in a seruiceable deuotiō She hath in my knowledge read the notablest Historyes of the most-singular woomen of all ages in the Bible in Homer in Virgill her three souerain Bookes the diuine Archetypes of Hebrue Greeke and Roman Valour in Plutarch in Polyen in Petrarch in Agrippa in Tyraquell in whom not that haue specially tendered their diligent deuoir to honour the excellentest woomen that haue liued in the world and commending the meanest extolling the worthiest imitating the rarest and approouing all according to the proportion of their endowments enuieth none but Art in person and Vertue incorporate the two preciousest creatures that euer floorished vpon earth Other woomen may yeelde to Penelope Penelope to Sappho Sappho to Arachne Arachne to Minerua Minerua to Iuno Iuno to none of her sexe She to all that vse her and hers well to none of any sexe that misuse her or hers She is neither the noblest nor the fairest nor the finest nor the richest Lady but the gentlest and wittiest and brauest and inuinciblest Gentlewoman that I know Not such a wench in Europe to vnswaddle a faire Baby or to swaddle a fowle puppy Some of you may aime at her personage and it is not the first time that I haue termed her stile the tinsell of the daintiest Muses and sweetest Graces but I dare not Particularise her Description according to my conceit of her beaudesert without her licence or permission that standeth vpon masculine not feminine termes and is respectiuely to be dealt withall in regarde of her courage rather then her fortune And what if she can also publish more workes in a moneth thē Nash hath published in his whole life or the pregnantest of our inspired Heliconists can equall Could I dispose of her Recreations and some others Exercises I nothing doubt but it were possible notwithstanding the most-curious curiositie of this age to breede a new admiration in the minde of Contempt to restore the excellentest bookes into their wōted estate euen in integrum Let me be notoriously condemned of Partiality and simplicity if she fayle to accomplish more in gallant performance now she hath condescended to the spinning-vpp of her silken taske then I euer promised before or may seeme to insinuate now Yet she is a wooman and for some passions may challenge the generall Priuiledge of her sexe and a speciall dispensation in the cause of an affectionate frend deuoted to the seruice of her excellent desert whom he hath founde no lesse then the Handmayd of Art the mistres of Witt the Gentlewoman of right Gentlenesse and the Lady of right Vertue Howbeit euen those passions she hath so ordered and managed with such a witty temper of violent but aduised motions full of spirite and bloud but as full of sense and iudgement that they may rather seeme the marrow of reason than the froath of affection and her hoattest fury may fitly be resembled to the passing of a braue career by a Pegasus ruled with the reanes of a Mineruas bridle Her Pen is a very Pegasus indeede and runneth like a winged horse gouerned with the hand of exquisite skill She it is that must returne the mighty famous worke of Supererogation with Benet and Collect. I haue touched the booted Shakerley alittle that is alwayes riding and neuer rideth alwayes confuting and neuer confuteth alwayes ailing something and railing any thing that shamefully and odiously misuseth euery frend or acquaintance as he