Archedeacon on his side, take vppon him to controll Maister Doctor Watson for his All Trauailers, in a Verse so highly extolled of Master Ascham? or Maister Ascham himselfe, for abusing Homer, and corrupting our Tongue, in that he saith:

nothing else for vs to do: or we were borne to be the only Nonproficients and Nihilagents of the world. Cuiusmodi tu nugis, atque naeniis nisi vnâ mecum (qui solemni quodam iureiurando, atque voto obstringor, relicto isto amoris Poculo, iuris Poculum primo quoque tempore exhaurire) iam tandem aliquando valedicas, Quite throughe a Doore flèwe a shafte with a (quod tamen, vnum tibi, credo, Tây áðuváτwy videbitur) nihil dicam amplius, Valeas. E meo municipio. Nono Calendas Maias.

brasse head?

Nay, haue we not somtime, by your leaue, both the Position of the firste, and Dipthong of the seconde, concurring in one, and the same sillable, which neuerthelesse is commonly and ought necessarily to be pronounced short? I haue nowe small time, to bethink me of many examples. But what say you to the second in Merchandise? to the third in Couenaunteth? and to the fourth in Appurten aunces? Durst you aduenture to make any of them long, either in Prose, or in Verse? I assure you I knowe who dareth not, and suddăinly feareth the displeasure of all true Englishmen if he should. Say you suddainly, if you liste: by my certainly, and certainty I wil not. You may preceiue by the Premisses, (which very worde I woulde haue you note by the waye to) the Latine is no rule for vs: or imagine aforehande, (bycause you are like to proue a great Purchaser, and leaue suche store of money, and possessions behinde you) your Executors wil deale fraudulently, or violently with your successour, (whiche in a maner is euery mans case) and it will fall oute a resolute pointe: the third in Executores, frauduléter, violeter, and the seconde in Successor, being long in the one, and shorte in the other: as in seauen hundreth more: suche as, disciple, recited, excited: tenement, orătour, laudible: and a num ber of their fellowes are long in English, short in Latine: long in Latine, short in English. Howbeit, in my fancy, such words, as violently, diligently, magnificently, indifferently, seeme in a manner reasonably indifferent, and tollerable either waye, neither woulde I greately stande with him, that translated the Verse. Cur mittis violas? vt me violentiùs vras? Why send you violets? to burne my poore hart violently.

But hoe I pray you, gentle sirra, a word with you more. In good sooth, and by the faith I beare to the Muses, you shal neuer haue my subscription or consent (though you should charge me wyth the authoritie of fiue hundreth Maister Drants,) to make your Carpenter our Carpenter, an inche longer, or bigger, than God and his Englishe people haue made him. Is there no other Pollicie to pull downe Ryming, and set vppe Versifying, but you must needes correcte Magnificat: and againste all order of Lawe, and in despite of Custome, forcibly vsurpe, and tyrannize vppon a quiet companye of wordes, that so farre beyonde the memorie of man, haue so peaceably enjoyed their seueral Priuiledges and Liberties, without any disturbance, or the leaste controlement? What? Is Horaces Ars Poëtica so quite out of our Englishe Poets head, that he muste haue his Remembrancer, to pull hym by the sleeue, and put him in mind, of, Penes vsum, et ius, et norma loquendi? Indeed I remember, who was wont in a certaine brauerie, to call our M. Valanger Noble M. Valanger. Else neuer heard any, that durst presume so much ouer the Englishe, (excepting a fewe suche stammerers, as haue not the masterie of their owne Tongues) as to alter the Quantitie of any one sillable, otherwise, than oure common speache, and generall receyued Custome woulde beare them oute. Woulde not I laughe, thinke you, to heare Messer Immerito come in baldely with his Maiestie, Royaltie, Honestie, Sciences, Faculties, Excellent, Tauernour, Manfully, Faithfully, and a thousande the like: in steade of Maiestie, Royaltie, Honestie, and so forth? And trowe you anye coulde forbeare the byting of his Lippe, or smyling in his Sleeue, if a iolly fellowe, and greate Clarke, (as it might be youre selfe,) reading a fewe Verses vnto him, for his own credite and commendation, should nowe and then, tell him of, bargaineth, follow ing, harrowing, thoroughly, Trauailers, or the like, in steade of, bargaineth, following, harrowing, and the reste? Or will Segnior Immerito, bycause, may happe, he hathe a fat-bellyed

Marry so, that being left common for verse, they are to be pronounced shorte in Prose, after the maner of the Latines, in suche wordes as these, Cathedra, Volucres, mediocres, Celebres.

And thus farre of your Carpenter, and his fellowes, wherin we are to be moderated, and ouerruled by the vsuall, and common received

sounde, and not to deuise any counterfaite fan- | the same sorte: sometime Monosyllaba, sometasticall Accent of oure owne, as manye, other- time Polysyllaba. wise not vnlearned haue corruptely and ridiculouslye done in the Greeke.

Nowe for your Heauen, Seauen, Eleauen, or the like, I am likewise of the same opinion: as generally in all words else: we are not to goe a little farther, either for the Prosody, or the Orthography, (and therefore your Imaginarie Diastole nothing worthe) then we are licenced and authorized by the ordinarie vse, and custome, and proprietie, and Idiome, and, as it were, Maiestie of our speach: whiche I accounte the only infallible, and soueraigne Rule of all Rules. And therefore hauing respecte therevnto, and reputing it Petty Treason to reuolt therefro: dare hardly eyther in the Prosodie, or in the Orthography either, allowe them two sillables in steade of one, but woulde as well in Writing, as in Speaking, haue them vsed, as Monosyllaba, thus: heavn, seavn, a leavn, as Maister Ascham in his Toxophilus doth Yrne, commonly written Yron:

Vp to the pap his string did he pull, his shafte to the harde yrne.

Especially the difference so manifestly appearing by the Pronunciation, betweene these twoo, a leavn a clocke and a leaven of Dowe, whyche lea-ven admitteth the Diastole, you speake of. But see, what absurdities thys yl-fauoured Orthographye, or rather Pseudography, hathe ingendred: and howe one errour still breedeth and begetteth an other. Haue wee not, Mooneth, for Moonthe: sithence, for since: whilest, for whilste: phantasie, for phansie: euen, for evn: Diuel, for Divl: God hys wrath, for Goddes wrath and a thou- | sande of the same stampe: wherein the corrupte Orthography in the moste, hathe beene the sole, or principall cause of corrupte Prosodye in ouer many?

Marry, I confesse some wordes we haue indeede, as for example, fayer, either for beautifull, or for a Marte: ayer, bothe pro aere, and pro hærede, for we say not Heire, but plaine Aire for him to, (or else Scoggins Aier were a poore iest) whiche are commonly, and maye indifferently be vsed eyther wayes. For you shal as well, and as ordinarily heare fayer, as faire, and Aier, as Aire, and bothe alike: not onely of diuers and sundrye persons, but often of the very same: otherwhiles vsing the one, otherwhiles the other: and so died, or dyde spied, or spide: tryed, or tride: fyer, or fyre: myer, or myre: wyth an infinyte companye of

To conclude both pointes in one, I dare sweare priuately to your selfe, and will defende publiquely againste any, it is neither Heresie, nor Paradox, to sette downe, and stande vppon this assertion, (notwithstanding all the Preiudices and Presumptions to the contrarie, if they were tenne times as manye moe) that it is not, either Position, or Dipthong, or Diastole, or anye like Grammer Schoole Deuice, that doeth, or can indeede, either make long or short, or encrease, or diminish the number of Sillables, but onely the common allowed, and receiued Prosodye taken vp by an vniuersall consent of all, and continued by a generall vse, and Custome of all. Wherein neuerthelesse I grant, after long aduise, and diligent obseruation of particulars, a certain Uniform Analogie, and Concordance, being in processe of time espyed out. Sometime this, sometime that, hath been noted by good wits in their Analyses, to fall out generally alyke? and as a man woulde saye, regularly in all, or moste wordes: as Position, Dipthong, and the like: not as firste, and essentiall causes of this, or that effecte, (here lyeth the point) but as Secundarie and Accidentall Signes, of this, or that Qualitie.

It is the vulgare, and naturall Mother Prosodye, that alone worketh the feate, as the onely supreame Foundresse, and Reformer of Position, Dipthong, Orthographie, or whatsoeuer else: whose Affirmatiues are nothing worth, if she once conclude the Negatiue: and whose secundæ intentiones muste haue their whole allowance and warrante from hir primæ. And therefore in shorte, this is the verie shorte, and the long: Position neither maketh shorte, nor long in oure Tongue, but so farre as we can get hir good leaue. Peraduenture, vppon the diligent suruewe, and examination of Particulars, some the like Analogie and Uniformity, might be founde oute in some other respecte, that shoulde as vniuersally and Canonically holde amongst vs, as Position doeth with the Latines and Greekes. I saye, (peraduenture,) bycause, hauing not yet made anye speciall Obseruation, I dare not precisely affirme any generall certaintie: albeit I presume, so good and sensible a Tongue, as ours is, beeyng wythall so like itselfe, as it is, cannot but haue something equipollent, and counteruaileable to the beste Tongues, in some one such kinde of conformitie, or other. And this forsooth is all the Artificial Rules and Pre