Then me thinketh, you haue in my fancie somwhat too many Spondees beside: and whereas Trochee sometyme presumeth in the firste place, as namely in the second Verse, Make thy, whyche thy, by youre Maistershippes owne authoritie muste needes be shorte, I shall be faine to supplye the office of the Arte Memoratiue, and putte you in minde of a pretty Fable in Abstemio the Italian, implying thus much, or rather thus little in effect.

you, of my selfe, I beleeue, no peece of a fault
marked at all. But this is the Effect of war.
rantes, and perhappes the Errour may rather
proceede of his Master, M. Drantes Rule, than
of himselfe. Howsoeuer it is, the matter is
not great, and I alwayes was, and will euer
continue of this Opinion, Pauca multis con-
donanda vitla Virtutibus, especially these being
no Vitia neither, in a common and licencious
Iambicke. Verùm ista obiter, non quidem con
tradicendi animo, aut etiam corrigendi mihi
crede: sed nostro illo Academico, pristinoque
more ratiocinandi. And to saye trueth, partely
too, to requite your gentle courtesie in begin-
ning to me, and noting I knowe not what
breache in your gorbellyed Maisters Rules:
which Rules go for good, I perceiue, and keepe
a Rule, where there be no better in presence.
My selfe neither sawe them, nor heard of them
before: and therefore will neither praise them,
nor dispraise them nowe: but vppon the
suruiewe of them, and farther conference, (both
which I desire) you shall soone heare one mans
opinion too or fro. Youre selfe remember,
I was wonte to haue some preiudice of the
man: and I still remaine a fauourer of his
deserued, and iust commendation. Marry in
these poyntes, you knowe, Partialitie in no
case, may haue a foote: and you remember
mine olde Stoicall exclamation: Fie on childish
affection, in the discoursing, and deciding of
schoole matters. This I say, because you charge
me with an vnknowne authoritie: which for
aught I know yet, may as wel be either vn-
sufficient, or faultie, as otherwise: and I dare
more than halfe promise, (I dare not saye,
warrant) you shall alwayes in these kinde of
controuersies, finde me nighe hande answerable
in mine owne defence. Reliqua omnia, quæ
de hac supersunt Anglicorum versuum ratione,
in aliud tempus reseruabimus, ociosum magis.
Youre Latine Farewell is a goodly braue
yonkerly peece of work, and Goddilge yee, I
am alwayes maruellously beholding vnto you,
for your bountifull Titles: I hope by that time
I haue been resident a yeare or twoo in Italy,
I shall be better qualifyed in this kind, and
more able to requite your lauishe, and mag
nificent liberalitie that way. But to let Titles
and Tittles passe, and come to the very pointe
in deede, which so neare toucheth my lusty
Trauayler to the quicke, and is one of the
prædominant humors that raigne in our com
mon Youths: Heus mi tu, bone proce, magne
muliercularum amator, egregie Pamphile, eum
aliquando tandem, qui te manet, qui mulierosos

A certaine lame man beyng invited to a solempne Nuptiall Feaste, made no more adoe, but sate me hym roundlye downe foremoste at the hyghest ende of the Table. The Master of the feast, suddainly spying his presumption, and hansomely remoouing him from thence, placed me this haulting Gentleman belowe at the nether end of the bourd: alledging for his defence the common verse: Sedes nulla datur, præterquam sexta Trochao: and pleasantly alluding to this foote, which standing vppon two syllables, the one long, the other short, (much like, of a like, his guestes feete) is alwayes thrust downe to the last place, in a true Hexameter, and quite thrust out of doores in a pure, and iust Senarie. Nowe Syr, what thinke you, I began to thinke with my selfe, when I began to reade your warrant first: so boldly, and venterously set downe in so formall, and autentique wordes, as these, Precisely perfil, and not an inch from the Rule? Ah Syrrha, and Iesu Lord, thought I, haue we at the last gotten one, of whom his olde friendes and Companions may iustly glory, In eo solùm peccat, quòd nihil peccat: and that is yet more exacte, and precise in his English Comicall Iambickes, than euer M. Watson himselfe was in his Lattin Tragicall Iambickes, of whom M. Ascham reporteth, that he would neuer to this day suffer his famous Absolon to come abrode, onely because Anapastus in Locis paribus, is twice, or thrice vsed in steade of lambus? A small fault, ywisse, and such a one in M. Aschams owne opinion, as perchaunce woulde neuer haue beene espyed, no neither in Italy, nor in Fraunce. But when I came to the curious scanning, and fingering of euery foote, and syllable: Lo here, quoth I, M. Watsons Anapastus for all the worlde. A good horse, that trippeth not once in a iourney: and M. Immerito doth, but as M. Watson, and in a manner all other lambici haue done before him: marry he might haue spared his preface, or at the least, that same restrictiue, and streightlaced terme, Precisely, and all had been well enough: and I assure

Certaine Latin Verses, of the frailtie and mutabilitie of all things, sauing onely Vertue: made by M. Doctor Norton, for the right Worshipfull, M. Thomas Sackford, Master of Requestes vnto hir Maiestie. άκροςιχά.

The same paraphrastically varied by M.
Doctor Gouldingam, at the request of olde
M. Wythipoll of Ipswiche

Ο

Vr merry dayes, by theeuish bit are pluckt, and torne away,
And euery lustie growing thing, in short time doth decay.
The pleasaunt Spring times ioy, how soone it groweth olde?
And wealth that gotten is with care, doth noy as much, be bolde.
No wisedome had with Trauaile great, is for to trust in deede,
For great Mens state we see decay, and fall downe like a weede.
Thus by degrees we fleete, and sinke in worldly things full fast,
But Vertues sweete and due rewardes stande sure in euery blast.

T

The same Paraphrastically varied by
Master G. H. at M. Peter Wythipolles
request, for his Father.

"Hese pleasant dayes, and Monthes, and yeares, by stelth do passe apace, And do not things, that florish most, soone fade, and lose their grace?

Iesu, how soone the Spring of yeare, and Spring of youthfull rage,

Is come, and gone, and ouercome, and ouergone with age?

In paine is gaine, but doth not paine as much detract from health,

As it doth adde vnto our store, when most we roll in wealth?
Wisedome hir selfe must haue hir doome, and grauest must to graue,
And mightiest power sib to a flower: what then remaines to craue ?
Nowe vp, now downe, we flowe, and rowe in seas of worldly cares,
Vertue alone eternall is, and shee the Laurell weares.

L'Enuoy.

Soone said, soone writ, soone learnd: soone trimly done in prose, or verse: Beleeud of some, practizd of fewe, from Cradle to their Herse.

Virtuti, non tibi Feci.

M. Peter Wythipoll.

Et Virtuti, et mihi :
Virtuti, ad laudem :
Mihi, ad vsum.

FINIS.

CRITICAL APPENDIX.

THE FAERIE QUEENE.