whole historie, whiche order, that feloe hath pieteously confounded and troubled, & set out of order, that sondred & disseuered the saiyngs of the Lacedemonians from the others, and yet here and there, repeting the verie same thinges that Plutarchus had gathered afore vnto Traianus, albeit in sondrie places, one thing repeated is moche more often deprehended and openly founde in the other werke of Apophthegmes, but in bothe werkes, so often as thesame fallyng in a slumber, and forgettyng hymself, can not light on Plutarchus, a writer of precise diligence. More ouer, this parte hath no preface at all, and the preface that goeth before the Apophthegmes vnto Traianus, will not serue to bothe werkes. Nowe, what thanke suche persones are worthy to haue whiche doe in this wyse slabre and defile the bokes of famous autours. I will not at this tyme reason, but truly me thinketh it a very sacriliege. Yet of me (except a fewe saiynges of Lacedemonians because the selfsame been repeated in the other table of rehersal euery one of them) is not so moche as one omitted of all that goeth abrode vnder the name of Plutarchus partely to thende that the reader beyng rather a greadie glutton, then a minion deintie peece might not misse any thyng that he would fayne haue and partely, for that I sawe nothing there but worthy to be knowen, though sometime rehersed & tould out of his right place. Neuerthelesse, all the whole werke I haue in manier made my propre owne in that I do more at large and more playnely expresse the thynges that be tolde in Greke, putting in sometimes soch thinges as I had well perceiued to bee added in other autours, adding also out of the other werkes of Plutarchus veray many thinges whiche wer not in this present treactise, and euery where as it were with litle brief commentaries opening and shewyng aswell the sense of the apophthegme as also the vse wherfore, and how it may serue, especially in those places whiche lacked some more light and clerenesse,

albeit thesame haue I dooen briefly in fewe wordes, lest I should haue clene turned away from the nature of apophthegmes, which ought not to contein many wordes. But as for thordre is wurse broken and confused euen of me, then I found it there, for that, wher at the beginning I had purposed to make rehersall but of verie fewe and onely of the principal best sort, when I was ones entreed in my werke, the veray heate therof pricked and sette me to chaunge my mynde and to go on still a great waye ferther, neither should I haue made any ende, had not this as ye would saie, an houge main sea of thinges, still freshe and freshe comyng to mynde, enforced and driuen me to blowe retreacte, and to recule backe. For as Quintilian emong the vertues and graces of a schole maister in Grammer, putteth this to be one, that he be in some thinges ignoraunt: so, in this kinde of argumente, it semeth to bee some parte of diligence, certain thynges to passe ouer and to leaue out. Therefore, I haue thought better, to make at this tyme a deintie feaste, then a coumbreous or troublesome, especially for that, any thyng be in this present supper lefte out, it maie at some other supper be set before my geastes, after that all this shal be perfectely digested. And that incommoditee of the order of thinges neglected, and not precisely kept, I haue with a large reportorie or table redubbed. For the title, it nothyng forceth to be carefull or scruplous, sens that emong those saiynges, whiche Plutarchus vnder the title and name of Apophthegmes, hath gathered and compiled together, there be many, whiche an other manne would rather call, scornes, tauntes, checkes, iestes, or merie conceipted saiynges to laugh at. But forasmoche as Marcus Tullius, in puttyng a seuerall distinccion, betwene eche of these kyndes, hath taken earnest labour and peine, without any effecte, and forasmoche as Marsus a right well learned man, hath in this behalf nothyng satisfied Quintilian, no, nor yet Quintilian in knowlege and litterature,

if

litterature, ferre passing Marsus, hath satisfied him. self: I haue not thought it a thyng woorthie the labour in this behalf to bestowe moche busie trauaill, contented and thinkyng sufficient, here and there by the waie, as occasion serueth, to haue opened and shewed the kind and the nature of the saiyng, or of the merie ieste. Certes, in those thinges that I haue of my self added, besides Plutarchus doynges, I haue diligently foreseen and prouided, in no wise confusely to mingle policies of warre (hauyng no saiyng of this kinde annexed vnto theim) and Apophthegmes bothe together, and also that I would in no wise putte in here any thyng, but taken out of the best allowed, and thesame the moste auncient writers, bothe in Greke and Latine : not that I am ignoraunte, the later writers to haue ricited many thynges sharpelie and also pleasauntely spoken: but soche thynges as antiquitee hath made precious iewels, and as ye would saie reliques, been of more aucthoritee, and mete it was that this werke should haue an ende, and not be infinite. Nor this thyng neither ought to moue any manne, that one and thesame saiyng is of one aucthour, ascribed vnto the persone of one manne, and of an other aucthoure is attributed to an other manne. For it forceth not so greatly, of what persone a thyng is spoken, as it doeth, what is spoken: albeit in deede a famous speaker, and one that hath the fauour and hartes of menne, geueth to the saiynges moche weighte and grace also. This thyng more often cometh in vre, then that it needeth by examples to bee proued. But yet sometymes it chaunceth, by reason that mannes memorie failleth, albeeit there is no cause to the contrarie, but that one and thesame sentence, maie procede from sondrie speakers or writers, whether imitacion be the cause thereof, or els chaunce, as for example, this staffe of a metre in Greke.

σοφοὶ τύραννοι τῶν σοφῶν συνουσία,

That is,

Tyrannes

* Sophocles is a Greke poete,

of whose writyng we haue seuen Tragedies.

+ Euripedes

also is a Greke poete, and

wrote xx. tra

Tyrannes by wisemennes conuersacion,

Maie sone bee brought to goodnesse and wisedome. This is well knowen to bee a verse of * Sophocles, yet Plato citeth it out of † Euripides. Againe this verse.

γέρων γέροντα παιδαγωγήσω σ ̓ ἐγὼ,

I beyng aged, as I can,

That is,

Will teache thee beyng also an old manne.

Whereas it is in the tragedie of Sophocles entitleed gedies, which Philoctetes, yet is thesame woorde for woorde found in Bacchis the Tragedie of Euripides: like wise this

we haue.

Aechylus is also a Poete that wrote tragedies in Greke.

verse.

σιγῶν θ ̓ ὅπου δεῖ καὶ λέγων τὰ καίρια,
That is,

Whether thou talke, or hold thy peace,
Thou must in due season, speake or ceasse.

Whereas it is in the tragedie of Aechylus entitleed
Promotheus: it is founde also in Euripides, onely twoo
letters chaunged σιγῶν and λέγων, in steede of σιγῶν,
and Aéywv, Somewhiles, aucthours agree not, neither
on the matter, nor yet on the name. As he that cast
in the teeth of Marcus Fabius that he had by his
meanes, recouered againe the toune of Tarente, in
Tullie his name Livius Saliuator, in Titus Liuius is
named Marcus Liuius, in Plutarche Marcus Lucius, or
els is as in the Greke examplaries Μάρκιος Λεύκιος,
Also Fabius Philostratus sheweth that one Leo a So-
phiste, brought all the people of Athenes in a laughter
with his bodie, beyng notable grosse and fatte, and
Plutarche saieth lanke and little. Valerius Maximus
and Plinius, in the reporting of a certain alteracion,
that was betwene Cn. Domitius and Lucius Crassus
in Rome, how wide been thei the one from the other,
but without all life or solle been those thynges, that in
some writers are feigned to haue been the woordes of
certain persones, in the fables of Poetes mencioned, as
in Philostratus the Sophiste, when he forgeth and
shapeth

shapeth to Palamedes, to Vlysses and to other like persones, soche tales and speaches, as lusted his owne phantasticall braine to deuise and imagin, and thesame are made double dedde by eiuill handelyng, of whiche sorte of saiynges, I doe in this present werke medle with none at all. In the nexte degree to these been soche speaches as are assigned to diuerse persons in dialogues, feigned and endited, not for any truthe of the matter to be beleued, but for disporte and passetyme onely. But in the speaches of the partes, in Comedies (that is merie enterludes) and in tragedies (that is sad entreludes, whiche we call staige plaies) there is some more life and pithe, and a greate grace thei haue, beyng sette in an apte and fitte place, albeit the name of Apophthegmes, no saiynges can haue excepte the speaker, out of whose mouthe thei doen procede be a persone of great name, and the wordes purposely applied to some matter being euen at that present houre in communicacion, yea and moche the better to be liked, if thei be a little disframed to an other sense, or a ferther meanyng then the verie woordes dooe purporte. As when Aristotle vnto Calisthenes, talkyng with kyng Alexander more homely and frankely, then was expediente, gaue a by warnyng with this verse of the Poete Homere.

ὠκύμορος δή μοι τέκος ἔσσεαι, οἱ ἀγορεύεις.

That is,

My sonne, if thou be thus large of tong,

Thou shalt surely leese thy life ere long.

Out of Herodotus I haue had no greate lust to gather any greate nomber of saiynges, because that moste parte of theim appere to haue been inuented of that writers owne witte. Like trashe and bagguage been those saiynges that are incidente in oracions, whiche the writers of histories (eche as his witte serueth him) are wonte to attribute to menne, albeeit euen those doe moche auaill, aswell to the readers iudgemente, as also to make a manne hable well to frame, and promptely