that the stile might be the more clere and plain, as beyng lesse bounden to the Greke woordes: (for this presente booke of myne, is not written vnto Traianus, a man bothe in Greke and Latine, excellently well seen, and also in long experience of all maner affaires, gaily well broken and exercised, but to a prince beyng yet but a yong thyng, yea and by you, to all children and young strieplinges, that labour & sue to attain the knowlege of good learning & honeste studies: nor yet in that world, when soche maner saiynges and actes wer by the report & communicacion of the people daily talked and spoken of, in banes or whot houses, at diners and suppers and abrode in the streates whensoeuer folkes be assembled together: and secondarily, that I might haue free libertee, to declare and expoune the fine wittinesse of the saiyng, if any came to hand that was of sense obscure and darke, as at this presente right many there been harde to be vnderstanded, not onely of soche as haue neuer gone to schoole, but also of soche as doe ferre surmount the common sorte of clerkes. And certes for myne owne parte, the geassyng & redyng what diuerse of these Apophthegmes should meane or signifie, hath curstely troubled and vexed my braines, & I can not saie, whether it hath somewhere beguiled me too. And in places not a fewe, I haue had moche strougleyng and wrastlyng, with the faultes of Imprintyng in the bookes, at whiche it could not bee auoided, but that the enterpreters and translatours, maugre their heddes did stumble. For it is a thing vneth beleueable, how moche and how boldly, as wel the commen writers, that from time to tyme haue copied out the bookes of Plutarchus, as also certaine that haue thought them selfes hable to countrolle and emend all mennes doynges, haue taken vpon them in this autour, who ought with all reuerence to haue been handled of theim, and with all feare to haue been preserued from altryng, deprauyng, or corruptyng. For neuer hath

there

there been emong the Greke writers (especially as touchyng matters of vertue and good behauour) any one more holy then Plutarchus, or better worthie of all men to bee reade. But the verie same thyng hath prouoked persones desirous of glorie and lucre, to depraue and corrupte this autour, to put in more then he wrote, and also to leaue out of that he wrote, which ought moste of all to haue feared them from so doing. For euery writer the better accepted and set by that he is, and the greater name that he hath emong learned men, so moche the rather shall he for lucre and auauntage be corrupted. That this autour hath been so vsed, the very diuersite of the Greke text, not agreyng one copie with an other doeth right well argue and proue. For all others omitted, to speake onely of this presente werke that now is in hande, the translacion of Philelphus hath certain thinges, whiche Raphael lefte vntouched, and Raphael likewise some thynges of which Philelphus maketh no mencion at all. Besides this where Plutarchus in the Preface by expresse woordes doeth plainly testifie, that in the liues, he had mingled the saiynges and actes of noble men together, the one with thother: and in this werke for briefnesse, to haue linked together onely their Apophthegmes or saiynges, yet doe we se right many thynges admixte and put in emong the Apophthegmes, whiche in verie deede are no saiynges at al, nor any other thing, but mere pollices of war, whiche the Grekes called Strategemata. Now in the self same werke, one and thesame thinges so often again and again repeated, doen thei not openly crie this argument and matter, by some other feloe to haue been contaminated and sloubred? So that we maie now pardone, that in certaine places an Apophthegma is recited, vnder the name of the persone, that it was spoken to, & not of hym by whom it was spoken, as of Lysymachus and Philippus. For in this treatise of Plutarchus, whiche is entitled Collectanea, that is to saie, a manuall of sondrie and preatie histo

ries and saiynges, compiled together for al readers the aunswere that Philippus made vnto Lysimachus, is told and reported, vnder the title or chapiter of Lysimachus. But yet it was an higher poinct of presumpcion, that of one werke thei haue made it two. For because Plutarchus of the saiynges of Lacedaemonians, whiche been a very greate nomber, had touched onely so many, as for the Emperour, beyng with many matters sore embusied, seemed like to suffice. He, whosoeuer it was (at lest if it wer but one feloe and no mo, that sette handes therunto) hath assigned to the saiynges of Lacedaemonians one proper volume, and that according to the order of the Greke letters, as thei stande in the alphabete whiche Raphael in his translacion hath turned, into the order of the letters of the Latine A.B.C. But this was of al the thre, euen the very wurst. For Valerius and Frontinus folowen thorder of soche sentences, as thei shewe concernyng religion, concernyng affeccion and loue to mennes countrees, concernyng truth in kepyng promisses made, concernyng manfull hardinesse, & concerning iustice, and likewise of other matters, settyng eche of them in his right order and place. Best standyng with cunnyng and learnyng, is thesame order that Plutarchus folowed, obseruyng and kepyng the order of regions and kingdomes, as thei stand in rowe and in euery of them the order of the tymes, to euery of the kinges, ioinyng his owne capitaines, and to euery of the capitaines their mates. From the Persians he cometh to the Egiptians, from the Egiptians to the Thracians, from the Thracians to the Scythians, from the Scythians to the Sicilians, from the Sicilians to the Macedonians, from thens to the Atheniense, from theim to the Lacedaemonians, folowyng in euery of these thorder of the tymes, and not of the letters in the alphabete. From the Lacede monians he cometh to the Thebanes, from the Thebanes to the Romaines, so that the reader by the saiynges of a few persones maie familiarly knowe the order of the whole

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, if 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,