Trivial poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

And can you thincke that this translation
Will benefitt att all our nation,
Though fayre bee the pretence?
'Tis meet, you say, that in the land
Each one our lawes should understand,
Since wee are gouern'd thence.

2

But tell mee pray, if euer you
Read th'English of Watt Montague,
Is't not more hard then French?
And yett that will much easyer bee
Then the strange gibbring mish-mash, wee
Shall hence-forth heare att th'Bench.

3

For from the lawes whilst French wee'd banish,
Wee shall bring in Italian, Spanish,
And forty nations more;
Who'l then peruse the text, must know
Greeke, Latine, Dutch, both High and Low,
With Hebrew too, before.

4

Because i'th Greeke ther's chang'd a letter,
That they can understand itt better,
Fooles only will pretend;
As hee, who did himselfe perswade
That hee spoke Latine, cause hee made
In bus each word to end.

5

But had wee English words enough,
Yett ought wee never to allow
This turning of our lawes:
Much lesse t'admitt that att the barre,
The merchand, clowne, or man of warre,
Should plead (forsooth) his cause.

6

Wordes may bee common, cleare, and pure,
Yet still the sence remayne obscure,
And wee as wise, as when
Wee should some long oration heare,
Which in a new-found language were,
Ne're heard by us till then.

7

'Twas not the language, 'twas the matter
(But that we loue our selves to flatter)
That most times darcknesse brung:
Some questions in philosophy,
To puzzle schollers would goe nigh,
Though putt in any toungue.

8

The shoe-maker, beyond the shoe
Must not presume to haue to doe,
A painter sayd of old:
Hee sayd aright; for each man ought
To meddle with the craft hee's taught,
And be noe farther bold.

9

What th'anchor is, few ploughmen know;
Saylers can't tell what meanes gee-ho;
Termes proper hath each trade:
Nay, in our uery sports, the bowler,
The tennis-player, huntsman, fowler,
New names for things haue made.

10

Soe words i'th' lawes are introduc'd
Which common talke has neuer us'd;
And therefore sure ther's need
That the gown'd tribe be sett a part
To learne by industry this art,
And that none else may pleade.

11

Our church still flourishing w'had seene
If th'holy-writt had euer beene
Kept out of lay-men's reach;
But, when 'twas English'd, men halfe-witted,
Nay woemen too, would be permitted
T'expound all texts, and preach.

12

Then what confusion did arise!
Coblers, deuines gan to dispise,
Soe that they could but spell:
This, ministers to scorne did bring;
Preaching was held an easy thing,
Each-one might doe't as well.

13

This gulfe, church-gouerment did swallow;
And after will the ciuill follow,
When lawes translated are:
For eu'ry man that lists, will prattle;
Pleading will be but twittle-twattle,
And nought but noyse att bar.

14

Then lett's eene bee content t'obay,
And to beleeue what judges say,
Whilst for us, lawyers brawle:
Though fowre or five bee thence undonne,
'Tis better haue some iustice donne,
Then to haue none att all.