University of Virginia Library

THE Prologue to the Storie.

Ovid and Virgill for the Pen,
And Homer for his Verse:
Plautus, Horace; worthy men,
Left lines for Schooles to perse:
Since then, Italia in her pride,
Puft, some of memorie,
Who haue deserud the Wreath beside,
Of fames eternitie.
But giue me leaue to reckon why
They did set downe their skill
In Embleme Stories, faignedly,
And yet not blabs of ill:
But to insist on meaner toyes
Wherein they might be bold
Leauing to truce our better ioyes
In Scripture lines inrold,
For Schollerisme and Schoole defence,
To practise younger wits,
That they presumd in, to dispence
On things that better fits:
Now not to niggard it at all,
But ioyne as partner yit
With such as do our Poet call,
Mecænas for his wit;
I thus distribute to all eyes,
What I of late haue red:
Though faigned, yet they are no lyes,
But fancies better bred:
And yet the subiect of discent,
As many Worthies bee:
Begun of nothing, till content
Breed to maturitie.
The Italian Poet in discourse,
Sets downe a homely toy,
In singular donne, prose not verse,
A Taylor and his Boy:
Who in contention, shewde the earth,
What Art exceeded in:
For nothing but an howers mirth,
And thus doth he begin.