University of Virginia Library

To the Reader.

Vnto the Iudgement of
the wyse and learned, I
Submit my paynes (to pleasure thē)
perswaded thorowlye:
That with aduisement they
will speake, and reason ryght
Shall rule theyr tongues. whearfore vnto
syr Momus more dyspyte
I gyue these same: that he,
a whyle maye gnawe theron.
To whet his poysoned rāckling teth,
I cast the curre a bone:
Lest that hee seeke to byte
my name behynde my backe,
To saye that here his verse is lame,
or here good sence doth lacke.
For I ofte times haue heard
the vyle despysed sorte
Blynd ignorantes, of worthie bokes
to make suche rashe reporte:
That when in order good,
they could not read the same,
They doubted not by slaūderous wordes
the aucthors to defame.
That learned men alowe
these same, it shall to me
Suffyse. Of Momes I do not seeke
commended for to be.
Let them that no tyme spare
to speake all that they maye
To mee: and I will answere them
right sone, at eche assaye.
Theyr brutishe braynes vnfit
to iudge of melodye,
Their blinded wittes, & sences stopt
do vnto them denie
The vse of reason so:
that monsters ryght they be,
Despised dregges of men, to them
in shape alone agree.
Or els ryght πανφαγοι
and currysh whelpes they weare,
Their iudgementes I do now dispise:
theyr rage I do not feare.