A Lytle and bryefe treatyse, called the defence of women and especially of Englyshe women, made agaynst the Schole howse of women [by Edward More] |
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The Author to his Booke |
 | A Lytle and bryefe treatyse, called the defence of women |  |
The Author to his Booke
Goe for thou lytle booke, looke with a smilyng cheareTo women shalt thou well come be, therof thou nedest not feare
yf it be thy chaunce, our English Courte to see,
Then vnto our ladyes there, I great them well by the,
Or if it be thy pleasure, in London to remayne
Be haue thy selfe so honestly, that none do the disdayne
Or whither best it lyketh, the in the wyld cuntree
To dwell or euery where a suierner to be,
To maidens, wydowes, wyues of euery degree
Obedient be and be vnto them commaunded haue thou me,
Of any man do happen in contrey or in toune
For prasing womenkind, on the to cast a froune,
Thus mayst thou aunswere well, that all that thou hast sayd
Are so true and manifest thei can not be denayed,
Some agayne perchaunce wyll fynd fault with thy style
As rough rude and barbarous nedyng the smitthes fyle
Tell them that neyther age, nor wyt that is in me
Can make a booke more eloquent then this which now they se,
Good wyll was it enforced me, to wryte this lytle booke
Let the readers then therof, on the meanyng looke,
With myndes indifferent, let them the same well vewe,
Then shall they well pereyue & see, that I haue written trewe
whych yf they shall denyd, theyr errour wyll appeare,
For Leuy Uyrgyll, Ouyd, will witnes with me beare,
Of thother thinges which are, in thys treatyse showen
The resydue by reason debated haue I well,
As I do gesse at least wyse, that learned be can tell,
yf any thing vndicent or rude be in my ryme,
Let them impute the same, to bryefnes of the tyme,
yf flattery alleged be & layde vnto my charge
That to please womenkynde I haue written so large
In the disprayse of men, which I ought not haue dun
For that I am a man, and into daunger run
Perhaps I am, yet let men note well this one thinge
That they that I haue named haue bene of vicious lyuinge:
As Adam and Aeneas wyth the three Englysh men
That in Scotland prysoners were, let vs merke well then
The actes of all these fyue, for which I haue them blamed
In Oxforde in Cambridge, I thinke not one that named
Myght be whych coulde by reason good defende
Or theyre lewde pagentes played so much as ones cōmende,
For soner may a man by sophystry well proue,
The mouse and the Olyphant very well to loue,
Betwene foxes and gese perpetuall amyte
To wofes and the lambes, vnfaynede frendes to be
Then theyre deceytes to womenkinde before by me exprest,
May by any learned man be proued to be honest
I do not therfore repent my selfe, that I haue on me take
Thys lyght and easy enterprise for all good womens sake
Although I know assuredly that diuers wyl euyl talke
I am nothing dismayde therwith, syth god on earth dyd walke
And coulde not please nor satisfye all men no kynde of waye
Shall I then looke to do that thing that god cold not do, naye
Wherfore though goodmen do it prayse, & euyll do discōmende
It forceth not (the truth to saye) and thus I make an ende.
FINIS.
| A Lytle and bryefe treatyse, called the defence of women | |