The poete.
Syth
we haue playd now this lytill comedy
Before your wisdoms as we pretendyd
To tak it in gre we besech you humbly
And to forgyue vs where we haue offendid
The trāslatours know well it may be Amendyd
By theym that be wyse & wold take the payne
It for rede & to corect agayn
wherfore the translatours now require you this
yf ought be amys ye wold consyder
The englysh almost as short as the latten is
And still to kepe ryme a dyffycult matter
To make the sentence opynly to appere
which if it had a long expocysyon
Then were it a cōment & no translacōn.
And for this thīg is broughte īto thēglish tong
we pray you all not to be discontent
For the laten boke which hath be vsyd so long
was translate owt of greke this is euydent
And sith our english tong is now sufficient
The matter to expresse we think it best alway
Before english men in english it to play
yet they think thē self that this thing haue done
Not able to do this sufficiently
But for it shuld be a prouocacion
To them that can do it more substancyally
To translate this agayn or some other comedy
For the erudicōn of them that will lern
And thus we comyt you to the hye god etern.
Finis.
