your mindes with mirth after all these scholasticall preceptes which can not but bring with them specially to Courtiers much tediousnesse and so to end In our Comedie intituled Ginecocratia the king was supposed to be a person very amorous and effeminate and therefore most ruled his ordinary affaires by the aduise of women either for the loue he bare to their persons or liking he had to their pleasant ready witts and vtterance Comes me to the Court one Polemon an honest plaine man of the country but rich and hauing a suite to the king met by chaunce with one Philino a louer of wine and a merry companion in Court and praied him in that he was a stranger that he would vouchsafe to tell him which way he were best to worke to get his suite and who were most in credit and fauour about the king that he might seeke to them to furder his attempt Philino perceyuing the plainnesse of the man and that there would be some good done with him told Polemon that if he would well consider him for his labor he would bring him where he should know the truth of all his demaundes by the sentence of the Oracle Polemon gaue him twentie crownes Philino brings him into a place where behind an arras cloth hee himselfe spake in manner of an Oracle in these meeters for so did all the Sybils and sothsaiers in old times giue their answers Your best way to worke and marke my words well Not money nor many Nor any but any Not weemen but weemen beare the bell Polemon wist not what to make of this doubtfull speach not being lawfull to importune the oracle more then once in one matter conceyued in his head the pleasanter construction and stacke to it and hauing at home a fayre yong damsell of eighteene yeares old to his daughter that could very well behaue her selfe in countenance also in her language apparelled her as gay as he could and brought her to the Court where Philino harkning daily after the euent of this matter met him and recommended his daughter to the Lords who perceiuing her great beauty and other good parts brought her to the King to whom she exhibited her fathers supplication and found so great fauour in his eye as without any long delay she obtained her sute at his hands Polemon by the diligent solliciting of his daughter wanne his purpose Philino gat a good reward and vsed the matter so as howsoeuer the oracle had bene construed he could not haue receiued blame nor discredit by the successe for euery waies it would haue proued true whether Polemons daughter had obtayned the sute or not obtained it And the subtiltie lay in the accent and Ortographie of these two wordes any and weemen for any being deuided sounds a nie or neere person to the king and weemen being diuided soundes wee men and not weemen and so by this meane Philino serued all turnes and shifted himselfe from blame not vnlike the tale of the Rattlemouse who in the warres proclaimed betweene the foure footed beasts and the birdes beyng sent for by the Lyon to be at his musters excused himselfe for that he was a foule and flew with winges and beyng sent for by the Eagle to serue him sayd that he was a foure footed beast and by that craftie cauill escaped the danger of the warres and shunned the seruice of both Princes And euer since sate at home by the fires side eating vp the poore husbandmans baken halfe lost for lacke of a good huswifes looking too FINIS THE THIRD BOOKE OF ORNAMENT CHAP. I. Of Ornament Poeticall AS no doubt the good proportion of any thing doth greatly adorne and commend it and right so our late remembred proportions doe to our vulgar Poesie so is there yet requisite to the perfection of this arte another maner of exornation which resteth in the fashioning of our makers language and stile to such purpose as it may delight and allure as well the mynde as the eare of the hearers with a certaine noueltie and strange maner of conueyance disguising it no litle from the ordinary and accustomed neuerthelesse making it nothing the more vnseemely or misbecomming but rather decenter and more agreable to any ciuill eare and vnderstanding And as we see in these great Madames of honour be they for personage or otherwise neuer so comely and bewtifull yet if they want their courtly habillements or at leastwise such other apparell as custome and ciuilitie haue ordained to couer their naked bodies would be halfe ashamed or greatly out of countenaunce to be seen in that sort and perchance do then thinke themselues more amiable in euery mans eye when they be in their richest attire suppose of silkes or tyssewes costly embroderies then when they go in cloth or in any other plaine and simple apparell Euen so cannot our vulgar Poesie shew it selfe either gallant or gorgious if any lymme be left naked and bare and not clad in his kindly clothes and coulours such as may conuey them somwhat out of sight that is from the common course of ordinary speach and capacitie of the vulgar iudgement and yet being artificially handled must needes yeld it much more bewtie and commendation This ornament we speake of is giuen to it by figures and figuratiue speaches which be the flowers as it were and coulours that a Poet setteth vpon his language by arte as the embroderer doth his stone and perle or passements of gold vpon the stuffe of a Princely garment or as th'excellent painter bestoweth the rich Orient coulours vpon his table of pourtraite so neuerthelesse as if the same coulours in our arte of Poesie as well as in those other mechanicall artes be not well tempered or not well layd or be vsed in excesse or neuer so litle disordered or misplaced they not onely giue it no maner of grace at all but rather do disfigure the stuffe and spill the whole workmanship taking away all bewtie and good liking from it no lesse then if the crimson tainte which should be laid vpon a Ladies lips or right in the center of her cheekes should by some ouersight or mishap be applied to her forhead or chinne it would make ye would say but a very ridiculous bewtie wherfore the chief prayse and cunning of our Poet is in the discreet vsing of his figures as the skilfull painters is in the good conueyance of his coulours and shadowing traits of his pensill with a delectable varietie by all measure and iust proportion and in places most aptly to be bestowed CHAP II. How our writing and speaches publike ought to be figuratiue and if they be not doe greatly disgrace the cause and purpose of the speaker and writer BVt as it hath bene alwayes reputed a great fault to vse figuratiue speaches foolishly and indiscretly so is it esteemed no lesse an imperfection in mans vtterance to haue none vse of figure at all specially in our writing and speaches publike making
altitude and heauinesse the sharpe accent falles vpoÌ„ al he which be the antepenultimaes the other two fall away speedily as if they were scarse sounded in this trissilable forsaken the sharp accent fals vpoÌ„ sa which is the penultima and in the other two is heauie and obscure Againe in these bissillables endúre vnsúre demúre aspÃre desÃre retÃre your sharpe accent falles vpon the last sillable but in words monosillable which be for the more part our naturall Saxon English the accent is indifferent and may be vsed for sharp or flat and heauy at our pleasure I say Saxon English for our Normane English alloweth vs very many bissillables and also trissillables as reuerence diligence amorous desirous and such like CHAP. VII Of your Cadences by which your meeter is made Symphonicall when they be sweetest and most solemne in a verse AS the smoothnesse of your words and sillables running vpon feete of sundrie quantities make with the Greekes and Latines the body of their verses numerous or Rithmicall so in our vulgar Poesie and of all other nations at this day your verses answering eche other by couples or at larger distances in good cadence is it that maketh your meeter symphonicall This cadence is the fal of a verse in euery last word with a certaine tunable sound which being matched with another of like sound do make a concord And the whole cadence is contained sometime in one sillable sometime in two or in three at the most for aboue the antepenultima there reacheth no accent which is chiefe cause of the cadence vnlesse it be by vsurpatioÌ„ in some English words to which we giue a sharpe accent vpon the fourth as Hónorable mátrimonie pátrimonie mÃserable and such other as would neither make a sweete cadence nor easily find any word of like quantitie to match them And the accented sillable with all the rest vnder him make the cadence and no sillable aboue as in these words AgÃllitie facÃllitie subiéction diréction and these bissilables Ténder slénder trústie lústie but alwayes the cadence which falleth vpon the last sillable of a verse is sweetest and most commendable that vpon the penultima more light and not so pleasant but falling vpon the antepenultima is most vnpleasant of all because they make your meeter too light and triuiall and are fitter for the Epigrammatist or Comicall Poet then for the Lyrick and Elegiack which are accompted the sweeter Musickes But though we haue sayd that to make good concord your seuerall verses should haue their cadences like yet must there be some difference in their orthographie though not in their sound as if one cadence be constraÃne the next restraÃne or one aspÃre another respÃre this maketh no good concord because they are all one but if ye will exchange both these consonants of the accented sillable or voyde but one of them away then will your cadences be good and your concord to as to say restraine refraine remaine aspire desire retire which rule neuerthelesse is not well obserued by many makers for lacke of good iudgement and a delicate eare And this may suffise to shew the vse and nature of your cadences which are in effect all the sweetnesse and cunning in our vulgar Poesie CHAP. VIII How the good maker will not wrench his word to helpe his rime either by falsifying his accent or by vntrue orthographie NOw there can not be in a maker a fowler fault then to falsifie his accent to serue his cadence or by vntrue orthographie to wrench his words to helpe his rime for it is a signe that such a maker it not copious in his owne language or as they are wont to say not halfe his crafts maister as for example if one should rime to this word Restore he may not match him with Doore or Poore for neither of both are of like terminant either by good orthography or in naturall sound therfore such rime is strained so is it to this word Ram to say came or to Beane Den for they sound not nor be written a like many other like cadences which were superfluous to recite and are vsuall with rude rimers who obserue not precisely the rules of prosodie neuerthelesse in all such cases if necessitie constrained it is somewhat more tollerable to help the rime by false orthographie then to leaue an vnplesant dissonance to the eare by keeping trewe orthographie and loosing the rime as for example it is better to rime Dore with Restore then in his truer orthographie which is Doore and to this word Desire to say Fier then fyre though it be otherwise better written fire For since the cheife grace of our vulgar Poesie consisteth in the Symphonie as hath bene already sayd our maker must not be too licentious in his concords but see that they go euen iust and melodious in the eare and right so in the numerositie or currantnesse of the whole body of his verse and in euery other of his proportions For a licentious maker is in truth but a bungler and not a Poet. Such men were in effect the most part of all your old rimers and specially Gower who to make vp his rime would for the most part write his terminant sillable with false orthographie and many times not sticke to put in a plaine French word for an English so by your leaue do many of our common rimers at this day as he that by all likelyhood hauing no word at hand to rime to this word ioy he made his other verse ende in Roy saying very impudently thus O mightie Lord of loue dame Venus onely ioy Who art the highest God of any heauenly Roy. Which word was neuer yet receiued in our laÌ„guage for an English word Such extreme licentiousnesse is vtterly to be banished from our schoole and better it might haue bene borne with in old riming writers bycause they liued in a barbarous age were graue morall men but very homely Poets such also as made most of their workes by translation out of the Latine and French toung few or none of their owne engine as may easely be knowen to them that list to looke vpon the Poemes of both languages Finally as ye may ryme with wordes of all sortes be they of many sillables or few so neuerthelesse is there a choise by which to make your cadence before remembred most commendable for some wordes of exceeding great length which haue bene fetched from the Latine inkhorne or borrowed of strangers the vse of them in ryme is nothing pleasant sauing perchaunce to the common people who reioyse much to be at playes and enterludes and besides their naturall ignoraunce haue at all such times their eares so attentiue to the matter and their eyes vpon the shewes of the stage that they take little heede to the cunning of the rime and therefore be as well satisfied with that which is grosse as with any other finer and more delicate CHAP. IX Of concorde in long and short
nature of the ortographie in which I would as neare as I could obserue and keepe the lawes of the Greeke and Latine versifiers that is to prolong the sillable which is written with double consonants or by dipthong or with single consonants that run hard and harshly vpon the toung and to shorten all sillables that stand vpon vowels if there were no cause of elision and single consonants such of them as are most flowing and flipper vpon the toung as n.r.t.d.l. and for this purpose to take away all aspirations and many times the last consonant of a word as the Latine Poetes vsed to do specially Lucretius and Ennius as to say finibu for finibus and so would not I stick to say thus delite for delight hye for high and such like doth nothing at all impugne the rule I gaue before against the wresting of wordes by false ortographie to make vp rime which may not be falsified But this omission of letters in the middest of a meetre to make him the more slipper helpes the numerositie and hinders not the rime But generally the shortning or prolonging of the monosillables dependes much vpoÌ„ the nature of their ortographie which the Latin Grammariens call the rule of position as for example if I shall say thus NÅt mănÄe dayÄ“s pÄst Twentie dayes after This makes a good Dactill and a good spondeus but if ye turne them backward it would not do so as Many dayes not past And the distick made all of monosillables BÅ«t nÅne Åf Å«s trÅ«e mÄ“n Änd frÄ“e Could finde so great good lucke as he Which words serue well to make the verse all spondiacke or iambicke but not in dactil as other words or the same otherwise placed would do for it were an illfauored dactil to say BÅ«t nÅne Åf Å«s ăll trÄ•we Therefore whensoeuer your words will not make a smooth dactil ye must alter them or their situations or else turne them to other feete that may better beare their maner of sound and orthographie or if the word be polysillable to deuide him and to make him serue by peeces that he could not do whole and entierly And no doubt by like consideration did the Greeke Latine versifiers fashion all their feete at the first to be of sundry times and the selfe same sillable to be sometime long and sometime short for the eares better satisfaction as hath bene before remeÌ„bred Now also wheras I said before that our old Saxon English for his many monosillables did not naturally admit the vse of the ancient feete in our vulgar measures so aptly as in those languages which stood most vpon polisillables I sayd it in a sort truly but now I must recant and confesse that our Normane English which hath growen since William the Conquerour doth admit any of the auncient feete by reason of the many polysillables euen to sixe and seauen in one word which we at this day vse in our most ordinarie language and which corruption hath bene occasioned chiefly by the peeuish affectation not of the Normans them selues but of clerks and scholers or secretaries long since who not content with the vsual Normane or Saxon word would conuert the very Latine and Greeke word into vulgar French as to say innumerable for innombrable reuocable irreuocable irradiation depopulatioÌ„ such like which are not naturall Normans nor yet French but altered Latines and without any imitation at all which therefore were long time despised for inkehorne termes and now be reputed the best most delicat of any other Of which many other causes of corruption of our speach we haue in another place more amply discoursed but by this meane we may at this day very well receiue the auncient feete metricall of the Greeks and Latines sauing those that be superflous as be all the feete aboue the trissillable which the old Grammarians idly inuented and distinguisht by speciall names whereas in deede the same do stand compounded with the inferiour feete and therefore some of them were called by the names of didactilus dispondeus and disiambus all which feete as I say we may be allowed to vse with good discretion precise choise of wordes and with the fauorable approbation of readers and so shall our plat in this one point be larger and much surmount that which Stamhurst first tooke in hand by his exameters dactilicke and spondaicke in the translation of Virgills Eneidos and such as for a great number of them my stomacke can hardly digest for the ill shapen sound of many of his wordes polisillable and also his copulation of monosillables supplying the quantitie of a trissillable to his intent And right so in promoting this deuise of ours being I feare me much more nyce and affected and therefore more misliked then his we are to bespeake fauour first of the delicate eares then of the rigorous and seuere dispositions lastly to craue pardon of the learned auncient makers in our vulgar for if we should seeke in euery point to egall our speach with the Greeke and Latin in their metricall obseruations it could not possible be by vs perfourmed because their sillables came to be timed some of them long some of them short not by reason of any euident or apparant cause in writing or sounde remaining vpon one more then another for many times they shortned the sillable of sharpe accent and made long that of the flat therefore we must needes say it was in many of their wordes done by preelection in the first Poetes not hauing regard altogether to the ortographie and hardnesse or softnesse of a sillable consonant vowell or dipthong but at their pleasure or as it fell out so as he that first put in a verse this word Penelope which might be Homer or some other of his antiquitie where he made pÄ“ in both places long and nÄ• and lÅ short he might haue made them otherwise and with as good reason nothing in the world appearing that might moue them to make such preelection more in th' one sillable then in the other for pe ne and lo. being sillables vocals be egally smoth and currant vpon the toung and might beare aswel the long as the short time but it pleased the Poet otherwise so he that first shortned ca. in this word cano and made long tro in troia and o in oris might haue aswell done the contrary but because he that first put them into a verse found as it is to be supposed a more sweetnesse in his owne eare to haue them so tymed therefore all other Poets who followed were fayne to doe the like which made that Virgill who came many yeares after the first reception of wordes in their seuerall times was driuen of necessiitie to accept them in such quantities as they were left him and therefore said Ärmă uÄ rÅ«mqÅ«e că nÅ trÅ iÄ“ quì prÄ«mÅs ăb ÅrÄ«s. Neither truely doe I see any other reason in that lawe though in other rules of shortning and
be true iwis And tenders thee and all thy heale And vvisheth both thy health and vveale And is thine ovvne and so she sayes And cares for thee ten thousand vvayes Ye haue another maner of speach drawen out at length and going all after one tenure and with an imperfit sence till you come to the last word or verse which cōcludes the whole premisses with a perfit sence full periode Irmus or the Long loose the Greeks call it Irmus I call him the long loose thus appearing in a dittie of Sir Thomas Wyat where he describes the diuers distempers of his bed The restlesse state renuer of my smart The labours salue increasing my sorrow The bodies ease and troubles of my hart Quietour of mynde mine vnquiet foe Forgetter of paine remembrer of my woe The place of sleepe wherein I do but wake Be sprent with teares my bed I thee forsake Ye see here how ye can gather no perfection of sence in all this dittie till ye come to the last verse in these wordes my bed I thee forsake And in another Sonet of Petrarcha which was thus Englished by the same Sir Thomas Wyat. If weaker care if sodaine pale collour If many sighes with little speach to plaine Now ioy now woe if they my ioyes distaine For hope of small if much to feare therefore Be signe of loue then do I loue againe Here all the whole sence of the dittie is suspended till ye come to the last three wordes then do I loue againe which finisheth the song with a full and perfit sence When ye will speake giuing euery person or thing besides his proper name a qualitie by way of addition whether it be of good or of bad it is a figuratiue speach of audible alteration Epitheton or the Qualifier so is it also of sence as to say Fierce Achilles wise Nestor wilie Vlysses Diana the chast and thou louely Venus With thy blind boy that almost neuer misses But hits our hartes when he leuels at vs. Or thus commending the Isle of great Brittaine Albion hugest of Westerne Ilands all Soyle of sweete ayre and of good store God send we see thy glory neuer fall But rather dayly to grow more and more Or as we sang of our Soueraigne Lady giuing her these Attributes besides her proper name Elizabeth regent of the great Brittaine I le Honour of all regents and of Queenes But if we speake thus not expressing her proper name Elizabeth videl The English Diana the great Britton mayde Then is it not by Epitheton or figure of Attribution but by the figures Antonomasia or Periphrasis Ye haue yet another manner of speach when ye will seeme to make two of one not thereunto constrained which therefore we call the figure of Twynnes the Greekes Endiadis thus Endiadis or the Figure of Twinnes Not you coy dame your lowrs nor your lookes For your lowring lookes And as one of our ordinary rimers said Of fortune nor her frowning face I am nothing agast In stead of fortunes frowning face One praysing the Neapolitans for good men at armes said by the figure of Twynnes thus A proud people and wise and valiant Fiercely fighting with horses and with barbes By whose provves the Romain Prince did daunt Wild Affricanes and the lavvlesse Alarbes The Nubiens marching vvith their armed cartes And sleaing a farre vvith venim and vvith dartes Where ye see this figure of Twynnes twise vsed once when he said horses and barbes for barbd horses againe when he saith with venim and with dartes for venimous dartes CHAP. XVI Of the figures which we call Sensable because they alter and affect the minde by alteration of sence and first in single wordes THe eare hauing receiued his due satisfaction by the auricular figures now must the minde also be serued with his naturall delight by figures sensible such as by alteration of intendmentes affect the courage and geue a good liking to the conceit And first single words haue their sence and vnderstanding altered and figured many wayes to wit by transport abuse crosse-naming new naming change of name This will seeme very darke to you vnlesse it be otherwise explaned more particularly Metaphora or the Figure of transporte and first of Transport There is a kinde of wresting of a single word from his owne right signification to another not so naturall but yet of some affinitie or conueniencie with it as to say I cannot digest your vnkinde words for I cannot take them in good part or as the man of law said I feele you not for I vnderstand not your case because he had not his fee in his hand Or as another said to a mouthy Aduocate why barkest thou at me so sore Or to call the top of a tree or of a hill the crowne of a tree or of a hill for in deede crowne is the highest ornament of a Princes head made like a close garland or els the top of a mans head where the haire windes about and because such terme is not applyed naturally to a tree or to a hill but is transported from a mans head to a hill or tree therefore it is called by metaphore or the figure of transport And three causes moues vs to vse this figure one for necessitie or want of a better word thus As the drie ground that thirstes after a showr Seemes to reioyce when it is well iwet And speedely brings foorth both grasse and flowr If lacke of sunne or season doo not let Here for want of an apter and more naturall word to declare the drie temper of the earth it is said to thirst to reioyce which is onely proper to liuing creatures and yet being so inuerted doth not so much swerue from the true sence but that euery man can easilie conceiue the meaning thereof Againe we vse it for pleasure and ornament of our speach as thus in an Epitaph of our owne making to the honourable memorie of a deere friend Sir Iohn Throgmorton knight Iustice of Chester and a man of many commendable vertues Whom vertue rerde enuy hath ouerthrowen And lodged full low vnder this marble stone Ne neuer were his values so well knowen Whilest he liued here as now that he is gone Here these words rered ouerthrowen and lodged are inuerted metaphorically applyed not vpon necessitie but for ornament onely afterward againe in these verses No sunne by day that euer saw him rest Free from the toyles of his so busie charge No night that harbourd rankor in his breast Nor merry moode made reason runne at large In these verses the inuersion or metaphore lyeth in these words saw harbourd run which naturally are applyed to liuing things not to insensible as the sunne or the night yet they approch so neere so cōueniently as the speech is thereby made more commendable Againe in moe verses of the same Epitaph thus His head a source of grauitie and sence His memory a shop of ciuill arte
from the owne signification neuerthelesse applied to another not altogether contrary but hauing much cōueniencie with it as before we said of the metaphore as for example if we should call the common wealth a shippe the Prince a Pilot the Counsellours mariners the stormes warres the calme and hauen peace this is spoken all in allegorie and because such inuersion of sence in one single worde is by the figure Metaphore of whom we spake before and this manner of inuersion extending to whole and large speaches it maketh the figure allegorie to be called a long and perpetuall Metaphore A noble man after a whole yeares absence from his ladie sent to know how she did and whether she remayned affected toward him as she was when he left her Louely Lady I long full sore to heare If ye remaine the same I left you the last yeare To whom she answered in allegorie other two verses My louing Lorde I will well that ye wist The thred is spon that neuer shall vntwist Meaning that her loue was so stedfast and cōstant toward him as no time or occasion could alter it Virgill in his shepeherdly poemes called Eglogues vsed as rusticall but fit allegorie for the purpose thus Claudite iam riuos pueri sat prata biberunt Which I English thus Stop vp your streames my lads the medes haue drunk ther fill As much to say leaue of now yee haue talked of the matter inough for the shepheards guise in many places is by opening certaine sluces to water their pastures so as when they are wet inough they shut them againe this application is full Allegoricke Ye haue another manner of Allegorie not full but mixt as he that wrate thus The cloudes of care haue coured all my coste The stormes of strife do threaten to appeare The waues of woe wherein my ship is toste Haue broke the banks where lay my life so deere Chippes of ill chance are fallen amidst my choise To marre the minde that ment for to reioyce I call him not a full Allegorie but mixt bicause he discouers withall what the cloud storme waue and the rest are which in a full allegorie should not be discouered but left at large to the readers iudgement and coniecture We dissemble againe vnder couert and darke speaches when we speake by way of riddle Enigma of which the sence can hardly be picked out but by the parties owne assoile as he that said Enigma or the Riddle It is my mother well I wot And yet the daughter that I begot Meaning it by the I se which is made of frozen water the same being molten by the sunne or fire makes water againe My mother had an old womā in her nurserie who in the winter nights would put vs forth many prety ridles whereof this is one I haue a thing and rough it is And in the midst a hole I wis There came a yong man with his ginne And he put it a handfull in The good old Gentlewoman would tell vs that were children how it was meant by a furd glooue Some other naughtie body would peraduenture haue construed it not halfe so mannerly The riddle is pretie but that it holdes too much of the Cachemphaton or foule speach and may be drawen to a reprobate sence We dissemble after a sort when we speake by cōmon prouerbs Parimia or Prouerb or as we vse to call them old said sawes as thus As the olde cocke crowes so doeth the chick A bad Cooke that cannot his owne fingers lick Meaning by the first that the young learne by the olde either to be good or euill in their behauiours by the second that he is not to be counted a wise man who being in authority and hauing the administration of many good and great things will not serue his owne turne and his friends whilest he may many such prouerbiall speeches as Totnesse is turned French for a strange alteration Skarborow warning for a sodaine commandement allowing no respect or delay to bethinke a man of his busines Note neuerthelesse a diuersitie for the two last examples be prouerbs the two first prouerbiall speeches Ye doe likewise dissemble when ye speake in derision or mockerie that may be many waies as sometime in sport sometime in earnest and priuily and apertly and pleasantly and bitterly Ironia or the Drie mock but first by the figure Ironia which we call the drye mock as he that said to a bragging Ruffian that threatened he would kill and slay no doubt you are a good man of your hands or as it was said by a French king to one that praide his reward shewing how he had bene cut in the face at a certain battell fought in his seruice ye may see quoth the king what it is to runne away looke backwards And as Alphonso king of Naples said to one that profered to take his ring when he washt before dinner this wil serue another well meaning that the Gentlem◠had another time takē thē because the king forgot to aske for them neuer restored his ring againe Sarcasmus or the Bitter taunt Or when we deride with a certaine seueritie we may call it the bitter taunt Sarcasmus as Charles the fift Emperour aunswered the Duke of Arskot beseeching him recompence of seruice done at the siege of Renty against Henry the French king where the Duke was taken prisoner and afterward escaped clad like a Colliar Thou wert taken quoth the Emperour like a coward and scapedst like a Colliar wherefore get thee home and liue vpon thine owne Or as king Henry the eight said to one of his priuy chamber who sued for Sir Anthony Rowse a knight of Norfolke that his Maiestie would be good vnto him for that he was an ill begger Quoth the king againe if he be ashamed to beg we are ashamed to geue Or as Charles the fift Emperour hauing taken in battaile Iohn Frederike Duke of Saxon with the Lantgraue of Hessen and others this Duke being a man of monstrous bignesse and corpulence after the Emperor had seene the prisoners said to those that were about him I haue gone a hunting many times yet neuer tooke I such a swine before Asteismus or the Merry scoffe otherwise The ciuill iest Or when we speake by manner of pleasantery or mery skoffe that is by a kinde of mock whereof the sence is farrefet without any gall or offence The Greekes call it Asteismus we may terme it the ciuill iest because it is a mirth very full of ciuilitie and such as the most ciuill men doo vse As Cato said to one that had geuen him a good knock on the head with a long peece of timber he bare on his shoulder and then bad him beware what quoth Cato wilt thou strike me againe for ye know a warning should be geuen before a man haue receiued harme and not after And as king Edward the sixt being of young yeres but olde in wit saide
weight then another And as we lamented the crueltie of an inexorable and vnfaithfull mistresse If by the lavves of loue it be a falt The faithfull friend in absence to forget But if it be once do thy heart but halt A secret sinne vvhat forfet is so great As by despite in view of euery eye The solemne vovves oft svvorne vvith teares so salt And holy Leagues fast seald vvith hand and hart For to repeale and breake so vvilfully But novv alas vvithout all iust desart My lot is for my troth and much good vvill To reape disdaine hatred and rude refuse Or if ye vvould vvorke me some greater ill And of myne earned ioyes to feele no part What els is this ô cruell but to vse Thy murdring knife the guiltlesse bloud to spill Where ye see how she is charged first with a fault then with a a secret sinne afterward with a foule forfet last of all with a most cruell bloudy deede And thus againe in a certaine louers complaint made to the like effect They say it is a ruth to see thy louer neede But you can see me vveepe but you can see me bleede And neuer shrinke nor shame ne shed no teare at all You make my wounds your selfe and fill them vp with gall Yea you can see me sound and faint for want of breath And gaspe and grone for life and struggle still with death What can you now do more sweare by your maydenhead Then for to flea me quicke or strip me being dead In these verses you see how one crueltie surmounts another by degrees till it come to very slaughter and beyond for it is thought a despite done to a dead carkas to be an euidence of greater crueltie then to haue killed him After the Auancer followeth the abbaser working by wordes and sentences of extenuation or diminution Meiosis or the Disabler Whereupon we call him the Disabler or figure of Extenuation and this extenuation is vsed to diuers purposes sometimes for modesties sake and to auoide the opinion of arrogancie speaking of our selues or of ours as he that disabled himselfe to his mistresse thus Not all the skill I haue to speake or do Which litle is God wot set loue apart Liueload nor life and put them both thereto Can counterpeise the due of your desart It may be also done for despite to bring our aduersaries in contempt as he that sayd by one commended for a very braue souldier disabling him scornefully thus A â—â—â—ise man forsooth and fit for the warre Good at hand grippes better to fight a farre Whom bright weapon in shevv as it is said Yea his ovvne shade hath often made afraide The subtilitie of the scoffe lieth in these Latin wordes eminus cominus pugnare Also we vse this kind of Extenuation when we take in hand to comfort or cheare any perillous enterprise making a great matter seeme small and of litle difficultie is much vsed by captaines in the warre when they to giue courage to their souldiers will seeme to disable the persons of their enemies and abase their forces and make light of euery thing that might be a discouragement to the attempt as Hanniball did in his Oration to his souldiers when they should come to passe the Alpes to enter Italie and for sharpnesse of the weather and steepnesse of the mountaines their hearts began to faile them We vse it againe to excuse a fault to make an offence seeme lesse then it is by giuing a terme more fauorable and of lesse vehemencie then the troth requires as to say of a great robbery that it was but a pilfry matter of an arrant ruffian that he is a tall fellow of his hands of a prodigall foole that he is a kind hearted man of a notorious vnthrift a lustie youth and such like phrases of extenuation which fall more aptly to the office of the figure Curry fauell before remembred And we vse the like termes by way of pleasant familiaritie and as it were for a Courtly maner of speach with our egalls or inferiours as to call a young Gentlewoman Mall for Mary Nell for Elner Iack for Iohn Robin for Robert or any other like affected termes spoken of pleasure as in our triumphals calling familiarly vpon our Muse I called her Moppe But vvill you vveet My litle muse my prettie moppe If vve shall algates change our stoppe Chose me a svveet Vnderstanding by this word Moppe a litle prety Lady or tender young thing For so we call litle fishes that be not come to their full growth moppes as whiting moppes gurnard moppes Also such termes are vsed to be giuen in derision and for a kind of contempt as when we say Lording for Lord as the Spaniard that calleth an Earle of small reuenue Contadilio the Italian calleth the poore man by contempt pouerachio or pouerino the little beast animalculo or animaluchio and such like diminutiues apperteining to this figure the Disabler more ordinary in other languages than in our vulgar This figure of retire holds part with the propounder of which we spake before prolepsis because of the resumption of a former proposition vttered in generalitie to explane the same better by a particular diuision Epanodis or the figure of Retire But their difference is in that the propounder resumes but the matter only This retire resumes both the matter and the termes and is therefore accompted one of the figures of repetition and in that respect may be called by his originall Greeke name the Resounde or the retire for this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serues both sences resound and retire The vse of this figure is seen in this dittie following Loue hope and death do stirre in me much strife As neuer man but I lead such a life For burning loue doth vvound my heart to death And vvhen death comes at call of invvard grief Cold lingring hope doth feede my fainting breath Against my vvill and yeelds my vvound relief So that I liue but yet my life is such As neuer death could greeue me halfe so much Then haue ye a maner of speach Dialisis or the Dismembrer not so figuratiue as fit for argumentation and worketh not vnlike the dilemma of the Logicians because he propones two or moe matters entierly and doth as it were set downe the whole tale or rekoning of an argument and then cleare euery part by it selfe as thus It can not be but nigardship or neede Made him attempt this foule and vvicked deede Nigardship not for alvvayes he vvas free Nor neede for vvho doth not his richesse see Or as one that entreated for a faire young maide who was taken by the watch in London and carried to Bridewell to be punished Novv gentill Sirs let this young maide alone For either she hath grace of els she hath none If she haue grace she may in time repent If she haue none vvhat bootes her punishment Or as another pleaded his deserts
than by vsing too much surplusage The vice of Surplusage and this lieth not only in a word or two more than ordinary but in whole clauses and peraduenture large sentences impertinently spoken or with more labour and curiositie than is requisite The first surplusge the Greekes call Pleonasmus I call him too full speech and is no great fault as if one should say I heard it with mine eares and saw it vvith mine eyes as if a man could heare with his heeles or see with his nose We our selues vsed this superfluous speech in a verse written of our mistresse neuertheles not much to be misliked for euen a vice sometime being seasonably vsed hath a pretie grace For euer may my true loue liue and neuer die Pleonasmus or Too ful speech And that mine eyes may see her crownde a Queene As if she liued euer she could euer die or that one might see her crowned without his eyes Another part of surplusage is called Macrologia Macrologia or Long language or long language when we vse large clauses or sentences more than is requisite to the matter it is also named by the Greeks Perissologia as he that said the Ambassadours after they had receiued this answere at the kings hands they tooke their leaue and returned home into their countrey from whence they came So said another of our rimers meaning to shew the great annoy and difficultie of those warres of Troy caused for Helenas sake Nor Menelaus vvas vnwise Or troupe of Troians mad When he vvith them and they vvith him For her such combat had These clauses he vvith them and they vvith him are surplusage and one of them very impertinent because it could not otherwise be intended but that Menelaus fighting with the Troians the Troians must of necessitie sight with him Another point of surplusage lieth not so much in superfluitie of your words as of your trauaile to describe the matter which yee take in hand and that ye ouer-labour your selfe in your businesse And therefore the Greekes call it Periergia Periergia or Ouerlabour otherwise called the curious we call it ouer-labor iumpe with the originall or rather the curious for his ouermuch curiositie and studie to shew himselfe fine in a light matter as one of our late makers who in most of his things wrote very well in this to mine opinion more curiously than needed the matter being ripely considered yet is his verse very good and his meetre cleanly His intent was to declare how vpon the tenth day of March he crossed the riuer of Thames to walke in Saint Georges field the matter was not great as ye may suppose The tenth of March vvhen Aries receiued Dan Phoebus raies into his horned head And I my selfe by learned lore perceiued That Ver approcht and frosty vvinter fled I crost the Thames to take the cheerefull aire In open fields the vveather was so faire First the whole matter is not worth all this solemne circumstance to describe the tenth day of March but if he had left at the two first verses it had bene inough But when he comes with two other verses to enlarge his description it is not only more than needes but also very ridiculous for he makes wise as if he had not bene a mā learned in some of the mathematickes by learned lore that he could not haue told that the x. of March had fallen in the spring of the yeare which euery carter and also euery child knoweth without any learning Then also whē he saith Ver approcht and frosty winter fled though it were a surplusage because one season must needes geue place to the other yet doeth it well inough passe without blame in the maker These and a hundred more of such faultie and impertinent speeches may yee finde amongst vs vulgar Poets when we be carelesse of our doings Tapinosis or the Abbaser It is no small fault in a maker to vse such wordes and termes as do diminish and abbase the matter he would seeme to set forth by imparing the dignitie height vigour or maiestie of the cause he takes in hand as one that would say king Philip shrewdly harmed the towne of S. Quintaines when in deede he wanne it and put it to the sacke and that king Henry the eight made spoiles in Turwin when as in deede he did more then spoile it for he caused it to be defaced and razed flat to the earth and made it inhabitable Therefore the historiographer that should by such wordes report of these two kings gestes in that behalfe should greatly blemish the honour of their doings and almost speake vntruly and iniuriously by way of abbasement as another of our bad rymers that very indecently said A misers mynde thou hast thou hast a Princes pelfe A lewd terme to be giuen to a Princes treasure pelfe and was a little more manerly spoken by Seriant Bendlowes when in a progresse time comming to salute the Queene in Huntingtonshire he said to her Cochman stay thy cart good fellow stay thy cart that I may speake to the Queene whereat her Maiestie laughed as she had bene tickled and all the rest of the company although very graciously as her manner is she gaue him great thankes and her hand to kisse These and such other base wordes do greatly disgrace the thing the speaker or writer the Greekes call it Tapinosis we the abbaser Others there be that fall into the contrary vice by vsing such bombasted wordes as seeme altogether farced full of winde Bomphiologia or Pompious speech being a great deale to high and loftie for the matter whereof ye may finde too many in all popular rymers Then haue ye one other vicious speach with which we will finish this Chapter Amphibologia or the Ambiguous and is when we speake or write doubtfully and that the sence may be taken two wayes such ambiguous termes they call Amphibologia we call it the ambiguous or figure of sence incertaine as if one should say Thomas Tayler saw William Tyler dronke it is indifferent to thinke either th' one or th' other dronke Thus said a gentleman in our vulgar pretily notwithstanding because he did it not ignorantly but for the nonce I sat by my Lady soundly sleeping My mistresse lay by me butterly weeping No man can tell by this whether the mistresse or the man slept or wept these doubtfull speaches were vsed much in the old times by their false Prophets as appeareth by the Oracles of Delphos and and of the Sybilles prophecies deuised by the religious persons of those dayes to abuse the superstitious people and to encomber their busie braynes with vaine hope or vaine feare Lucianus the merry Greeke reciteth a great number of them deuised by a coosening companion one Alexander to get himselfe the name and reputation of the God Aesculapius and in effect all our old Brittish and Saxon prophesies be of the same sort that turne them on which side ye will
Agelastos or without laughter I haue seene forraine Embassadours in the Queenes presence laugh so dissolutely at some rare pastime or sport that hath beene made there that nothing in the world could worse haue becomen them and others very wise men whether it haue ben of some pleasant humour and complexion or for other default in the spleene or for ill education or custome that could not vtter any graue and earnest speech without laughter which part was greatly discommended in them And Cicero the wisest of any Romane writers thought it vncomely for a man to daunce saying Saltantem sobrium vidi neminem I neuer saw any man daunce that was sober and in his right wits but there by your leaue he failed nor our young Courtiers will allow it besides that it is the most decent and comely demeanour of all exultations and reioycements of the hart which is no lesse naturall to man then to be wise or well learned or sober To tell you the decencies of a number of other behauiours one might do it to please you with pretie reportes but to the skilfull Courtiers it shal be nothing necessary for they know all by experience without learning Yet some few remembraunces wee will make you of the most materiall which our selues haue obserued and so make an end It is decent to be affable and curteous at meales meetings in open assemblies more solemne and straunge in place of authoritie and iudgement not familiar nor pleasant in counsell secret and sad in ordinary conferences easie and apert in conuersation simple in capitulation subtill and mistrustfull at mournings and burials sad and sorrowfull in feasts and bankets merry ioyfull in houshold expence pinching and sparing in publicke entertainement spending and pompous The Prince to be sumptuous and magnificent the priuate man liberall with moderation a man to be in giuing free in asking spare in promise slow in performance speedy in contract circumspect but iust in amitie sincere in ennimitie wily and cautelous dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirit saith the Poet and after the same rate euery sort and maner of businesse or affaire or action hath his decencie and vndecencie either for the time or place or person or some other circumstaunce as Priests to be sober and sad a Preacher by his life to giue good example a Iudge to be incorrupted solitarie and vnacquainted with Courtiers or Courtly entertainements as the Philosopher saith Oportet iudicē esse rudem simplicem without plaite or wrinkle sower in looke and churlish in speach contrariwise a Courtly Gentleman to be loftie and curious in countenaunce yet sometimes a creeper and a curry fauell with his superiours And touching the person we say it is comely for a man to be a lambe in the house and a Lyon in the field appointing the decencie of his qualitie by the place by which reason also we limit the comely parts of a woman to consist in foure points that is to be a shrewe in the kitchin a saint in the Church an Angell at the bourd and an Ape in the bed as the Chronicle reportes by Mistresse Shore paramour to king Edward the fourth Then also there is a decency in respect of the persons with whō we do negotiate as with the great personages his egals to be solemne and surly with meaner men pleasant and popular stoute with the sturdie and milde with the meek which is a most decent conuersation and not reprochfull or vnseemely as the prouerbe goeth by those that vse the contrary a Lyon among sheepe and a sheepe among Lyons Right so in negotiating with Princes we ought to seeke their fauour by humilitie not by sternnesse nor to trafficke with thē by way of indent or condition but frankly and by manner of submission to their wils for Princes may be lead but not driuen nor they are to be vanquisht by allegation but must be suffred to haue the victorie and be relented vnto nor they are not to be chalenged for right or iustice for that is a maner of accusation nor to be charged with their promises for that is a kinde of condemnation and at their request we ought not to be hardly entreated but easily for that is a signe of deffidence and mistrust in their bountie and gratitude nor to recite the good seruices which they haue receiued at our hāds for that is but a kind of exprobratiō but in crauing their bountie or largesse to remember vnto them all their former beneficences making no mētion of our owne merites so it is thankfull and in praysing them to their faces to do it very modestly and in their commendations not to be excessiue for that is tedious and alwayes sauours of suttelty more then of sincere loue And in speaking to a Prince the voyce ought to be lowe and not lowde nor shrill for th' one is a signe of humilitie th' other of too much audacitie and presumption Nor in looking on them seeme to ouerlooke them nor yet behold them too stedfastly for that is a signe of impudence or litle reuerence and therefore to the great Princes Orientall their seruitours speaking or being spoken vnto abbase their eyes in token of lowlines which behauiour we do not obserue to our Princes with so good a discretion as they do such as retire from the Princes presence do not by by turne tayle to them as we do but go backward or sideling for a reasonable space til they be at the wal or chāber doore passing out of sight and is thought a most decent behauiour to their soueraignes I haue heard that king Henry th' eight her Maiesties father though otherwise the most gentle and affable Prince of the world could not abide to haue any man stare in his face or to fix his eye too steedily vpon him when he talked with them nor for a common suter to exclame or cry out for iustice for that is offensiue and as it were a secret impeachement of his wrong doing as happened once to a Knight in this Realme of great worship speaking to the king Nor in speaches with them to be too long or too much affected for th' one is tedious th' other is irksome nor with lowd acclamations to applaude them for that is too popular rude and betokens either ignoraunce or seldome accesse to their presence or little frequenting their Courts nor to shew too mery or light a countenance for that is a signe of little reuerence and is a peece of a contempt And in gaming with a Prince it is decent to let him sometimes win of purpose to keepe him pleasant neuer to refuse his gift for that is vndutifull nor to forgiue him his losses for that is arrogant nor to giue him great gifts for that is either insolence or follie nor to feast him with excessiue charge for that is both vaine and enuious therefore the wise Prince king Henry the seuenth her Maiesties grandfather if his chaunce