{_Comicum._
{_Tragicum._
_Poeticum, in_ {_Epicum._
{_Melicum._
And here, who soeuer hath bene diligent to read aduisedlie
ouer, _Terence, Seneca, Virgil, Horace_, or els _Aristophanes, Sophocles,
Homer_, and _Pindar_, and shall diligently marke the difference
they vse, in proprietie of wordes, in forme of sentence, in
handlyng of their matter, he shall easelie perceiue, what is fitte
and _decorum_ in euerie one, to the trew vse of perfite Imitation.
Whan _M. Watson_ in S. Iohns College at Cambrige wrote his
excellent Tragedie of _Absalon, M. Cheke_, he and I, for that part
of trew Imitation, had many pleasant talkes togither, in com-
paring the preceptes of _Aristotle_ and _Horace de Arte Poetica_,
with the examples of _Euripides, Sophocles_, and _Seneca_. Few
men, in writyng of Tragedies in our dayes, haue shot at this
marke. Some in _England_, moe in _France, Germanie_, and _Italie_,
also haue written Tragedies in our tyme: of the which, not
one I am sure is able to abyde the trew touch of _Aristotles_
preceptes, and _Euripides_ examples, saue only two, that euer I
saw, _M. Watsons Absalon_, and _Georgius Buckananus Iephthe_.
One man in Cambrige, well liked of many, but best liked of
him selfe, was many tymes bold and busie, to bryng matters
vpon stages, which he called Tragedies. In one, wherby he
looked to wynne his spurres, and whereat many ignorant felowes
fast clapped their handes, he began the _Protasis_ with _Trochæijs
Octonarijs_: which kinde of verse, as it is but seldome and rare
in Tragedies, so is it neuer vsed, saue onelie in _Epitasi_: whan
the Tragedie is hiest and hotest, and full of greatest troubles.
I remember ful well what _M. Watson_ merelie sayd vnto me of
his blindnesse and boldnes in that behalfe although otherwise,
there passed much frendship betwene them. _M. Watson_ had an
other maner care of perfection, with a feare and reuerence of
the iudgement of the best learned: Who to this day would
neuer suffer, yet his _Absalon_ to go abroad, and that onelie,
bicause, in _locis paribus, Anapestus_ is twise or thrise vsed in stede
of _Iambus_. A smal faulte, and such one, as perchance would
neuer be marked, no neither in _Italie_ nor _France_. This I write,
not so much, to note the first, or praise the last, as to leaue in
_the ready way to the Latin tong._ 285
memorie of writing, for good example to posteritie, what
perfection, in any tyme, was, most diligentlie sought for in like
maner, in all kinde of learnyng, in that most worthie College
of S. Iohns in Cambrige.
{_Diaria._
{_Annales._
_Historicum in_ {_Commentarios._
{_Iustam Historiam._
For what proprietie in wordes, simplicitie in sentences,
plainnesse and light, is cumelie for these kindes, _Cæsar_ and
_Liuie_, for the two last, are perfite examples of Imitation: And
for the two first, the old paternes be lost, and as for some that
be present and of late tyme, they be fitter to be read once for
some pleasure, than oft to be perused, for any good Imitation of
them.
_Philosophicum in_ {_Sermonem_, as _officia Cic. et Eth. Arist._
{_Contentionem._
As, the Dialoges of _Plato, Xenophon_, and _Cicero_: of which
kinde of learnyng, and right Imitation therof, _Carolus Sigonius_
hath written of late, both learnedlie and eloquentlie: but best
of all my frende _Ioan. Sturmius_ in hys Commentaries vpon
_Gorgias Platonis_, which booke I haue in writyng, and is not yet
set out in Print.
{_Humile._
_Oratorium in_ {_Mediocre._
{_Sublime._
Examples of these three, in the _Greke_ tong, be plentifull &
perfite, as _Lycias, Isocrates_, and _Demosthenes_: and // _Lisias._
all three, in onelie _Demosthenes_, in diuerse orations // _Isocrates._
as _contra Olimpiodorum, in leptinem, & pro Ctesi-_ // _Demost._
_phonte_. And trew it is, that _Hermogines_ writeth
of _Demosthenes_, that all formes of Eloquence be perfite in him.
In _Ciceroes_ Orations, _Medium & sublime_ be most // _Cicero._
excellentlie handled, but _Humile_ in his Orations,
is seldome sene: yet neuerthelesse in other bookes, as in some
part of his offices, & specially _in Partitionibus_, he is comparable
_in hoc humili & disciplinabili genere_, euen with the best that euer