the bodie of a naked person, from the nauell downward, but
nothing else.
For word and speach, _Plautus_ is more plentifull, and _Terence_
more pure and proper: And for one respect, _Terence_ is to be
embraced aboue all that euer wrote in hys kinde of argument:
Bicause it is well known, by good recorde of learning, and that
by _Ciceroes_ owne witnes that some Comedies bearyng _Terence_
name, were written by worthy _Scipio_, and wise _Lælius_, and
namely _Heauton_: and _Adelphi_. And therefore as oft as I reade
those Comedies, so oft doth sound in myne eare, the pure fine
talke of Rome, which was vsed by the floure of the worthiest
nobilitie that euer Rome bred. Let the wisest man, and best
learned that liueth, read aduisedlie ouer, the first scene of
_Heauton_, and the first scene of _Adelphi_, and let him consideratlie
iudge, whether it is the talke of a seruile stranger borne, or
rather euen that milde eloquent wise speach, which _Cicero_ in
_Brutus_ doth so liuely expresse in _Lælius_. And yet neuerthelesse,
in all this good proprietie of wordes, and purenesse of phrases
which be in _Terence_, ye must not follow him alwayes in placing
of them, bicause for the meter sake, some wordes in him,
somtyme, be driuen awrie, which require a straighter placing in
plaine prose, if ye will forme, as I would ye should do, your
speach and writing, to that excellent perfitnesse, which was
onely in _Tullie_, or onelie in _Tullies_ tyme.
The meter and verse of _Plautus_ and _Terence_ be verie meane,
_Meter in_ // and not to be followed: which is not their reproch,
_Plautus &_ // but the fault of the tyme, wherein they wrote, whan
_Terence._ // no kinde of Poetrie, in the Latin tong, was brought
to perfection, as doth well appeare in the fragmentes
of _Ennius, Cæcilius_, and others, and euidentlie in _Plautus_ &
_Terence_, if thies in Latin be compared with right skil, with _Homer_,
_Euripides, Aristophanes_, and other in Greeke of like sort. _Cicero_
him selfe doth complaine of this vnperfitnes, but more plainly
_Quintilian_, saying, _in Comœdia maximè claudicamus, et vix leuem
consequimur vmbram_: and most earnestly of all _Horace in Arte
Poetica_, which he doth namely _propter carmen Iambicum_, and
referreth all good studentes herein to the Imitation of the Greeke
tong, saying.
_Exemplaria Græca
nocturna versate manu, versate diurna._
_the ready way to the Latin tong._ 289
This matter maketh me gladly remember, my sweete tyme
spent at Cambrige, and the pleasant talke which I had oft with
_M. Cheke_, and _M. Watson_, of this fault, not onely in the olde
Latin Poets, but also in our new English Rymers at this day.
They wished as _Virgil_ and _Horace_ were not wedded to follow
the faultes of former fathers (a shrewd mariage in greater
matters) but by right _Imitation_ of the perfit Grecians, had
brought Poetrie to perfitnesse also in the Latin tong, that we
Englishmen likewise would acknowledge and vnderstand right-
fully our rude beggerly ryming, brought first into Italie by
_Gothes_ and _Hunnes_, whan all good verses and all good learning
to, were destroyd by them: and after caryed into France and
Germanie: and at last, receyued into England by men of
excellent wit in deede, but of small learning, and lesse iudge-
ment in that behalfe.
But now, when men know the difference, and haue the
examples, both of the best, and of the worst, surelie, to follow
rather the _Gothes_ in Ryming, than the Greekes in trew versifiyng,
were euen to eate ackornes with swyne, when we may freely
eate wheate bread emonges men. In deede, _Chauser, Th.
Norton_, of Bristow, my L. of Surrey, _M. Wiat, Th. Phaer_,
and other Ientlemen, in translating _Ouide, Palingenius_, and
_Seneca_, haue gonne as farre to their great praise, as the copie
they followed could cary them, but, if soch good wittes, and
forward diligence, had bene directed to follow the best examples,
and not haue bene caryed by tyme and custome, to content
themselues with that barbarous and rude Ryming, emonges
their other worthy praises, which they haue iustly deserued,
this had not bene the least, to be counted emonges men of
learning and skill, more like vnto the Grecians, than vnto the
Gothians, in handling of their verse.
In deed, our English tong, hauing in vse chiefly, wordes of
one syllable which commonly be long, doth not well receiue the
nature of _Carmen Heroicum_, bicause _dactylus_, the aptest foote
for that verse, conteining one long & two short, is seldom there-
fore found in English: and doth also rather stumble than stand
vpon _Monosyllabis. Quintilian_ in hys learned Chapiter // hand.gif
_de Compositione_, geueth this lesson _de Monosyllabis_,
before me: and in the same place doth iustlie inuey against all
Ryming, that if there be any, who be angrie with me, for