misliking of Ryming, may be angry for company to, with
_Quintilian_ also, for the same thing: And yet _Quintilian_ had
not so iust cause to mislike of it than, as men haue at this day.
And although _Carmen Exametrum_ doth rather trotte and
hoble, than runne smothly in our English tong, yet I am sure,
our English tong will receiue _carmen Iambicum_ as naturallie, as
either _Greke_ or _Latin_. But for ignorance, men can not like, &
for idlenes, men will not labor, to cum to any perfitenes at all.
For, as the worthie Poetes in _Athens_ and _Rome_, were more
carefull to satisfie the iudgement of one learned, than rashe in
pleasing the humor of a rude multitude, euen so if men in
England now, had the like reuerend regard to learning skill and
iudgement, and durst not presume to write, except they came
with the like learnyng, and also did vse like diligence, in
searchyng out, not onelie iust measure in euerie meter, as euerie
ignorant person may easely do, but also trew quantitie in euery
foote and sillable, as onelie the learned shalbe able to do, and as
the _Grekes_ and _Romanes_ were wont to do, surelie than rash
ignorant heads, which now can easely recken vp fourten sillables,
and easelie stumble on euery Ryme, either durst not, for lacke
of such learnyng: or els would not, in auoyding such labor, be
hand.gif // so busie, as euerie where they be: and shoppes in
London should not be so full of lewd and rude
rymes, as commonlie they are. But now, the ripest of tong,
be readiest to write: And many dayly in setting out bookes and
balettes make great shew of blossomes and buddes, in whom is
neither, roote of learning, nor frute of wisedome at all. Some that
make _Chaucer_ in English and _Petrarch_ in _Italian_, their Gods in
verses, and yet be not able to make trew difference, what is
a fault, and what is a iust prayse, in those two worthie wittes,
will moch mislike this my writyng. But such men be euen
like followers of _Chaucer_ and _Petrarke_, as one here in England
did folow Syr _Tho. More_: who, being most vnlike vnto him, in
wit and learnyng, neuertheles in wearing his gowne awrye vpon
the one shoulder, as Syr _Tho. More_ was wont to do, would
nedes be counted lyke vnto him.
This mislikyng of Ryming, beginneth not now of any
newfangle singularitie, but hath bene long misliked of many,
and that of men, of greatest learnyng, and deepest iudgement.
And soch, that defend it, do so, either for lacke of knowledge
_the ready way to the Latin tong._ 291
what is best, or els of verie enuie, that any should performe that
in learnyng, whereunto they, as I sayd before, either for
ignorance, can not, or for idlenes will not, labor to attaine vnto.
And you that prayse this Ryming, bicause ye neither haue
reason, why to like it, nor can shew learning to defend it, yet I
will helpe you, with the authoritie of the oldest and learnedst
tyme. In _Grece_, whan Poetrie was euen at the hiest pitch of per-
fitnes, one _Simmias Rhodius_ of a certaine singularitie wrote a
booke in ryming _Greke_ verses, naming it oon, conteyning the
fable, how _Iupiter_ in likenes of a swan, gat that egge vpon _Leda_,
whereof came _Castor, Pollux_ and faire _Elena_. This booke was
so liked, that it had few to read it, but none to folow it:
But was presentlie contemned: and sone after, both Author and
booke, so forgotten by men, and consumed by tyme, as scarse
the name of either is kept in memorie of learnyng: And the like
folie was neuer folowed of any, many hondred yeares after
vntill y^e _Hunnes_ and _Gothians_, and other barbarous nations, of
ignorance and rude singularitie, did reuiue the same folie agayne.
The noble Lord _Th._ Earle of Surrey, first of all English
men, in translating the fourth booke of _Virgill_: // The Earle of
and _Gonsaluo Periz_ that excellent learned man, // Surrey.
and Secretarie to kyng _Philip_ of _Spaine_, in // _Gonsaluo_
translating the _Vlisses of Homer_ out of _Greke_ into // _Periz._
_Spanish_, haue both, by good iudgement, auoyded the fault of
Ryming, yet neither of them hath fullie hite perfite and trew
versifiyng. In deede, they obserue iust number, and euen feete:
but here is the fault, that their feete: be feete without ioyntes,
that is to say, not distinct by trew quantitie of sillables: And so,
soch feete, be but numme feete: and be, euen as vnfitte for
a verse to turne and runne roundly withall, as feete of brasse or
wood be vnweeldie to go well withall. And as a foote of wood,
is a plaine shew of a manifest maime, euen so feete, in our
English versifiing, without quantitie and ioyntes, be sure signes,
that the verse is either, borne deformed, vnnaturall and lame,
and so verie vnseemlie to looke vpon, except to men that be
gogle eyed them selues.
The spying of this fault now is not the curiositie of English
eyes, but euen the good iudgement also of the best // _Senese_
that write in these dayes in _Italie_: and namelie of // _Felice_
that worthie _Senese Felice Figliucci_, who, writyng // _Figliucci._