I doubt not but you haue some great important matter in hande, which al
this while restraineth your penne, and wonted readinesse in prouoking
me vnto that wherein yourselfe nowe faulte. If there bee any such thing
in hatching, I pray you hartily lette vs knowe, before al the worlds
see it. But if happly you dwell altogither in Iustinians Courte, and
giue your selfe to be devoured of secreate studies, as of all
likelyhood you doe, yet at least imparte some your olde or newe, Latine
or Englishe, eloquent and gallant poesies to vs, from whose eves, you
saye, you keepe in a manner nothing hidden. Little newes is here
stirred, but that olde greate matter still depending. His Honoure neuer
better. I thinke the earthquake wyth you (which I would gladly learne),
as it was here with vs; ouerthrowing diuers old buildings and peeces of
churches. Sure verye straunge to be hearde of in these countries, and
yet I heare some saye (I knowe not howe truely) that they haue knowne
the like before in their dayes. _Sed quid vobis videtur magnis
philosophis?_ I like your late Englishe hexameters so exceedingly well,
that I also enure my penne sometime in that kinde: whyche I fynd,
indeede, as I haue heard you often defende in worde, neither so harde
nor so harshe, that it will easily and fairely yeelde it selfe to oure
moother tongue. For the onely or chiefest hardnesse whych seemeth is in
the accente, whyche sometime gapeth, and as it were yawneth
ilfauouredly, comming shorte of that it should, and sometime exceeding
the measure of the number; as in _carpenter_, the middle sillable being
vsed shorte in speache, when it shall be read long in verse, seemeth
like a lame gosling, that draweth one legge after hir: and _heauen_,
beeing vsed shorte as one sillable, when it is in verse, stretched out
with a _diastole_, is like a lame dogge that holdes vp one legge. But
it is to be wonne with custome, and rough words must be subdued with
vse. For why, a God’s name, may not we, as else the Greekes, haue the
kingdome of oure owne language, and measure our accents by the sounde,
reseruing the quantitie to the verse? Loe, here I let you see my olde
vse of toying in rymes, turned into your artificiall straightnesse of
verse by this _tetrasticon_. I beseech you tell me your fancie, without
parcialitie.
See yee the blindefolded pretie god, that feathered archer,
Of louers miseries which maketh his bloodie game?
Wote ye why his moother with a veale hath coouered his face?
Trust me, least he my looue happely chaunce to beholde.
Seeme they comparable to those two which I translated you _ex tempore_
in bed, the last time we lay togither in Westminster?
That which I eate, did I ioy, and that which I greedily gorged;
As for those many goodly matters leaft I for others.
I would hartily wish you would either send me the rules and precepts of
arte which you obscrue in quantities, or else followe mine, that M.
Philip Sidney gave me, being the very same which M. Drant deuised, but
enlarged with M. Sidneys own iudgement, and augmented with my
obseruations, that we might both accorde and agree in one; leaste we
ouerthrowe one an other, and be ouerthrown of the rest. Truste me, you
will hardly beleeue what greate good liking and estimation Maister Dyer
had of your _Satyricall Verses_, and I, since the viewe thereof, hauing
before of my selfe had speciall liking of Englishe versifying, am euen
nowe aboute to giue you some token what and howe well therein I am able
to doe: for, to tell you trueth, I minde shortely, at conuenient
leysure, to sette forth a booke in this kinde, whyche I entitle,
_Epithalamion Thamesis_, whyche booke I dare vndertake wil be very
profitable for the knowledge, and rare for the inuention and manner of
handling. For in setting forth the marriage of the Thames, I shewe his
first beginning, and offspring, and all the countrey that he passeth
thorough, and also describe all the riuers throughout Englande, whyche
came to this wedding, and their righte names and right passage, &c.; a
worke, beleeue me, of much labour, wherein notwithstanding Master
Holinshed hath muche furthered and aduantaged me, who therein hath
bestowed singular paines in searching oute their firste heades and
sourses, and also in tracing and dogging onto all their course, til
they fall into the sea.
_O Tite, siquid ego, Ecquid erit pretij?_
But of that more hereafter. Nowe, my _Dreames_ and _Dying Pellicane_
being fully finished (as I partelye signified in my laste letters) and
presentlye to bee imprinted, I wil in hande forthwith with my _Faery
Queene_, whyche I praye you hartily send me with al expedition: and
your frendly letters, and long expected judgement wythal, whyche let
not be shorte, but in all pointes suche as you ordinarilye vse and I
extraordinarily desire. _Multum vale. Westminster. Quarto Nonas
Aprilis, 1580. Sed, amabo te, meum Corculum tibi se ex animo commendat
plurimum: iamdiu mirata, te nihil ad literas suas responsi dedisse.
Vide quaeso, ne id tibi capitale sit: mihi certe quidem erit, neque
tibi hercle impune, vt opinor. Iterum vale, et quam voles soepe._ Yours
alwayes, to commaunde, IMMERITO.
_Postcripte._
I take best my _Dreames_ shoulde come forth alone, being growen, by
meanes of the Glosse (running continually in maner of a paraphrase),
full as great as my _Calendar_ Therin be some things excellently, and
many things wittily, discoursed of E. K., and the pictures so
singularly set forth and purtrayed, as if Michael Angelo were there, he
could (I think) nor amende the beste, nor reprehende the worst. I knowe
you woulde lyke them passing wel. Of my _Stemmata Dudleiana_, and
especially of the sundry apostrophes therein, addressed you knowe to
whome, muste more aduisement be had, than so lightly to sende them
abroade: howbeit, trust me, (though I doe never very well,) yet, in my
owne fancie, I neuer dyd better: _Veruntamen te sequor solum; nunquam
vero assequar._
_Extract from Harvey’s Reply._
But Master Collin Cloute is not euery body, and albeit his olde
companions, Master Cuddy & Master Hobbinoll, be as little be holding to
their Mistresse Poetrie as euer you wist, yet he peraduenture, by the
meanes of hir speciall fauour, and some personall priuiledge, may
happely line by Dying Pellicanes, and purchase great landes and
lordshippes with the money which his Calendar and Dreames haue and will
affourde him. _Extra iocum_, I like your Dreames passingly well; and
the rather, bicause they sauour of that singular extraordinarie veine
and inuention whiche I euer fancied moste, and in a manner admired
onelye in Lucian, Petrarche, Aretine, Pasquill, and all the most
delicate and fine conceited Grecians and Italians, (for the Romanes to
speake of are but verye ciphars in this kinde,) whose chiefest endeuour
and drifte was to haue nothing vulgare, but, in some respecte or other,
and especially in liuely hyperbolicall amplifications, rare, queint,
and odde in euery pointe, and, as a man woulde saye, a degree or two,
at the leaste, aboue the reache and compasse of a common scholars
capacitie. In whiche respecte notwithstanding, as well for the
singularitie of the manner as the diuinitie of the matter, I hearde
once a diuine preferre Saint Iohns Reuelation before al the veriest
metaphysicall visions and iolliest conceited dreames or extasies that
euer were deuised by one or other, howe admirable or super excellent
soeuer they seemed otherwise to the worlde. And truely I am so
confirmed in this opinion, that when I bethinke me of the verie
notablest and moste wonderful propheticall or poeticall vision that
euer I read, or hearde, meseemeth the proportion is so vnequall, that
there hardly appeareth anye semblaunce of comparison: no more in a
manner (specially for poets) than doth betweene the incomprehensible
wisedome of God and the sensible wit of man. But what needeth this
digression betweene you and me? I dare saye you wyll holde your selfe
reasonably wel satisfied, if youre Dreames be but as well esteemed of
in Englande as Petrarches Visions be in Italy; whiche, I assure you, is
the very worst I wish you. But see how I haue the arte memoratiue at
commaundement. In good faith, I had once again nigh forgotten your
Faerie Queene: howbeit, by good chaunce, I haue nowe sent hir home at
the laste, neither in better nor worse case than I founde hir. And must
you of necessitie haue my iudgement of hir indeede? To be plaine, I am
voyde of al iudgement, if your nine Comoedies, whervnto, in imitation
of Herodotus, you giue the names of the nine Muses, (and in one mans
fansie not vnworthily), come not neerer Ariostoes comoedies, eyther for
the finesse of plausible elocution or the rarenesse of poetical
inuention, than that Eluish Queene doth to his Orlando Furioso; which,
notwithstanding, you wil needes seeme to emulate, and hope to ouergo,
as you flatly professed yourself in one of your last letters. Besides
that, you know, it hath bene the vsual practise of the most exquisite
and odde wittes in all nations, and specially in Italie, rather to
shewe and aduaunce themselues that way than any other; as, namely,
those three notorious dyscoursing heads, Bibiena, Machiauel, and
Aretine, did, (to let Bembo and Ariosto passe,) with the great
admiration and wonderment of the whole countrey: being, in deede,
reputed matchable in all points, both for conceyt of witte and eloquent
decyphering of matters, either with Aristophanes and Menander in Greek,
or with Plautus and Terence in Latin, or with any other in any other
tong. But I wil not stand greatly with you in your owne matters. If so
be the Faerye Queeue be fairer in your eie than the nine Muses, and
Hobgoblin runne away with the garland from Apollo, marke what I saye:
and yet I will not say that I thought, but there an end for this once,
and fare you well, till God or some good aungell putte you in a better
minde.