As oft they lend, so oft they must be Debters,
If with the _Muses_ they will haue commerce:
Seldome at _Stawles_, me, this way men rehearse,
To mine _Inferiours_, not unto my _Betters:
_He stales his _Lines_ that so doeth them disperse;
I am so free, I loue not _Golden-fetters_.
And many _Lines_ fore _Writers_, be but Setters
To them which cheate with_ Papers; _which doth pierse,
Our Credits: when we shew our selues Abetters:
To those that wrong our knowledge: we rehearse
Often (my good _Iohn_; and I loue) thy_ Letters_;
Which lend me Credit, as I lend my _Verse_._

Michael Drayton.

Prefixed to Sir David Murray's _Sophonisba_ &c. (1611).

_To my kinde friend_ Da: Murray.

In new attire (and put most neatly on)
Thou _Murray_ mak'st thy passionate Queene apeare,
As when she sat on the Numidian throne,
Deck'd with those Gems that most refulgent were.
So thy stronge muse her maker like repaires,
That from the ruins of her wasted vrne,
Into a body of delicious ayres:
Againe her spirit doth transmigrated turne,
That scortching soile which thy great subiect bore,
Bred those that coldly but exprest her merit,
But breathing now vpon our colder shore,
Here shee hath found a noble fiery spirit,
Both there, and here, so fortunate for Fame,
That what she was, she's euery where the same.

M. DRAYTON.

Among the Panegyrical Verses before Coryat's _Crudities_ (1611).

_Incipit Michael Drayton_.

A briefe Prologue to the verses _following_.

Deare _Tom_, thy booke was like to come to light,
Ere I could gaine but one halfe howre to write;
They go before whose wits are at their noones,
_And I come after bringing Salt and Spoones._

Many there be that write before thy Booke,
For whom (except here) who could euer looke?
Thrice happy are all wee that had the Grace
To haue our names set in this liuing place.
Most worthy man, with thee it is euen thus,
As men take _Dottrels_, so hast thou ta'n vs.
Which as a man his arme or leg doth set,
So this fond Bird will likewise counterfeit:
Thou art the Fowler, and doest shew vs shapes
And we are all thy _Zanies_, thy true _Apes_. 10
I saw this age (from what it was at first)
Swolne, and so bigge, that it was like to burs