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 m