I nothing doubt, but
that euery one of you will be glad to heare so
profitable a discourse and thinke the time very wel
spent wherin so excellent a knowledge shal be
reuealed unto you, from which euery one may be
assured to gather some fruit as wel as myselfe.
Therefore (said I) turning myselfe to _M. Spenser_,
It is you, sir, to whom it pertaineth to shew
yourselfe courteous now unto us all and to make vs
all beholding unto you for the pleasure and profit
which we shall gather from your speeches, if you
shall vouchsafe to open unto vs the goodly cabinet,
in which this excellent treasure of vertues lieth
locked up from the vulgar sort. And thereof in the
behalfe of all as for myselfe, I do most earnestly
intreate you not to say vs nay. Vnto which wordes
of mine euery man applauding most with like words of
request and the rest with gesture and countenances
expressing as much, _M. Spenser_ answered in this
maner: Though it may seeme hard for me, to refuse
the request made by you all, whom euery one alone, I
should for many respects be willing to gratifie; yet
as the case standeth, I doubt not but with the
consent of the most part of you, I shall be excused
at this time of this taske which would be laid vpon
me, for sure I am, that it is not vnknowne unto you,
that I haue already vndertaken a work tending to the
same effect, which is in _heroical verse_ under the
title of a _Faerie Queene_ to represent all the
moral vertues, assigning to every vertue a Knight to
be the patron and defender of the same, in whose
actions and feates of arms and chiualry the
operations of that vertue, whereof he is the
protector, are to be expressed, and the vices and
unruly appetites that oppose themselves against the
same, to be beaten down and overcome. Which work,
as I haue already well entred into, if God shall
please to spare me life that I may finish it
according to my mind, your wish (_M. Bryskett_) will
be in some sort accomplished, though perhaps not so
effectually as you could desire. And the may very
well serue for my excuse, if at this time I craue to
be forborne in this your request, since any
discourse, that I might make thus on the sudden in
such a subject would be but simple, and little to
your satisfactions. For it would require good
aduisement and premeditation for any man to