so in promoting
this deuise of ours being (I feare me) much more nyce and affected, and
therefore more misliked then his, we are to bespeake fauour, first of the
delicate eares, then of the rigorous and seuere dispositions, lastly to
craue pardon of the learned & auncient makers in our vulgar, for if we
should seeke in euery point to egall our speach with the Greeke and Latin
in their _metricall_ observations it could not possible be by vs
perfourmed, because their sillables came to be timed some of them long,
some of them short not by reason of any euident or apparant cause in
writing or sounde remaining vpon one more then another, for many times
they shortned the sillable of sharpe accent and made long that of the
flat, & therefore we must needes say, it was in many of their wordes done
by preelection in the first Poetes, not hauing regard altogether to the
_ortographie_, and hardnesse or softnesse of a sillable, consonant, vowell
or dipthong, but at their pleasure, or as it fell out: so as he that first
put in a verse this word [_Penelope_] which might be _Homer_ or some other
of his antiquitie, where he made [_pe-_] in both places long and [_ne`_]
and [_lo`_] short, he might haue made them otherwise and with as good
reason, nothing in the world appearing that might moue them to make such
(preelection) more in th'one sillable then in the other for _pe_,
_ne_, and _lo_, being sillables vocals be egally smoth and currant vpon
the toung, and might beare aswel the long as the short time, but it
pleased the Poet otherwise: so he that first shortned, _ca_, in this word
_cano_, and made long _tro_, in _troia_, and _o_, in _oris_, might haue
aswell done the contrary, but because he that first put them into a verse,
found as it is to be supposed a more sweetnesse in his owne eare to haue
them so tymed, therefore all other Poets who followed, were fayne to doe
the like, which made that _Virgill_ who came many yeares after the first
reception of wordes in their seuerall times, was driuen of neceisiitie to
accept them in such quantities as they were left him and therefore said.
_a-rma` ni` ru-mqu-e ca`ro- tro- ie- qui- pri-mu`s a`bo-ris._

Neither truely doe I see any other reason in that lawe (though in other
rules of shortning and prolonging a sillable there may be reason) but that
it stands vpon bare tradition. Such as the _Cabalists_ auouch in their
mysticall constructions Theologicall and others, saying that they receaued