THE AUTHOUR’S EPISTLE VNTO HIS FRIENDE.
Reading edition
[Before the edition 1578.]
Sir, it woulde be too manifest an argument of a nature degeneratyng from al gentrie, if I shoulde not consider of your request, you asking and vrging both honest and profitable thyngs. I therfore to ensure you, that I am not forgetful of your demaund, presumyng like blynd Bayard to this my boldnesse, haue not with Apolloe’s pensile, but with Pan’s pleasantlesse pen, indeuoured to endite that which you are so desirous to haue done. And although I once translated for you, Ouid, De remedio amoris, as you said, to your contentation, we beyng then in Cambridge, where aske helpe, and haue helpe, might be had: yet nowe I wyl ensure you, lyke one amazed, I haue strayned my strength vnto the vttermost, being desirous to finish this woorke. You know that loue matters be agreeing with Caliope’s quill; euery apprentise can, of such matter, make a meter. But how hard a thing it is to compell Clio, with her boysterous banners, to couch vnder the compasse of a few metered lines, I referre you vnto the good Turberuile, who so soone as he began to take the terrible treatise of Lucan in hand, he was inforst to vnyoke his steeres, and to make holy day.[1164] Shal I then with Bochas pen declare the falles of the vnfortunate Princes of the olde worlde? O, intollerable presumption, that timorous Tyro shoulde dare to deale with menasing Mars: or that a young infant should offer to put on the buskins of Hercules: shall I then with silence ceasse to accomplish your request? O, singuler ingratitude, that any friend should refuse to sweate, to pleasure and profite his friend. Doo you not consider, that al the fine wyts that England hath inioyed these many yeres, haue busied their braynes very much, to make an English Mirrour for Magistrates, which booke is left euen vnto this day, like the vnperformed image of Venus, paynted by Apelles? no man is able to finish the work, which they with Homer’s hawtie heroycal style haue begunne: and yet you woulde haue me (the least of the poets,) to make trial what I am able to doo therin. But me thinke I do heare you say, as you were woont, we being conuersant together: “What meane al these wordes? thou knowest that the vayne of thy verse doth most delight my humor. And seeing it is but for my priuate study, what meane you to allege all these allegations, as though Orestes were Zoilus?” Syr, I confesse al this to be true: yet this I speake, to signifie vnto you, howe willyng the good wyl I doo beare vnto you hath made me, being otherwise vnwillyng to beare a sayle in such rough weather, where euery sea is ready to deuoure me. And when with sayles and oares (as they say,) I with al my diligence endeuoured to compasse the thing nowe accomplished, I founde myselfe euen in the myddest of the matter, clapt close with Theseus, in a returnable labarinth, to fight with despayre that miserable Minotaur: where, when I could finde no Ariadne, to lende me a bottome of twist, I looked that Parcæ shoulde haue shread my twyne before my returne. Yet at the last wandring Erato, with her sister Terpsichore perceiuing me with such diligence to trauise that maze, they willing to helpe the desyres of my mynd, said thus vnto me:
Come forth thou wandring wight this way, Doo followe vs outright: We geue thee leaue, with poets’ penne, On Princes’ falles to write.
Wherewith they leadyng me vnto the fountayne Permestus, I without any further determination, gallopped through the rest, whiche when leysure shall geue you leaue to reade, ceasse then to thinke on the L. Buchurst, or Sackuyll,[1165] let Gascon and Churchyarde be forgotten. And if you chaunce to see the meter, or matter, not so well polished, as beseemeth, then remember that they whose falles I haue here penned, were not of late tyme, but suche as lyued presently after the incarnation of Christe: and I haue not thought it decent, that the men of the olde worlde shoulde speake with so garnished a style, as they of the latter tyme.
Moreouer, you may, if you please to consider that souldiers, of whiche I am one by profession, wee be not alwayes lusking in our forte or castle, but be as tyme and occasion wyll permyt, here to-day, wee knowe least our selues where tomorrowe. And I wyll ensure you, the most part of these my Princes dyd pleade their causes vnto me euen in the sea, a place, in fayth, not meete to penne Tragedies. And as for bookes, I was altogether destitute: for when I, to please my fantasie, trauayled (as you knowe) I could not beare about with me a library: but for cariage sake, contented myself with these foure: With the third Decade of Titus Liuye, with Bossewell’s Concordes of Armorie, with Monsignor de Lange, that notable warriour, and with the vnperfect Mirrour for Magistrates: which bookes made nothing to this purpose. I had not those Chronicles whiche other men had: my Memorie and Inuention were vnto me in stead of Grafton, Polidore, Cooper, and suche like, who dyd greatly ayde other men. And last of al you must consider, that the other part of the miseries of those miserable Princes were written, I sittyng on a rocke in the sea, not in Spaine, Italie, Fraunce, Scotlande, or Englande, but in Garnzie Castle, where although there be learned men, yet none whiche spende their tyme so vainely as in Poetrie. So that the complaintes of these men were written (as I say) where the want of helpe dyd diuersly daunt me with despayre. You haue greatly requested me by your last letter, to make vnto you a discourse of the Ile of Garnzie, and howe it is possible for the castle to be a place so pleasaunt for habitation, as I haue reported it, seeing it standeth in the Sea, separate from any lande. Good Syr, to write thereof (so manyfolde be the commodities and thinges woorthy the writyng of) woulde rather require a good volume, then a peece of an epistle. Let it therefore suffice for this tyme, that I by writyng vnto you some fewe lines of the Gouernour, I may briefely declare what the gouernement and commodities be. The right woorshipful Maister Thomas Leighton is her Maiesties Lieutenaunt there.
Syr, I doo remember, howe constant Constantine the Great was in religion, and howe that noble Emperour mynded the reformation thereof. You knowe howe carefull Licurgus and Solon were, for making of good lawes, and ministring of iustice. And histories doo recorde, howe passing happye Epaminundas was in al his affayres: but what a seemely sight is it, to see al these vertues so to concurre in one man, that hee who shoulde compare hym with them, should, I wyl ensure you, doo hym great iniurie? for (that I may briefly conclude) vndoubtedly a few such men as he is, being plaste at a Princes’ elbow, were sufficient to keepe the most ruinous commonweale that is, from ruine and destruction. And now iudge you the commodities of the countrey, by the goodnesse of the Gouernour, for as Seneca sayeth:—
Where Gouernours be good, and rule their charge aright, Without an ebbe there flowes the flood, which vertuous minds delight.
And heere I doo turne me from these thinges, vntill by talke with you, I may dilate more at large therof, and returning myselfe vnto my former purpose, I haue not thought it conuenient to write the complaynts of these men, with so obscure a stile as some other haue done, but with so playne an exposition, that he who doth reade them, shall not neede to be an Oedipus, for euery playne Dauus shall by reading them, easily vnderstand the authour’s drift. And because Diligence and Memorie bee all the helpers that I haue, therefore I haue ordayned them, as the chief workers of my wyll. Higgins vsed (I know not what) Morpheus, the god of dreames, but I dreamt not. The other had Baldwine for their hearer, but I haue diligent Inquisition, who can finde out al things, and Memorie, who knoweth al thinges, for the arbiters of my matter. Take you therefore, the fruites of these my idle howres, sent vnto you with a good wyll, and according vnto the trust reposed in you, keepe these trifles from the view of all men, and as you promysed, them not raunge out of your priuate study. And thus wishing vnto you honour, and long lyfe, I ende, the 15 daye of Maye, An. 1577.
Your Friende to vse. Thomas Blener Hasset.