I wouldnot wish the simple sort offended for too bee,
When in this booke the heathen names of feyned Godds they see.
The trewe and euerliuing God the Paynims did not knowe:
Which caused them the name of Godds on creatures too bestow.
For nature beeing once corrupt and knowledge blynded quyght
By Adams fall, those little seedes and sparkes of heauenly lyght
That did as yit remayne in man, endeuering foorth too burst
And wanting grace and powre too growe too that they were at furst,
Too superstition did decline: and draue the fearefull mynd,
Straunge woorshippes of the liuing God in creatures for too fynd.
The which by custome taking roote, and growing so too strength,
Through Sathans help possest the hartes of all the world at length.
Some woorshipt al the hoste of heauen: some deadmens ghostes & bones:
Sum wicked feends: sum wormes & fowles, herbes, fishes, trees & stones.
The fyre, the ayre, the sea, the land, and euery roonning brooke,
Eche queachie groue, eche cragged cliffe the name of Godhead tooke.
The nyght and day, the fleeting howres, the seasons of the yeere,
And euery straunge and monstruous thing, for Godds mistaken weere.
There was no vertue, no nor vice: there was no gift of mynd
Or bodye, but some God thertoo or Goddesse was assignde.
Of health and sicknesse, lyfe and death, of needinesse and wealth,
Of peace and warre, of loue and hate, of murder, craft and stealth,
Of bread and wyne, of slouthfull sleepe, and of theyr solemne games,
And euery other tryfling toy theyr Goddes did beare the names.
And looke how euery man was bent too goodnesse or too ill,
He did surmyse his foolish Goddes enclyning too his will.
For God perceyuing mannes peruers and wicked will too sinne
Did giue him ouer too his lust too sinke or swim therin.
By meanes wherof it came too passe (as in this booke yee see)
That all theyr Goddes with whoordome, theft, or murder blotted bee.
Which argues them too bee no Goddes, but woorser in effect
Than they whoose open poonnishment theyr dooings dooth detect.
Whoo seeing Ioue whom heathen folke doo arme with triple fyre
In shape of Eagle, bull or swan too winne his foule desyre?
Or grysly Mars theyr God of warre intangled in a net
By Venus husband purposely too trappe him warely set?
Whoo seeing Saturne eating vp the children he begate?
Or Venus dalying wantonly with euery lustie mate?
Whoo seeing Iuno play the scold? or Phoebus moorne and rew
For losse of her whom in his rage through iealous moode he slew?
Or else the suttle Mercurie that beares the charmed rod
Conueying neate and hyding them would take him for a God?
For if theis faultes in mortall men doo iustly merit blame,
What greater madnesse can there bee than too impute the same
Too Goddes, whoose natures ought too bee most perfect, pure and bright,
Most vertuous, holly, chaast, and wyse, most full of grace and lyght?
But as there is no Christen man that can surmyse in mynd
That theis or other such are Goddes which are no Goddes by kynd:
So would too God there were not now of christen men profest,
That worshipt in theyr deedes theis Godds whose names they doo detest.
Whoose lawes wee keepe his thralles wee bee, and he our God indeede,
So long is Christ our God as wee in christen lyfe proceede.
But if wee yeeld too fleshlye lust, too lucre, or too wrath,
Or if that Enuy, Gluttony, or Pryde the maystry hath.
Or any other kynd of sinne the thing the which wee serue,
Too bee accounted for our God most iustly dooth deserue.
Then must wee thinke the learned men that did theis names frequent,
Some further things and purposes by those deuises ment.
By Ioue and Iuno vnderstand all states of princely port:
By Ops and Saturne auncient folke that are of elder sort:
By Phoebus yoong and lusty brutes of hand and courage stout:
By Mars the valeant men of warre that loue too feight it out:
By Pallas and the famous troupe of all the Muses nyne,
Such folke as in the sciences and vertuous artes doo shyne.
By Mercurie the suttle sort that vse too filch and lye,
With theeues, and Merchants whoo too gayne theyr trauell doo applye.
By Bacchus all the meaner trades and handycraftes are ment:
By Venus such as of the fleshe too filthie lust are bent.
By Neptune such as keepe the seas: By Phebe maydens chast,
And Pilgrims such as wandringly theyr tyme in trauell waste.
By Pluto such as delue in mynes, and Ghostes of persones dead:
By Vulcane smythes and such as woorke in yron, tynne or lead.
By Hecat witches, Coniurers, and Necromancers reede:
With all such vayne and deulish artes as superstition breede.
By Satyres, Syluanes, Nymphes and Faunes with other such besyde,
The playne and simple country folke that euery where abyde.
I know theis names too other thinges oft may and must agree
In declaration of the which I will not tedious bee.
But leaue them too the Readers will too take in sundry wyse,
As matter rysing giueth cause constructions too deuyse.
Now when thou readst of God or man, in stone, in beast, or tree
It is a myrrour for thy self thyne owne estate too see.
For vnder feyned names of Goddes it was the Poets guyse,
The vice and faultes of all estates too taunt in couert wyse.
And likewyse too extoll with prayse such things as doo deserue.
Obseruing alwayes comlynesse from which they doo not swarue.
And as the persone greater is of birth, renowne or fame,
The greater euer is his laud, or fouler is his shame.
For if the States that on the earth the roome of God supply,
Declyne from vertue vntoo vice and liue disorderly,
Too Eagles, Tygres, Bulles, and Beares, and other figures straunge
Bothe too theyr people and themselues most hurtfull doo they chaunge,
And when the people giue themselues too filthie life and synne,
What other kinde of shape thereby than filthie can they winne?
So was Licaon made a Woolfe: and Ioue became a Bull:
The tone for vsing crueltie, the toother for his trull.
So was Elpenor and his mates transformed intoo swyne,
For following of theyr filthie lust in women and in wyne.
Not that they lost theyr manly shape as too the outward showe.
But for that in their brutish brestes most beastly lustes did growe.
For why this lumpe of flesh and bones this bodie is not wee.
Wee are a thing which earthly eyes denyed are too see.
Our soule is wee endewd by God with reason from aboue:
Our bodie is but as our house, in which wee woorke and moue.
Tone part is common too vs all, with God of heauen himself:
The toother common with the beastes, a vyle and stinking pelf.
The tone bedect with heauenly giftes and endlesse: toother grosse,
Fraylie, filthie, weake, and borne too dye as made of earthly drosse.
Now looke how long this clod of clay too reason dooth obey,
So long for men by iust desert account our selues wee may.
But if wee suffer fleshly lustes as lawlesse Lordes too reigne,
Than are we beastes, wee are no men, wee haue our name in vaine.
And if wee be so drownd in vice that feeling once bee gone,
Then may it well of vs bee sayd, wee are a block or stone.
This surely did the Poets meene when in such sundry wyse
The pleasant tales of turned shapes they studyed too deuyse.
There purpose was too profite men, and also too delyght
And so too handle euery thing as best might like the sight.
For as the Image portrayd out in simple whight and blacke
(Though well proportiond, trew and faire) if comly colours lacke,
Delyghteth not the eye so much, nor yet contentes the mynde
So much as that that shadowed is with colours in his kynde:
Euen so a playne and naked tale or storie simply told
(Although the matter bee in deede of valewe more than gold)
Makes not the hearer so attent too print it in his hart,
As when the thing is well declarde, with pleasant termes and art.
All which the Poets knew right well: and for the greater grace,
As Persian kings did neuer go abrode with open face,
But with some lawne or silken skarf, for reuerence of theyr state:
Euen so they following in their woorkes the selfsame trade and rate,
Did vnder couert names and termes theyr doctrines so emplye,
As that it is ryght darke and hard theyr meening too espye.
But beeing found it is more sweete and makes the mynd more glad,
Than if a man of tryed gold a treasure gayned had.
For as the body hath his ioy in pleasant smelles and syghts:
Euen so in knowledge and in artes the mynd as much delights.
Wherof aboundant hoordes and heapes in Poets packed beene
So hid that (sauing vntoo fewe) they are not too bee seene.
And therfore whooso dooth attempt the Poets woorkes too reede,
Must bring with him a stayed head and iudgement too proceede.
For as there bee most wholsome hestes and precepts too bee found,
So are theyr rockes and shallowe shelues too ronne the ship a ground.
Some naughtie persone seeing vyce shewd lyuely in his hew,
Dooth take occasion by and by like vices too ensew.
Another beeing more seuere than wisdome dooth requyre,
Beeholding vice (too outward shewe) exalted in desyre,
Condemneth by and by the booke and him that did it make.
And willes it too be burnd with fyre for lewd example sake.
These persons ouershoote themselues, and other folkes deceyue:
Not able of the authors mynd the meening too conceyue.
The Authors purpose is too paint and set before our eyes
The lyuely Image of the thoughts that in our stomackes ryse.
Eche vice and vertue seemes too speake and argue too our face,
With such perswasions as they haue theyr dooinges too embrace.
And if a wicked persone seeme his vices too exalt,
Esteeme not him that wrate the woorke in such defaultes too halt.
But rather with an vpryght eye consyder well thy thought:
See if corrupted nature haue the like within thee wrought.
Marke what affection dooth perswade in euery kynd of matter.
Iudge if that euen in heynous crymes thy fancy doo not flatter.
And were it not for dread of lawe or dread of God aboue,
Most men (I feare) would doo the things that fond affections moue.
Then take theis woorkes as fragrant flowers most full of pleasant iuce.
The which the Bee conueying home may put too wholsome vse:
And which the spyder sucking on too poyson may conuert,
Through venym spred in all her limbes and natiue in her hart.
For too the pure and Godly mynd, are all things pure and cleene,
And vntoo such as are corrupt the best corrupted beene:
Lyke as the fynest meates and drinkes that can bee made by art
In sickly folkes too nourishment of sicknesse doo conuert.
And therefore not regarding such whose dyet is so fyne
That nothing can digest with them onlesse it bee deuine,
Nor such as too theyr proper harme doo wrest and wring awrye
The thinges that too a good intent are written pleasantly,
Through Ouids woorke of turned shapes I haue with peinfull pace
Past on vntill I had atteynd the end of all my race.
And now I haue him made so well acquainted with our toong
As that he may in English verse as in his owne bee soong.
Wherein although for pleasant style, I cannot make account,
Too match myne author, who in that all other dooth surmount:
Yit (gentle Reader) doo I trust my trauell in this cace
May purchase fauour in thy sight my dooings too embrace:
Considring what a sea of goodes and Iewelles thou shalt fynd,
Not more delyghtfull too the eare than frutefull too the mynd.
For this doo lerned persons deeme, of Ouids present woorke:
That in no one of all his bookes the which he wrate, doo lurke
Mo darke and secret misteries, mo counselles wyse and sage,
Mo good ensamples, mo reprooues of vyce in youth and age,
Mo fyne inuentions too delight, mo matters clerkly knit,
No nor more straunge varietie too shew a lerned wit.
The high, the lowe: the riche, the poore: the mayster, and the slaue:
The mayd, the wife: the man, the chyld: the simple and the braue:
The yoong, the old: the good, the bad: the warriour strong and stout:
The wyse, the foole: the countrie cloyne: the lerned and the lout:
And euery other liuing wight shall in this mirrour see
His whole estate, thoughtes, woordes and deedes expresly shewd too bee.
Whereof if more particular examples thou doo craue,
In reading the Epistle through thou shalt thy longing haue.
Moreouer thou mayst fynd herein descriptions of the tymes:
With constellacions of the starres and planettes in theyr clymes:
The Sites of Countries, Cities, hilles, seas, forestes, playnes and floods:
The natures both of fowles, beastes, wormes, herbes, mettals, stones & woods,
And finally what euer thing is straunge and delectable,
The same conueyed shall you fynd most featly in some fable.
And euen as in a cheyne eche linke within another wynds,
And both with that that went before and that that followes binds:
So euery tale within this booke dooth seeme too take his ground
Of that that was reherst before, and enters in the bound
Of that that folowes after it: and euery one giues light
Too other: so that whoo so meenes too vnderstand them ryght,
Must haue a care as well too know the thing that went before,
As that the which he presently desyres too see so sore.
Now too thintent that none haue cause heereafter too complaine
Of mee as setter out of things that are but light and vaine,
If any stomacke be so weake as that it cannot brooke,
The liuely setting forth of things described in this booke,
I giue him counsell too absteine vntill he bee more strong,
And for too vse Vlysses feat ageinst the Meremayds song.
Or if he needes will heere and see and wilfully agree
(Through cause misconstrued) vntoo vice allured for too bee,
Then let him also marke the peine that dooth therof ensue,
And hold himself content with that that too his fault is due.

FINIS