_Solon_ can fayne himself madde, to further the Athenians. _Chaucer_ in pleasant vain can rebuke sin uncontrold, and though he be lavish in the letter, his sence is serious. Who in Rome lame[n]ted not Roscius death? And ca[n]st thou suck no plesure out of thy _M. Claudians_ writings? Hark what _Cellarius_ a learned father attributed to it, _acuit memoriam_ (saith he) it profiteth the memory. Yea, and _Tully_ attributeth it for prais to _Archias_ yt upon any theame he co[u]ld versify exte[m]pory. Who liketh not of the promptness of _Ovid_? Who not unworthely co[u]ld boast of himself thus _Quicquid conabar dicere versus erat_. Who then doothe not wonder at poetry? Who thinketh not yt it procedeth fro[m] above? What made ye Chians and Colophonians fal to such controversy? Why seke ye Smirnians to recover fro[m] ye Salaminians the prais of _Homer_? Al wold have him to be of ther city, I hope not for harme, but because of his knoledge. _Themistocles_ desireth to be acquainted with those w^c could best discipher his praises. Even _Marius_ himselfe, tho never so cruel, acco[m]pted of _Plotinus_ poems. What made _Aphricanus_ esteme _Ennius_? Why did Alexander give prais to _Achilles_ but for ye prayses which he found writte[n] of hym by _Homer_? Why estemed _Pompie_ so muche of _Theophanes Mitiletus_, or _Brutus_ so greatlye the wrytinges of _Accius_? _Fuluius_ was so great a favorer of poetry, that after the Aetolian warres, he attributed to the Muses those spoiles that belonged to Mars. In all the Romaine conquest, h[e]ardest thou ever of a slayne Poete? nay rather the Emperours honored them, beautified them with benefites, and decked their sanctuaries which [with] sacrifice. _Pindarus_ colledg is not fit for spoil of _Alexander_ overcome, nether feareth poetry ye persecutors sword. What made _Austin_ so much affectate ye heavenly fury? not folly, for if I must needes speake, _illud non ausim affirmare_, his zeale was in setting up the house of God, not in affectate eloquence, he wrot not, he accompted not. He honnored not, so much that (famous poetry) whyche we prayse, without cause, for if it be true that _Horace_ reporteth in his booke _de arte poetica_, all the answeares of the Oracles weare in verse. Among the precise Jewes you shall find Poetes, and for more majestie _Sibilla_ will prophesie in verse. _Hiroaldus_ can witnes with me, that _David_ was a poet, and that his vayne was in imitating (as S. Jerom witnesseth) _Horace_, _Flaccus_, and _Pindarus_, somtimes his verse runneth in an _Iambus_ foote, anone he hath recourse to a _Saphier_ vaine, and _aliquando, semipede ingreditur_. Ask _Josephus_, and he will tel you that Esay, Job and Salomon voutsafed poetical practises, for (if _Origen_ and he fault not) theyre verse was _Hexameter and pentameter_. Enquire of _Cassiodorus_, he will say that all the beginning of Poetrye proceeded from the Scripture. _Paulinus_ tho the byshop of _Nolanum_ yet voutsafe the name of a Poet, and