I cannot leave _Tirtheus_ pollicy untouched, who by force of his pen could incite men to the defence of theyr countrye. If you require of ye Oracle of _Apollo_ what successe you shal have: _respondet bellicoso numine_. Lo now you see your objections my answers, you behold or may perceive manifestlye that Poetes was the first raysors of cities, prescribers of good lawes, mayntayners of religion, disturbors of the wicked, advancers of the wel disposed, inve[n]tors of laws, and lastly the very fo[o]tpaths to knowledg and understa[n]ding. Ye if we sho[u]ld beleve Herome he will make _Platos_ exiles honest me[n] and his pestiferous poets good preachers: for he accounteth _Orpheus Museus and Linus, Christians_, therefore _Virgil_ (in his 6 boke of _Æneiados_ wher he lernedly describeth ye journey of _Æneas_ to _Elisum_) asserteneth us, yt among them yt were ther for the zeale they beare toward there country, ther wer found _Quinque pii vates et Phoebo digna loquti_ but I must answer al objectio[n]s, I must fil every nooke. I must arme myself now, for here is the greatest bob I can gather out of your booke forsoth _Ovids_ abuses, in descrybing whereof you labour very vehementlye termi[n]g him letcher, and in his person dispraise all poems, but shall on[e] mans follye destroye a universal comodity? What gift what perfit knowledg hath ther bin, emong ye professors of w^c ther hath not bin a bad on [?] the Angels have sinned in heave[n], _Ada[m] and Eve_ in earthly paradise, emo[n]g ye holy apostles ungratious Judas. I reson not yt al poets are holy but I affirme yt poetry is a heave[n]ly gift, a perfit gift then which I know not greater plesure. And surely if I may speak my mind I thi[n]k we shall find but few poets if it were exactly wayd what they oughte to be: your _Muscovian_ straungers, your _Scithian_ monsters wonderful, by one _Eurus_ brought upon one stage in ships made of Sheepeskins, wyll not prove you a poet nether your life alow you to bee of that learning: if you had wisely wayed ye abuse of poetry, if you had reprehended ye foolish fantasies of our poets _nomine non re_ which they bring forth on stage, my self would have liked of you and allowed your labor. But I perceive nowe yt all red colloured stones are not Rubies, nether is every one _Alexandar_ yt hath a stare in his cheeke, al lame men are not _Vulcans_, nor hooke nosed men _Ciceroes_, nether each professer a poet, I abhore those poets that savor of ribaldry, I will with the zealous admit the expullcion of suche enormities. Poetry is dispraised not for the folly that is in it, but for the abuse whiche manye ill Wryters couller by it. Beleeve me the magestrats may take advise (as I knowe wisely can) to roote out those odd rymes which runnes in every rascales mouth. Savoring of rybaldry, those foolishe ballets that are admitted make poets good and godly practises to be refused. I like not of a wicked _Nero_ that wyll expell _Lucan_, yet admit I of a zealous governour that