_—un boschetto, Donne per quello givan fior cogliendo, Con diletto, co' quel, co' quel dicendo; Eccolo, eccol! . . che à?—è fiordaliso! Va là per le viole; Più colà per le rose, cole, cole, Vaghe amorose. O me, che' l prun mi punge! Quell' altra me v' aggiunge. U', ù, o, ch' è quel che salta? Un grillo! un grillo! Venite qua, correte, Ramponzoli cogliete; E' non con essi! Si, son!—colei o colei Vien qua, vien qua per funghi, un micolino Piu colà, più cola per sermollino._ UGOLINO UBALDINI _or_ FRANCO SACCHETTI. If the particulars seem too large or to be over tediously insisted upon, consider in how many impertinent and trifling discourses and actions the best of us do consume far more hours than the perusal of this requires minutes, and yet think it no tediousness: and let them call to mind how many volumes this age imprints and reads which are foolish if not wicked. Let them be persuaded likewise, that I have not written this for those who have no need thereof, or to shew my own wit or compendiousness but to instruct the ignorant; to whom I should more often speak in vain, if I did not otherwhile by repetitions and circumlocutions, stir up their affections, and beat into their understandings the knowledge and feeling of those things which I deliver. Yea, let them know that I know those expressions will be both pleasing and profitable to some which they imagine to be needless and superabundant; and that I had rather twenty nice critics should censure me for a word here and there superfluous than that one of those other should want that which might explain my meanings to their capacities, and so make frustrate all my labour to those who have most need of it, and for whom it was chiefly intended. G. WITHER. _Tempus ad hoc mecum latuit, portuque resedit, Nec fuit audaces impetus ire vias. Nunc animi venere; juvat nunc denique funem Solvere:—— Ancora sublata est; terræ, portusque valete! Imus; habet ventos nostra carina suos._ WALLIUS. POSTSCRIPT. There was a certain Pisander whose name has been preserved in one of the proverbial sayings of the Greeks, because he lived in continual fear of seeing his own ghost. How often have I seen mine while arranging these volumes for publication, and carrying them through the press! Twenty years have elapsed since the intention of composing them was conceived, and the composition commenced, in what manner and in what mood the reader will presently be made acquainted. The vicissitudes which in the course of those years have befallen every country in Europe are known to every one; and the changes, which, during such an interval, must have occurred in a private family, there are few who may not, from their own sad experience, readily apprehend.