And here, who soeuer hath bene diligent to read aduisedlie ouer, _Terence, Seneca, Virgil, Horace_, or els _Aristophanes, Sophocles, Homer_, and _Pindar_, and shall diligently marke the difference they vse, in proprietie of wordes, in forme of sentence, in handlyng of their matter, he shall easelie perceiue, what is fitte and _decorum_ in euerie one, to the trew vse of perfite Imitation. Whan _M. Watson_ in S. Iohns College at Cambrige wrote his excellent Tragedie of _Absalon, M. Cheke_, he and I, for that part of trew Imitation, had many pleasant talkes togither, in com- paring the preceptes of _Aristotle_ and _Horace de Arte Poetica_, with the examples of _Euripides, Sophocles_, and _Seneca_. Few men, in writyng of Tragedies in our dayes, haue shot at this marke. Some in _England_, moe in _France, Germanie_, and _Italie_, also haue written Tragedies in our tyme: of the which, not one I am sure is able to abyde the trew touch of _Aristotles_ preceptes, and _Euripides_ examples, saue only two, that euer I saw, _M. Watsons Absalon_, and _Georgius Buckananus Iephthe_. One man in Cambrige, well liked of many, but best liked of him selfe, was many tymes bold and busie, to bryng matters vpon stages, which he called Tragedies. In one, wherby he looked to wynne his spurres, and whereat many ignorant felowes fast clapped their handes, he began the _Protasis_ with _Trochæijs Octonarijs_: which kinde of verse, as it is but seldome and rare in Tragedies, so is it neuer vsed, saue onelie in _Epitasi_: whan the Tragedie is hiest and hotest, and full of greatest troubles. I remember ful well what _M. Watson_ merelie sayd vnto me of his blindnesse and boldnes in that behalfe although otherwise, there passed much frendship betwene them. _M. Watson_ had an other maner care of perfection, with a feare and reuerence of the iudgement of the best learned: Who to this day would neuer suffer, yet his _Absalon_ to go abroad, and that onelie, bicause, in _locis paribus, Anapestus_ is twise or thrise vsed in stede of _Iambus_. A smal faulte, and such one, as perchance would neuer be marked, no neither in _Italie_ nor _France_. This I write, not so much, to note the first, or praise the last, as to leaue in _the ready way to the Latin tong._ 285 memorie of writing, for good example to posteritie, what perfection, in any tyme, was, most diligentlie sought for in like maner, in all kinde of learnyng, in that most worthie College of S. Iohns in Cambrige. {_Diaria._ {_Annales._ _Historicum in_ {_Commentarios._ {_Iustam Historiam._