misliking of Ryming, may be angry for company to, with _Quintilian_ also, for the same thing: And yet _Quintilian_ had not so iust cause to mislike of it than, as men haue at this day. And although _Carmen Exametrum_ doth rather trotte and hoble, than runne smothly in our English tong, yet I am sure, our English tong will receiue _carmen Iambicum_ as naturallie, as either _Greke_ or _Latin_. But for ignorance, men can not like, & for idlenes, men will not labor, to cum to any perfitenes at all. For, as the worthie Poetes in _Athens_ and _Rome_, were more carefull to satisfie the iudgement of one learned, than rashe in pleasing the humor of a rude multitude, euen so if men in England now, had the like reuerend regard to learning skill and iudgement, and durst not presume to write, except they came with the like learnyng, and also did vse like diligence, in searchyng out, not onelie iust measure in euerie meter, as euerie ignorant person may easely do, but also trew quantitie in euery foote and sillable, as onelie the learned shalbe able to do, and as the _Grekes_ and _Romanes_ were wont to do, surelie than rash ignorant heads, which now can easely recken vp fourten sillables, and easelie stumble on euery Ryme, either durst not, for lacke of such learnyng: or els would not, in auoyding such labor, be hand.gif // so busie, as euerie where they be: and shoppes in London should not be so full of lewd and rude rymes, as commonlie they are. But now, the ripest of tong, be readiest to write: And many dayly in setting out bookes and balettes make great shew of blossomes and buddes, in whom is neither, roote of learning, nor frute of wisedome at all. Some that make _Chaucer_ in English and _Petrarch_ in _Italian_, their Gods in verses, and yet be not able to make trew difference, what is a fault, and what is a iust prayse, in those two worthie wittes, will moch mislike this my writyng. But such men be euen like followers of _Chaucer_ and _Petrarke_, as one here in England did folow Syr _Tho. More_: who, being most vnlike vnto him, in wit and learnyng, neuertheles in wearing his gowne awrye vpon the one shoulder, as Syr _Tho. More_ was wont to do, would nedes be counted lyke vnto him. This mislikyng of Ryming, beginneth not now of any newfangle singularitie, but hath bene long misliked of many, and that of men, of greatest learnyng, and deepest iudgement. And soch, that defend it, do so, either for lacke of knowledge _the ready way to the Latin tong._ 291