great losse, _Theopompus_ and _Eph[orus]_: In Poetrie _æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes_, and somwhat of _Menander, Demosthenes_ sister sonne. Now, let Italian, and Latin it self, Spanishe, French, Douch, and Englishe bring forth their lerning, // Learnyng, and recite their Authors, _Cicero_ onelie excepted, // chiefly con- and one or two moe in Latin, they be all patched // teined in cloutes and ragges, in comparison of faire wouen // the Greke, broade clothes. And trewelie, if there be any // and in no o- good in them, it is either lerned, borowed, or // ther tong. stolne, from some one of those worthie wittes of _Athens_. The remembrance of soch a common welthe, vsing soch discipline and order for yougthe, and thereby bringing forth to their praise, and leauing to vs for our example, such Capitaines for warre, soch Councelors for peace, and matcheles masters, for all kinde of learninge, is pleasant for me to recite, and not irksum, I trust, for other to heare, except it be soch, as make neither counte of vertue nor learninge. And whether, there be anie soch or no, I can not well tell: yet I hear saie, some yong Ientlemen of oures, // Contem- count it their shame to be counted learned: and // ners of perchance, they count it their shame, to be // learnyng. counted honest also, for I heare saie, they medle as litle with the one, as with the other. A meruelous case, that Ientlemen shold so be ashamed of good learning, and neuer a whit ashamed of ill maners: soch do saie for them, that the Ientlemen of France do so: which is a lie, as // Ientlemen God will haue it. _Langæus_, and _Bellæus_ that be // of France. dead, & the noble _Vidam_ of Chartres, that is aliue, and infinite mo in France, which I heare tell of, proue this to be most false. And though som, in France, which will nedes be Ientlemen, whether men will or no, and haue more ientleshipe in their hat, than in their hed, be at deedlie feude, with both learning and honestie, yet I beleue, if that noble Prince, king _Francis_ the first were aliue, they shold haue, neither place in // Franciscus his Courte, nor pension in his warres, if he had // I. Nobilis. knowledge of them. This opinion is not French, // Francorum but plaine Turckishe: from whens, some Frenche // Rex. fetche moe faultes, than this: which, I praie God, kepe out of 214 _The first booke teachyng_