2
On euerie
syde, wheras I glaunce my rouyng eye,
3Silence in all eares bent I playnly do e
spie:
4But if your egre lookes doo longe
suche toyes to
see,
5As heretofore in commycall wi
se, were wont abroade to bee:
6Your lu
st is lo
st, and all the plea
sures that you
sought,
7Is fru
strate quite of toying Playes. A
soden change is wrought,
8For loe, our Au
cthors
Muse, that ma
sked in delight,
9Hath for
st his Penne agayn
st his kinde, no more
suche
sportes to write.
10Mu
se he that lu
st,
(right wor
shipfull
) for chaunce hath made this change,
11For that to
some he
seemed too muche, in yonge de
sires to range:
12In whiche, right glad to plea
se:
seyng that he did o
ffende;
13Of all he humblie pardon craues: his Pen that shall amende:
14And yet
(worwipfull Audience,
) thus much I dare aduouche.
15In Commedies, the greate
st Skyll is this, rightly to touche
16All thynges to the quicke: and eke to frame eche per
son
so,
17That by his common talke, you may his nature rightly know:
18A Roy
ster ought not preache, that were to
straunge to heare,
19But as from vertue he doth
swerue,
so ought his woordes appeare:
20The olde man is
sober, the yonge man ra
she, the Louer triumphyng in ioyes,
21The Matron graue; the Harlat wilde and full of wanton toyes.
22Whiche all in one cour
se they no wi
se doo agree:
23So corre
spondent to their kinde their
speeches ought to bee.
24Which
speeches well pronoun
ste, with a
ction liuely framed,
25If this o
ffende the lookers on, let
Horace then be blamed,
26Which hath our Author taught at Schole, from whom he doth not
swarue,
27In all
suche kinde of exerci
se decorum to ob
serue,
28Thus much for his defence
(he
sayth
) as Poetes ear
st haue donne,
29Which heretofore in Commodies the
selfe
same ra
se did ronne:
30But now for to be briefe, the matter to expre
s
s
e,
31Which here wee
shall present: is this
Damon and
Pithias,
32A rare en
sample of Frend
ship true, it is no Legend lie,
33But a thinge once donne in deede as Hy
stories doo di
scrie,
34Whiche doone of yore in longe time pa
st, yet pre
sent
shalbe here,
35Euen as it were in dooynge now,
so liuely it
shall appeare:
36Lo here in
Siracus
ae
thauncient Towne, which once the Romaines wonne,
37Here
Dioni
sius Pallace, within who
se Courte this thing mo
st
strange was donne,
38Which matter mixt with myrth and care, a iu
st name to applie,
39As
seemes mo
st fit wee haue it termed, a Tragicall Commedie,
40Wherein talkyng of Courtly toyes, wee doo protest this
flat,
41Wee talke of
Dioni
sius Courte, wee meane no Court but that,
42And that wee doo
so meane, who wy
sely calleth to minde,
The
A.ij.