The. ii. chapyter

BUt yet shall you now se his wyt and hys truth bothe a lytell better tryed, euyn vpon thys same place, in whiche with hys huge excsa macyons he maketh hys parte so playne.

As for oportet of whyche he speketh here, we shall talke of after in another place. But now to wchynge this worde they meruaysed / mayster Masker sayth thus. That is not so, nor there is no suche worde in the texte. So you se good readers that he sayth two thyn ges. One that it is not so, and another that there is no such worde there in ye texte. As for the word good reader I wyll not greately stryue with hym. But where he sayth it is not so, and therin affermeth that they meruaysed not: I thynke the wordes of the text wyll wel […] my sayeng. For good reader, whan they sayde, How can he geue vs his flesh to eate? And whan they sayd, Thys word is harde and who can here it: Do not these wordes proue that they meruayled and thought it straunge, whā they called it so hard yt no man might abide to heare it, […] how he could do it, bycause they thought it impossible? Now you se good readers, yt gospell sayth the selfe same thynge that I say, thought it say not the self same worde / and therfore lyeth mayster Masker in sayenge it is not so.

But by thys wyse waye of mayster Masher, yf I had wryten that Absolon was angry with Amnō his¹ brother for violatynge his syster Thamar: mayster Masher wolde say, so good reader here thou hast not a taste but a tunne full of Morys per nicyouse peruertyng of goddys holy word / & as thou seest hym here falsely and pestilently destroye the pure sense of goddes worde, so doth he in all other places of his workes. For where he sayth yt Absolon was angry with Amnon, it is not so, neyther is there any such worde in the texte / except More wyl expoune oderat […], id est irascebatur ei / he hated him, yt is to saye, he was angry with hym / as he expouneth murmurabāt id est mirabantur / they murmured, that is to say the meruayled. And thus maye thys poete make a man to sygnyfye an asse. For the byble sayeth not as More sayth, that Asolon was angry with Amnon. For the texte sayeth no more, but that Asolon hated Amnon, and caused hym to be kylled.

Now lyke you now good reders this wyse solucyon of mayster Mas ker? This proueth not hym a poete that can make a man signyfye an asse but proueth hym rather in stede of a poete, and in stede of a man, a very starke asse in dede.

Footnotes

1. 2. Reg. 13.
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