The Prologue

IS often as I cōsydre, these olde noble cle[…]k[…]
Poetis, Oratours, & Phylosopher[…] sectes thre[…]
Howe wonderfull they were, in all theyr werkes
Howe eloquent, howe inuentyue in euery degre
Halfe amased I am, and as a d[…]ed tre
Stonde styll, ouer […]ude for to brynge forth
Any fruyte or sentence, that is ought worth[…]

[…]euertheles though rude I be, in all cōtrynyng
Of matts, yet sōwhat to make, I nede not to care
I se many a one occupyed, in the same thynge
[…]o vnlerned men nowe a dayes, wyll not spare
To wryte, to bable, theyr myndes to declare
Trowynge them selfe, gay fantasyes to drawe
when all theyr cunnynge is not worth a strawe.

Some ī french Cronycles, gladly doth presu[…]
Some in Englysshe, blyndly wade and wander
Another in laten bloweth forth a darke […]me
As wyse as a great hedded Asse of Al[…]andr[…]
Some in Phylosophye, lyke a gage[…]yng[…] gand[…]
Begynn[…]th lustely the browes to set vp
And at the last concludeth, in the good ale cup[…]

Finis Prologus. […]uod. T. M.