Professional Documents
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Dole and despayre, let those be thy delight,
Wrapped in woes that cannot bee vnfolde,
To wayle the day, and weepe the weary night,
With rayny eyne and sighes cannot be tolde,
And let no wight thy woe seeke to withholde:
But count thee worthy (wretch) of sorrowe’s store,
That suffering much, oughtst still to suffer more.
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T. S.[1660]
[“How like you this my maisters?” quoth[1661] I. “Very well,” sayd
one: “the tragedy excelleth: the inuention also of the induction, and
the descriptions are notable. But wheras hee fayneth to talke with
the princes in hell, that I am sure will bee mislyked, because it is
most certayne, that some of theyr soules be in heauen. And although
hee herein doe follow allowed poets, in their description of hell, yet it
sauoureth so much of purgatory, which the papistes haue digged
thereout, that the ignorant may thereby bee deceiued.” “Not a whit I
warrant you,” sayd I,[1662] “for hee meaneth not by his hell the place
eyther of damned soules, or of such as lye for their fees, but rather
the graue, wherein the dead bodyes of all sorts of people doe rest till
time of the resurrection. And in this sence is hell taken often in the
scriptures, and in the writings of learned christians. And so, as hee
himselfe hath told mee, hee meaneth, and so would haue it taken.”
“Tush,” quoth[1663] another, “what stand we here vpon? it is a poesy,
and no diuinity: and it is lawfull for poets to faine what they list, so it
bee appertinent to the matter: and therefore let it passe euen in such
sort as you haue read it.” “With a good will,” quoth[1664] I. “But
whereas you say a poet may faine what he list: in deede me
thinke[1665] it should bee so, and ought to be well taken of the
hearers: but it hath not at all times beene so allowed.” “Yee say
troth,” quoth[1666] the reader: “for here followeth in the story, that
after the death of this duke, one called Collingbourne was cruelly put
to death for making of a rime.” “I haue his tragedy here,” sayd[1667] I.
For the better perceiuing whereof, you must imagine that you see
him a maruailous well fauoured man, holding in his hand his owne
heart, newely ripped out of his breast, and smoaking forth the liuely
spirite: and with his hand,[1668] beckening to and fro, as it were to
warne vs to auoide: and with his faint tongue and voice, saying as
couragiously as bee may, these words that followe.]
How Collingbourne was cruelly
executed for making a foolish ryme.
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Wee know our faults as well as any other,
Wee also doubt the daungers from them due:
Yet still wee trust so right to rule[1678] the rother,
That scape we shall the sourges that ensue:
We thinke we know more[1679] shifts than other knew:
In vayne therefore for vs are counsailes writ:
Wee know our faults, and will not mend a whit.
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In case of slaunder, [the] lawes[1735] requyre no more,
Saue to amend that seemed not well sayde:[1736]
Or to vnsay the slaunder’s sayde afore,
And aske forgiuenes for the hasty brayde:
To heretikes no greater payne is layde,
Then to recant theyr errours, or retract:
And worse then these can be no writer’s acte.
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