THE EXCUSATION OF THE AUCTOUR.
Unto all Poetes I do me excuse,
If that I offende for lacke of science;
This lyttle boke yet do ye not refuse,
Though it be devoyde of famous eloquence;
Adde or detra by your hye sapience;
And pardon me of my hye enterpryse,
Whiche of late this fable dyd fayne and devise.
Go, little boke! I praye God the save
From misse metryng by wrong impression;
And who that ever list the for to have,
That he perceyve well thyne intencion,
For to be grounded without presumption,
As for to eschue the synne of ydlenes;
To make suche bokes I apply my busines.
Besechyng God for to geve me grace
Bokes to compyle of moral vertue;
Of my maister Lidgate to folowe the trace,
His noble fame for laude and renue,
Whiche in his lyfe the slouthe did eschue;
Makyng great bokes to be in memory,
On whose soule I pray God have mercy.
FINIS.
¶ Imprinted at London in Fletestreate, at the signe of the
Hande and Starre, by Rychard Tottell.
Anno M.D.L.V.