Text-fig. 53. “Reubarbe” = Centaurea rhaponticum L. [Lyte, A Niewe Herball, 1578].
Lyte occasionally adds a criticism of his own in a different type from that used in the main body of the text. At the beginning of the book, there is a long set of doggerel verses “in commendation of this worke,” which imply that Rembert Dodoens himself made additions to the English translation. The most important stanza is the following:—
“Great was his toyle, whiche first this worke dyd frame.
And so was his, whiche ventred to translate it,
For when he had full finisht all the same,
He minded not to adde, nor to abate it.
But what he founde, he ment whole to relate it.
Till Rembert he, did sende additions store.