¶ Also of them afore whome we speke / as
if we say / it is for theyr profyte to laude or
prayse the p[er]son. And that we knowe very
wel howe moche they haue alwayes loued
hym / and that he ought therfore to be prai[-]
sed the more for theyr sakes. The maner
is also to get vs beneuolence in the preface
of our oracion / by pynchyng and blamyng
of our aduersarie. As doth Tullie in the o-
racion that he made for one Aulus Cecin-
na / wherin he begynneth his proeme thus
If temerite and lake of shame coulde as
moche preuayle in plees afore the iustices /
as doth audacite and temerarious bolde-
nesse in the feldes and deserte places / there
were no remedie but euen so muste Aulus
Cecinna be ouercome in this matter by
Sextus Ebucius impudence / as he was
in the felde ouercome by his insidious au-
dacite. And these be the cōmune formes of
beneuolence.
¶ A man may also fetche his proeme out
of the nature of the place wher he speketh /
as Tullie dothe in the oracion made for
Pompeius for the sendynge of hym into
Asie agaynst kynge Mithridates of Pon-
tus / and kynge [Tigraues] of Armenie on
this maner: howe be it my lordes and mai[-]
sters of this noble citie of Rome / I haue al
tymes thought it a synguler reioyse to me
if I myght ones se you gadred to gyther
in a cōpany / to here some publique oracion
of myne / and agayne I iuged no place to
be so ample and so honourable to speke in
as this is. &c[etera].
¶ Or he may begyn at the nature of the
tyme that is than / or at som other cyrcum[-]
staunce of his mater / as Tully taketh the
begynnynge of his oracion for Celius at
the tyme / this wise.
¶ If so be it my lordes iuges any mā be
now present here that is ignorāt of your
lawes / of your processe in iugement[e]s / and
of your customes / surely he may well mar[-]
uell what so heynous a mater this shulde
be / that it onely shulde be syt vppon in an
hygh feest daye / whan all the comonaltye
after theyr olde custome are gyuen to the
sight of playes / ordeined after a perpetual
vsage for the nones for them / all maters
of the law laid for the tyme vtterly a part.
¶ He began also an other oracion for one
Sext[us] Roscius / out of the daunger of the
season that he spake in.
¶ One may besyde these vse other maner
of prohemes / whiche by cause they are nat
set out of the very mater it selfe / or els the
circumstaunces / as in these aforsayd they
are called peregrine or straūge prohemes.
And they be taken out of sētences / solēpne
peticions / maners or customes / lawes / sta[-]
tutes of nacyons & contreys. And on this
maner dothe Aristides begyn his oracion
made to the praise of Rome.
¶ Demosthenes in his oracyon made a-
gainst Eschines / toke his preface out of a
solempne peticion / besechynge the goddes
that he might haue as good fauour in yt
cause / as he had foūde in all other maters
yt he had done afore for the comon welth.
¶ In like maner beginneth Tully the ora[-]
cion that he made for one Murena / & also
the oracyon that he made vnto the Ro-
maynes after his retourne from exyle.
¶ He begynneth also an other oracyon /
whiche he made as touchynge a lawe de-
creed for the diuision of feldes amonge the
comunes out of a custome amonge them /
on this wyse.
¶ The maner and custome of our olde fa-
ders of Rome hath ben. &c. And this is the
maner of prefaces in any oracion / whiche
is also obserued in the making of epistles /
how beit there is farre lesse crafte in them
than is in an oracyon.