In euery Narracion, ye must obserue sixe notes.
1. Firste, the persone, or doer of the thing, whereof you intreate.
2. The facte doen.
3. The place wherein it was doen.
4. The tyme in the whiche it was doen.
5. The maner must be shewed, how it was doen.
6. The cause wherevpon it was doen.
There be in this Narracion, iiij. other properties belōging[.]
1. First, it must be plain and euident to the hearer, not obscure,
2. short and in as fewe wordes as it maie be, for soche amatter.
3. Probable, as not vnlike to be true.
4. In wordes fine and elegante.
¶ A narracion historicall, vpon Semiramis Queene of Babilon
how and after what sort she obtained the gouernment thereof.
Tyme.
Persone.
Fter the death of Ninus, somtime kyng of Ba-
bilon, his soonne Ninus also by name, was left
to succede hym, in all the Assirian Monarchie,
Semiramis wife to Ninus the firste, feared the
tender age of her sonne, wherupon she thought
The cause.
The facte. that those mightie nacions and kyngdomes, would not obaie
so young and weake a Prince. Wherfore, she kept her sonne
from the gouernmente: and moste of all she feared, that thei
The waie
how. would not obaie a woman, forthwith she fained her self, to be
the soonne of Ninus, and bicause she would not be knowen
to bee a woman, this Quene inuented a newe kinde of tire,
the whiche all the Babilonians that were men, vsed by her
commaundement. By this straunge disguised tire and appa-
rell, she not knowen to bee a woman, ruled as a man, for the
The facte.
The place. space of twoo and fourtie yeres: she did marueilous actes, for
she enlarged the mightie kyngdome of Babilon, and builded
thesame citée. Many other regions subdued, and valiauntlie
ouerthrowen, she entered India, to the whiche neuer Prince
came, sauing Alexander the greate: she passed not onely men
in vertue, counsaill, and valiaunt stomacke, but also the fa-
mous counsailours of Assiria, might not contende with her
in Maiestie, pollicie, and roialnes. For, at what tyme as thei
knewe her a woman, thei enuied not her state, but maruei-
led at her wisedome, pollicie, and moderacion of life, at the
laste she desiryng the vnnaturall lust, and loue of her soonne
Ninus, was murthered of hym.
¶ A narracion historicall vpon kyng Ri-
chard the third, the cruell tiraunt[.]
The persone[.]