These differre one from an other, in choice of wordes, in framyng of Sentences, in handling of Argumentes, and vse of right forme, figure, and number, proper and fitte for euerie matter, and euerie one of these is diuerse also in it selfe, as the first.
284 The second booke teachyng
{Comicum.
{Tragicum.
Poeticum, in {Epicum.
{Melicum.
And here, who soeuer hath bene diligent to read aduisedlie ouer, Terence, Seneca, Virgil, Horace, or els Aristophanes, Sophocles, Homer, and Pindar, and shall diligently marke the difference they vse, in proprietie of wordes, in forme of sentence, in handlyng of their matter, he shall easelie perceiue, what is fitte and decorum in euerie one, to the trew vse of perfite Imitation. Whan M. Watson in S. Iohns College at Cambrige wrote his excellent Tragedie of Absalon, M. Cheke, he and I, for that part of trew Imitation, had many pleasant talkes togither, in com- paring the preceptes of Aristotle and Horace de Arte Poetica, with the examples of Euripides, Sophocles, and Seneca. Few men, in writyng of Tragedies in our dayes, haue shot at this marke. Some in England, moe in France, Germanie, and Italie, also haue written Tragedies in our tyme: of the which, not one I am sure is able to abyde the trew touch of Aristotles preceptes, and Euripides examples, saue only two, that euer I saw, M. Watsons Absalon, and Georgius Buckananus Iephthe. One man in Cambrige, well liked of many, but best liked of him selfe, was many tymes bold and busie, to bryng matters vpon stages, which he called Tragedies. In one, wherby he looked to wynne his spurres, and whereat many ignorant felowes fast clapped their handes, he began the Protasis with Trochæijs Octonarijs: which kinde of verse, as it is but seldome and rare in Tragedies, so is it neuer vsed, saue onelie in Epitasi: whan the Tragedie is hiest and hotest, and full of greatest troubles. I remember ful well what M. Watson merelie sayd vnto me of his blindnesse and boldnes in that behalfe although otherwise, there passed much frendship betwene them. M. Watson had an other maner care of perfection, with a feare and reuerence of the iudgement of the best learned: Who to this day would neuer suffer, yet his Absalon to go abroad, and that onelie, bicause, in locis paribus, Anapestus is twise or thrise vsed in stede of Iambus. A smal faulte, and such one, as perchance would neuer be marked, no neither in Italie nor France. This I write, not so much, to note the first, or praise the last, as to leaue in
the ready way to the Latin tong. 285
memorie of writing, for good example to posteritie, what perfection, in any tyme, was, most diligentlie sought for in like maner, in all kinde of learnyng, in that most worthie College of S. Iohns in Cambrige.
{Diaria.
{Annales.
Historicum in {Commentarios.
{Iustam Historiam.
For what proprietie in wordes, simplicitie in sentences, plainnesse and light, is cumelie for these kindes, Cæsar and Liuie, for the two last, are perfite examples of Imitation: And for the two first, the old paternes be lost, and as for some that be present and of late tyme, they be fitter to be read once for some pleasure, than oft to be perused, for any good Imitation of them.
Philosophicum in {Sermonem, as officia Cic. et Eth. Arist. {Contentionem.
As, the Dialoges of Plato, Xenophon, and Cicero: of which kinde of learnyng, and right Imitation therof, Carolus Sigonius hath written of late, both learnedlie and eloquentlie: but best of all my frende Ioan. Sturmius in hys Commentaries vpon Gorgias Platonis, which booke I haue in writyng, and is not yet set out in Print.