Ut docto placeas Apollinari.
Nam si pectore te tenebit ore,
Nec ronchos metues maligniorum.
Nec scombris tunicas dabis molestas.
Et cum carmina floridis Camoenis,
Litesque gloriam canas poetum
Non est pollicem capitis veraris.
The Author to his Book.] Most of this wedge-shaped address is clear enough. But the reader must fit his own sense to 'Bee me' (ll. 41-2). Whiting's fantastic wit was quite Habakkukian in its possibilities.
53 'ermines' here = 'peers or other persons of distinction'.
57 'tilic[k]' = 'linden', from the use of lime-tree bark for paper.