Whose name and lyne, if any yet preserue,
Wee wish they liue like honour to deserue:
Whether thou seeke by martiall prowesse prayse,
Or Pallas pollicie high thy name to rayse,
Or trusty seruice iust death to[1481] attaine:
Hastings foreled: trace[1482] here his bloudy trayne.
Maister D.[1483]
[When I had read this, one sayd: “It was very darke, and hard to bee vnderstoode: except it were diligently and very leasurely considered.” “I like it the better,” sayd[1484] another, “for that shall cause it to bee oftner read, and the better remembred. Considering also that it is written for the learned (for such all magistrates are, or should bee) it cannot be to hard, so long as it is sound and learnedly written.” Then sayd the reader: “The next here whome I finde miserable are king Edward’s two sonnes, cruelly murdered in the tower of London: haue you their tragedy?” “No, surely,” sayd[1484] I, “The lord Vaulx vndertoke to pen it, but what hee hath done therein I am not certayne, and therefore I let it passe till I knowe farder. I haue here the duke of Buckingham, king Richard’s chiefe instrument, written by maister Thomas Sackuille.” “Read it we pray you,” sayd they. “With a good will,” quoth[1484] I, “but first you shall heare his Preface or Induction.” “Hath hee made a preface,” sayd[1484] one, “what meaneth hee thereby, seeing none other hath vsed the like order?” “I will tell you the cause thereof,” sayd[1484] I, “which is this: after that hee vnderstoode that some of the counsayl would not suffer the booke to bee printed in such order as wee had agreede and determined, hee purposed to[1485] haue gotten at my handes all the tragedies that were before the duke of Buckingham’s, which hee would haue preserued in one volume. And from that time backward, euen to the time of William the Conquerour, he determined to continue and perfect all the story him selfe, in such order as Lydgate (following Bochas) had already vsed. And therefore to make a meete induction into the matter, hee deuised this poesie: which (in my iudgement) is so well penned, that I would not haue any verse thereof left out of our volume. Now that you knowe the cause and meaning of his doing, you shall also heare what hee hath done. His induction beginneth thus.”][1486]
THE INDVCTION.[1487]
1.