“Go forth, little book, and lowly thou me commend,
Unto all young gentlemen that list to learn or entend,[[167]]
And specially to them that have experience, praying them to amend,
And correct what is amiss, whereas I fail or offend.
And if so that any be found as through my negligence,
Cast the cause on my copy, rude and bare of eloquence,
Which to draw out [I] have done my busy diligence,
Readily to reform it by reason and better sentence.
As for rhyme or reason, the fore-writer was not to blame,
For as he found it before him, so wrote he the same,