THE PRO E ME

то THE

COURTEOUS READER.

GREAT marvel hath it been (and that not un

warthily) to diverse worthy wits, that in this our Island of Britain, in all rare fciences fo greatly abounding, more especially in all kinds of Poefy highly flourifhing, no Poet (though otherwife of notable cunning in roundelays) hath it on the right fimple Eclogue after the true ancient guife of Theocritus, before this mine attempt.

Other Poet travailing in this plain highway of Paftoral know I none. Yet, certes, fuch it behoved a Paftoral to be, as Nature in the country affordeth; and the manners also meetly copied from the ruftical folk therein. In this alfo my love to my native country Britain much pricketh me forward, to defcribe aright the manners of our own honeft and laborious ploughmen, in no wife fure more unworthy a British Poet's imitation, than thofe of Sicily or Arcadie; albeit, not ignorant I am, what a rout and rabblement of critical 1 gallimawfry hath been made of late days by certain

young

young men of infipid delicacy, concerning, `I wift not what, Golden Age, and other outrageous conceits, to which they would confine Pastoral. Whereof, I avow, I account nought at all, knowing no age fo juftly to be inftiled Golden, as this of our Sovereign Lady Queen ANNE.

This idle trumpery (only fit for schools and schoolboys) unto that ancient Doric Shepherd Theocritus, or his mates, was never known; he rightly, throughout his fifth Idyll, maketh his louts give foul language, and behold their goats at rut in all fimplicity :

Ωπόλῳ ὅκκ ̓ ἐσορῇ τὰς μηκάδας, οἷα βατεῦναι, · Τάκεται ὀφθαλμῶς, ὅτι ἐ τράγων αὐτὸς ἐγένιο.

THEOC. Id. i. 87.

Verily, as little pleafance receiveth a true homebred tafte, from all the fine finical new-fangled fooleries of this gay Gothic garniture, wherewith they fo nicely bedeck their court clowns, or clown courtiers, (for, which to call them rightly, I wot not) as would a prudent citizen journeying to his country farms, fhould he find them occupied by people of this motley make, instead of plain downright hearty cleanly folk, fuch as be now tenants to the burgeffes of this realm.

Furthermore, it is my purpofe, gentle reader, to fet before thee, as it were a picture, or rather lively landfchape of thy own country, just as thou mightest fee it, dideft thou take a walk into the fields at the proper season: even as maister Milton hath elegantly t forth the fame :

"As

"As one who long in populous city pent, "Where houses thick and fewers annoy the air, "Forth iffuing on a fummer's morn to breathe "Among the pleafant villages and farms "Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight; "The smell of grain or tedded grafs or kine "Or dairy, each rural fight, each rural found."

Thou wilt not find my fhepherdeffes idly piping on oaten reeds, but milking the kine, tying up the fheaves, or if the hogs are aftray driving them to the styes. My fhepherd gathereth none other nofegays but what are the growth of our own fields; he fleepeth not under myrtle fhades, but under a hedge; nor doth he vigilantly defend his flocks from wolves, because there are none, as maifter Spenfer well observeth :

"Well is known that fince the Saxon king
"Never was wolf feen, many or fome
"Nor in all Kent nor in Christendom."

For as much as I have mentioned maifter Spenfer, foothly I muft acknowledge him a bard of sweetest memorial. Yet hath his fhepherd's boy at fome times raised his ruftic reed to rhymes more rumbling than rural. Diverfe grave points alfo hath he handled of churchly matter, and doubts in religion daily arifing, to great clerks only appertaining. What liketh me best are his names, indeed right fimple and meet for the country, fuch as Lobbin, Cuddy, Hobbinol, Diggon, and others, fome of which I have made bold to borrow.

Moreover,

Moreover, as he called his Eclogues, the "fhepherd's calendar," and divided the fame into twelve months, I have chofen (peradventure not over-rafhly) to name mine by the days of the week, omitting Sunday or the Sabbath, ours being fuppofed to be chriftian fhepherds, and to be then at church-worship. Yet further of many of maifter Spenfer's Eclogues it may be observed; though months they be called, of the faid months therein nothing is specified; wherein I have alfo cfteemed him worthy mine imitation.

That principally, courteous reader, whereof I would have thee to be advertised, (feeing I depart from the vulgar ufage) is touching the language of my fhepherds; which is, foothly to fay, fuch as is neither spoken by the country maiden or the courtly dame; nay, not only fuch as in the prefent times is not uttered, but was never uttered in times paft; and, if I judge aright, will never be uttered in times future: it having too much of the country to be fit for the court, too much of the court to be fit for the country; too much of the language of old times to be fit for the prefent, too much of the prefent to have been fit for the old, and too much of both to be fit for any time to come. Granted also it is, that in this my language, I seem unto myself as a London mafon, who calculateth his work for a term of years, when he buildeth with old materials upon a ground-rent that is not his own, which foon turns to rubbish and ruins. For this point, no reason can I alledge, only deep-learned enfamples having led me thereunto.

But

But here again much comfort arifeth in me, from the hopes, in that I conceive, when these words in the course of transitory things fhall decay, it may fo hap, in meet time, that fome lover of fimplicity shall arise, who fhall have the hardinefs to render these mine Eclogues into fuch modern dialect as shall be then understood, to which end, gloffes and explications of uncouth paftoral terms are annexed.

Gentle Reader, turn over the leaf, and entertain thyfelf with the prospect of thine own country, limned by the painful hand of

Thy loving countryman,

JOHN GA Y.

YOL. I.

E

PRO