the inuentiue part is most employed and is to the
sound & true iudgement of man most needful. This
diuersitie in the termes perchance euery man hath not
noted, & thus much be said in defence of the Poets
honour, to the end no noble and generous minde be
discomforted in the studie thereof, the rather for
that worthy & honorable memoriall of that noble woman
twise French Queene, Lady Anne of Britaine,
wife first to king Charles the viij and after
to Lewes the xij, who passing one day from her
lodging toward the kinges side, saw in a gallerie
Master Allaine Chartier the kings Secretarie,
an excellent maker or Poet leaning on a tables end
a sleepe, & stooped downe to kisse him, saying thus
in all their hearings, we may not of Princely courtesie
passe by and not honor with our kisse the mouth from
whence so many sweete ditties & golden poems haue
issued. But me thinks at these words I heare
some smilingly say, I would be loath to lacke liuing
of my own till the Prince gaue me a maner of new Elme
for my riming: And another to say I haue read
that the Lady Cynthia came once downe out of
her skye to kisse the faire yong lad Endimion
as he lay a sleep: & many noble Queenes that
haue bestowed kisses upon their Princes paramours,
but neuer vpon any Poets. The third me thinks
shruggingly saith, I kept not to sit sleeping with
my Poesie till a Queene came and kissed me: But
what of all this? Princes may giue a good Poet
such conuenient countenaunce and also benefite as
are due to an excellent artificer, though they neither
kisse nor cokes them, and the discret Poet lookes
for no such extraordinarie fauours, and aswell doth
he honour by his pen the iust, liberall, or magnanimous
Prince, as the valiaunt, amiable or bewtifull though
they be euery one of them the good giftes of God.
So it seemes not altogether the scorne and ordinarie
disgrace offered vnto Poets at these dayes, is cause
why few Gentlemen do delight in the Art, but for that
liberalitie, is come to fayle in Princes, who for
their largesse were wont to be accompted th’onely
patrons of learning, and first founders of all excellent
artificers. Besides it is not perceiued, that
Princes them selues do take any pleasure in this science,
by whose example the subiect is commonly led, and
allured to all delights and exercises be they good
or bad, according to the graue saying of the historian.
Rex multitudinem religione impleuit, quae semper
regenti similis est. And peraduenture in this
iron & malitious age of ours, Princes are lesse delighted
in it, being ouer earnestly bent and affected to the
affaires of Empire & ambition, whereby they are as
it were inforced to indeuour them selues to armes
and practises of hostilitie, or to entend to the right
pollicing of their states, and haue not one houre
to bestow vpon any other ciuill or delectable Art
of naturall or morall doctrine: nor scarce any
leisure to thincke one good thought in perfect and
godly contemplation, whereby their troubled mindes