BEING induced by some priuate reasons, and by the instant entreaty of speciall friends, to suffer some of my worthlesse poems to be publi­shed, I desired to make some writ­ten by my deere friends Anonymoi, and my deerer Brother, to beare them company: Both without their consent, the latter being in the low-Country warres, and the rest vtterly ignorant thereof. My friends names I concealed; mine owne and my brothers, I willed the Printer to suppresse, as well as I had concealed the other, which he ha­uing put in without my priuity, we must now vnder­go a sharper censure perhaps then our namelesse workes should haue done, and I especially. For if their Poems be liked, the praise is due to their in­uention: if disliked, the blame both by them, and all men, will be deriued vpon mee, for publishing that which they meant to suppresse.

If thou thinke we affect fame by these kinds of writings, though I thinke them no disparagement euen to the best iudgements, yet I answere in all our behalfes, with the princely shepheard Dorus▪

If thou condemne Poetry in generall, and affirme that it doth intoxicate the braine, and make men vt­terly vnfit, eyther for more serious studies, or for any actiue course of life, I onely say, Iubeo te stultum esse libenter. Since experience proues by examples of many, both dead and liuing, that diuers delighted, [Page] and excelling herein, being Princes or States-men, haue gouerned and counselled as wisely, being soul­diers, haue commanded armies as fortunately, being Lawyers, haue pleaded as iudicially and eloquently, being Diuines, haue written & taught as profound­ly, and being of any other profession, haue dischar­gèd it as sufficiently as any other men whatsoeuer: If liking other kinds, thou mislike the Lyricall, because the chiefest subiect thereof is Loue; I reply, that louc being vertuously intended, and worthily placed, is the whetstone of wit, and spurre to all generous ac­tions: and many excellent spirits with great fame of wit, and no staine of iudgement, haue written ex­cellently in this kind, and specially the euer-praise­worthly Sidney: So as if thou will needs make a fault, for mine owne part,

If any except against the mixing (both at the be­ginning & end of this booke) of diuerse things writ­ten by great & learned personages, with our meane and worthlesse scriblings, I vtterly disclaime it, as being done by the Printer, eyther to grace the fore­front with Sir Philip Sidneys, and others names, or to make the booke grow to a competent volume.

For these Poems in particular, I could alledge these excuses, that those vnder the name of Anonymos were written (as appeareth by diuers things to Sir Philip Sidney liuing, and of him dead) almost twenty yeares since, when Poetry was farre from that per­fection, to which it hath now attained; that my bro­ther is by profession a Souldier, and was not 18 years old when he writ these toyes: that mine owne were made most of them sixe or seuen yeares since, at idle [Page] times as I iourneyed vp and downe during my tra­uails. But to leaue their works to iustifie themselues, or the Authors to iustifie their works, and to speake of mine owne; thy mislikes I contemne, thy praises (which I neither deserue, nor expect) I esteeme not, as hoping (God vvilling) ere long, to regaine thy good opinion, if lost; or more deseruedly to conti­nue it, if alreadie obtained, by some grauer worke. Farewell.