No, I recant, I will not, I care, I fear, I confess my fault, acknowledge a
great offence,

------"motos praestat componere fluctus."

------"let's first assuage the troubled waves"

I have overshot myself, I have spoken foolishly, rashly, unadvisedly,
absurdly, I have anatomised mine own folly. And now methinks upon a sudden
I am awaked as it were out of a dream; I have had a raving fit, a
fantastical fit, ranged up and down, in and out, I have insulted over the
most kind of men, abused some, offended others, wronged myself; and now
being recovered, and perceiving mine error, cry with [810]Orlando, _Solvite
me_, pardon (_o boni_) that which is past, and I will make you amends in
that which is to come; I promise you a more sober discourse in my following
treatise.

If through weakness, folly, passion, [811]discontent, ignorance, I have
said amiss, let it be forgotten and forgiven. I acknowledge that of [812]
Tacitus to be true, _Asperae facetiae, ubi nimis ex vero traxere, acrem sui
memoriam relinquunt_, a bitter jest leaves a sting behind it: and as an
honourable man observes, [813]"They fear a satirist's wit, he their
memories." I may justly suspect the worst; and though I hope I have wronged
no man, yet in Medea's words I will crave pardon,

------"Illud jam voce extrema peto,
Ne si qua noster dubius effudit dolor,
Maneant in animo verba, sed melior tibi
Memoria nostri subeat, haec irae data
Obliterentur"------