Wherefore the Nobilitie and dignitie of the Art considered aswell by
vniuersalitie as antiquitie and the naturall excellence of it selfe,
Poesie ought not to be abased and imployed vpon any vnworthy matter &
subject, nor vsed to vaine purposes, which neuerthelesse is dayly seene,
and that is to vtter contents infamous & vicious or ridiculous and
foolish, or of no good example & doctrine. Albeit in merry matters (not
vnhonest) being vsed for mans solace and recreation it may well be
allowed, for as I said before, Poesie is a pleasant maner of vtterance
varying from the ordinarie of purpose to refresh the mynde by the eares
delight. Poesie also is not onely laudable, because I said it was a
metricall speach vsed by the first men, but because it is a metricall
speech corrected and reformed by discreet iudgements, and with no lesse
cunning and curiositie than the Greeke and Latine Poesie, and by Art
bewtified & adorned, & brought far from the primitiue rudenesse of the
first inuentors, otherwise it might be sayd to me that _Adam_ and _Eues_
apernes were the gayest garmentes, because they were the first, and the
shepheardes tente or pauillion, the best housing, because it was the most
auncient & most vniversall: which I would not haue so taken, for it is not
my meaning but that Art & cunning concurring with nature, antiquitie &
vniuersalitie, in things indifferent, and not euill, doe make them more
laudable. And right so our vulgar riming Poesie, being by good wittes
brought to that perfection we see, is worthily to be preferred before any
other matter of vtterance in prose, for such vse and to such purpose as it
is ordained, and shall hereafter be set downe more particularly.