sence, and this was done, when _Comedies_ or _Tragedies_ were a playing, &
that betweene the actes when the players went to make ready for another,
there was great silence, and the people waxt weary, then came in these
maner of counterfaite vices, they were called _Pantomimi_, and all that
had before bene sayd, or great part of it, they gaue a crosse construction
to it very ridiculously. Thus haue you how the names of the Poets were
giuen them by the formes of their poemes and maner of writing.




_CHAP. XII._

_In what forme of Poesie the gods of the Gentiles were praysed and
honored._


The gods of the Gentiles were honoured by their Poetes in hymnes, which is
an extraordinarie and diuine praise, extolling and magnifying them for
their great powers and excellencie of nature in the highest degree of
laude, and yet therein their Poets were after a sort restrained: so as
they could not with their credit vntruly praise their owne gods, or vse in
their lauds any maner of grosse adulation or vnueritable report. For in
any writer vntruth and flatterie are counted most great reproches.
Wherfore to praise the gods of the Gentiles, for that by authoritie of
their owne fabulous records, they had fathers and mothers, and kinred and
allies, and wiues and concubines: the Poets first commended them by their
genealogies or pedegrees, their mariages and aliances, their notable
exploits in the world for the behoofe of mankind, and yet as I sayd
before, none otherwise then the truth of their owne memorials might beare,