(saith Sævius Nicanor), I have laboriously collected this Cento out of
divers Writers, and that _sine injuria_, I have wronged no authors,
but given every man his own; which Sosimenes so much commends in
Nicanor, he stole not whole verses, pages, tracts, as some do
nowadays, concealing their Authors' names, but still said this was
Cleophantus', that Philistion's, that Mnesides', so said Julius
Bassus, so Timaristus, thus far Ophelion: I cite and quote mine own
Authors (which howsoever some illiterate scribblers account
pedantical, as a cloak of ignorance and opposite to their affected
fine style, I must and will use) _sumpsi, non surripui_, and what
Varro _de re rustica_ speaks of bees, _minime malificæ quod nullius
opus vellicantes faciunt deterius_, I can say of myself no less
heartily than Sosimenes his laud of Nicanor."




PROLEGOMENA

_Nec caput habentia, nec caudam_

"I had a little husband, no bigger than my thumb,
I put him in my pint-pot, and there I bid him drum."


Pre-eminently the most engaging feature of a topic which pure chance
and impure idiocy have of late conspired to pull about in the public
prints,--I mean the question of "indecency" in writing,--is the patent
ease with which this topic may be disposed of. Since time's beginning,
every age has had its literary taboos, selecting certain things--more