pronounced sentence in a letter dated April 7, and this
is the sentence: 'In good faith I had once again nigh
forgotten your _Faerie Queene_; howbeit, by good
chaunce I have nowe sent hir home at the laste, neither
in a better nor worse case than I founde hir. And must
you of necessitie have my judgement of hir indeede? To
be plaine, I am voyde of al judgement, if your nine
Com{oe}dies, whereunto, in imitation of Herodotus, you
give the names of the Nine Muses, and (in one man's
fansie not unworthily), come not neerer Ariostoes
Com{oe}dies, eyther for the finenesse of plausible
elocution, or the rareness of poetical invention, than
that Elvish queene doth to his Orlando Furioso, which
notwithstanding, you will needes seem to emulate, and
hope to overgo, as you flatly professed yourself in one
of your last letters. Besides that, you know it hath
bene the usual practise of the most exquisite and odde
wittes in all nations, and especially in Italie, rather
to shewe and advaunce themselves that way than any
other; as namely, those three notorious dyscoursing
heads Bibiena, Machiavel, and Aretine did (to let Bembo
and Ariosto passe), with the great admiration and
wonderment of the whole countrey; being indeede reputed
matchable in all points, both for conceyt of witte, and
eloquent decyphering of matters, either with
Aristophanes and Menander in Greek, or with Plautus and
Terence in Latin, or with any other in any other tong.
But I will not stand greatly with you in your owne
matters. If so be the Faery Queen be fairer in your
eie than the Nine Muses, and Hobgoblin runne away with