I think I have said enough; If not, let him that is otherwise minded, remember that of Maudarensis, he was in his life a Philosopher (as Ausonius apologizeth for him;) in his Epigrams a Lover, in his precepts most severe; in his Epistle to Cærellia, a wanton. Amnianus, Sulpitius, Evenus, Menander, and many old Poets besides, did in scriptis prurire, write Fescennines, Attellanes, and lascivious songs; lætam materiam; yet they had in moribus censuram, & severitatem, they were chast, severe, and upright livers.

Castum esse decet pium poetam Ipsum, versiculos nihil necesse est, Qui tum deniq; habent salem & leporem.

I am of Catullus opinion, and make the same Apologie in mine own behalf; Hoc etiam quod scribo, pendet plerumq; ex aliorum sententia & authoritate; nec ipse forsan insanio, sed insanientes sequor. Atqui detur hoc insanire me; Semel insanivimus omnes, & tute ipse opinor insanis aliquando, & is, & ille, & ego, scilicet Homo sum, humani à me nihil alienum puto:

And which he urgeth for himself, accused of the like fault, I as justly plead,

Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba est, Howsoever my lines erre, my life is honest, Vita verecunda est, musa jocosa mihi.

But I presume I need no such Apologies, I need not as Socrates in Plato, cover his face when he spake of love, or blush and hide mine eyes, as Pallas did in her hood, when she was consulted by Jupiter about Mercuries marriage, quod super nuptiis virgo consulitur, it is no such lascivious, obscene or wanton discourse;

I have not offended your chaster ears with any thing that is here written, as many French and Italian Authors in their modern language of late have done, nay some of our Latine pontificall writers, Zanches, Asorius, Abulensis, Burchardus, &c. whom Rivet accuseth to be more lascivious then Virgil in Priapeiis, Petronius in Catalectis, Aristophanes in Lycistrata, Martialis, or any other Pagan prophane writer, qui tam atrociter (one notes) hoc genere peccarunt ut multa ingeniosissimè scripta obscænitatum gratia castæ mentes abhorreant.

’Tis not scurrile this, but chast, honest, most part serious, and even of religion it self. Incensed (as he said) with the love of finding love, we have sought it, and found it. More yet, I have augmented and added something to this light Treatise (if light) which was not in the former Editions, I am not ashamed to confess it, with a good Author, quod extendi & locupletari hoc subjectum pleriq; postulabant, & eorum importunitate victus, animum utcunq; renitentem eò adegi, ut jam sexta vice calamum in manum sumerem, scriptioniq; longè & à studiis & professione meâ alienæ me accingerem, horas aliquas à seriis meis occupationibus interim suffuratus, easq; veluti ludo cuidam ac recreationi destinans;

Cogor ——— retrorsum Vela dare, atq; iterare cursus Olim relictos ———

Etsi non ignorarem novos fortasse detractores novis hisce interpolationibus meis minimè defuturos.

And thus much I have thought good to say by way of preface, lest any man (which Godfridus feared in his book) should blame in me lightness, wantonness, rashness, in speaking of loves causes, entisements, symptomes, remedies, lawfull and unlawfull loves, and lust it self, I speak it only to tax and deter others from it, not to teach, but to shew the vanities and fopperies of this heroicall or Herculean love, and to apply remedies unto it. I will treat of this with like liberty as of the rest.

Sed dicam vobis, vos porrò dicite multis Millibus, & facite hæc charta loquatur anus.

Condemn me not good Reader then, or censure me hardly, if some part of this Treatise to thy thinking as yet be too light, but consider better of it; Omnia munda mundis, a naked man to a modest woman is no otherwise then a picture, as Augusta Livia truly said, and mala mens, malus animus, ’tis as ’tis taken.

If in thy censure it be too light, I advise thee as Lipsius did his reader for some places of Plautus, Istos quasi Sirenum scopulos prætervehare, if they like thee not, let them pass, or oppose that which is good to that which is bad, and reject not therefore all. For to invert that verse of Martial, and with Hierom Wolfus to apply it to my present purpose,

Sunt mala, sunt quædam mediocria, sunt bona plura;

Some is good, some bad, some is indifferent. I say farther with him yet, I have inserted (levicula quædam & ridicula ascribere non sum gravatus, circumforanea quædam è theatris, è plateis, etiam è popinis) some things more homely, light, or comicall, litans Gratiis, &c. which I would request every man to interpret to the best, and as Julius Cæsar Scaliger besought Cardan (Si quid urbaniusculè lusum à nobis, per deos immortales te oro Hieronyme Cardane ne me malè capias.) I beseech thee good Reader, not to mistake me, or misconstrue what is here written;

Per Musas & Charites, & omnia Poëtarum numina, benigne lector, oro te ne me malè capias. ’Tis a Comicall subject, in sober sadness I crave pardon of what is amiss, and desire thee to suspend thy judgement, wink at small faults, or to be silent at least; but if thou likest, speak well of it, and wish me good success.

Extremum hunc Arethusa mihi concede laborem.

I am resolved howsoever, velis, nolis, audacter stadium intrare, in the Olympicks, with those Æliensian Wrestlers in Philostratus, boldly to shew my self in this common Stage, and in this Trage-comedy of Love, to Act severall parts, some Satyrically, some Comically, some in a mixt Tone, as the subject I have in hand gives occasion, and present Scene shall require, or offer it self.