G. Gregory Smith, ed. Elizabethan Critical Essays. 1904.
Thomas Nashe (15671601)Preface to Sidneys Astrophel and Stella. 1591
[This Preface appears in the first quarto edition of Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella, printed at London by Thomas Newman in 1591. The text is taken from the copy in the British Museum.]
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Fayne would a seconde spring of passion heere spend it selfe on his sweet remembrance; but Religion, that rebuketh prophane lamentation, drinkes in the riuers of those dispaireful teares which languorous ruth hath outwelled, & bids me looke back to the house of honor, where from one and the selfe same root of renowne I shal find many goodly branches deriued, & such as, with the spreading increase of their vertues, may somewhat ouershadow the Griefe of his los. Amongst the which, fayre sister of Phœbus, and eloquent secretary to the Muses, most rare Countesse of Pembroke, thou art not to be omitted, whom Artes doe adore as a second Minerua, and our Poets extoll as the Patronesse of their inuention; for in thee the Lesbian Sappho with her lirick Harpe is disgraced, and the Laurel Garlande which thy Brother so brauely aduaunst on his Launce is still kept greene in the Temple of Pallas. Thou only sacrificest thy soule to contemplation, thou only entertainest emptie handed Homer, & keepest the springs of Castalia from being dryed vp. Learning, wisedom, beautie, and all other ornaments of Nobilitie whatsoeuer seeke to approue themselues in thy sight and get a further seale of felicity from the smiles of thy fauour:
I feare I shall be counted a mercenary flatterer for mixing my thoughts with such figuratiue admiration, but generall report that surpasseth my praise condemneth my rhetoricke of dulnesse for so colde a commendation. Indeede, to say the truth, my stile is somewhat heauie gated, and cannot daunce, trip, and goe so liuely, with ‘oh! my loue, ah! my loue, all my loues gone,’ as other Sheepheards that haue beene fooles in the Morris time out of minde; nor hath my prose any skill to imitate the Almond leape verse, or sit tabring fiue yeres together nothing but ‘to bee, to hee,’ on a paper drum. Onely I can keepe pace with Grauesend barge, and care not if I haue water enough to lande my ship of fooles with the Tearme (the tyde I shoulde say). Now euery man is not of that minde; for some, to goe the lighter away, will take in their fraught of spangled feathers, golden Peebles, Straw, Reedes, Bulrushes, or anything, and then they beare out their sayles as proudly as if they were balisted with Bulbiefe. Others are so hardly bested for loading that they are faine to retaile the cinders of Troy, and the shiuers of broken trunchions, to fill vp their boate that else should goe empty; and if they haue but a pound weight of good Merchandise, it shall be placed at the poope, or pluckt in a thousand peeces to credit their carriage. For my part, euery man as he likes, mens cuiusque is est quisque. ’Tis as good to goe in cut-fingerd Pumps as corke shooes, if one were Cornish diamonds on his toes. To explain it by a more familiar example, an Asse is no great statesman in the beastes common-wealth, though he weare his eares vpseuant muffe, after the Muscouy fashion, & hange the lip like a Capcase halfe open, or look as demurely as a sixpenny browne loafe, for he hath some imperfections that do keepe him from the common Councel; yet of many he is deemed a very vertuous member, and one of the honestest sort of men that are. So that our opinion (as Sextus Empiricus affirmeth) giues the name of good or ill to euery thing. Out of whose works (latelie translated into English for the benefit of vnlearned writers) a man might collect a whole booke of this argument, which no doubt woulde proue a worthy commonwealth matter, and far better than wits waxe karnell: much good worship haue the Author.
Such is this golden age wherein we liue, and so replenisht with golden asses of all sortes, that, if learning had lost it selfe in a groue of Genealogies, wee neede doe no more but sette an olde goose ouer halfe a dozen pottle pots (which are as it were the egges of inuention), and wee shall haue such a breede of bookes within a little while after, as will fill all the world with the wilde fowle of good wits. I can tell you this is a harder thing then making golde of quick siluer, and will trouble you more then the Morrall of Æsop’s Glow-worme hath troubled our English Apes, who, striuing to warme themselues with the flame of the Philosopher’s stone, haue spent all their wealth in buying bellowes to blowe this false fyre. Gentlemen, I feare I haue too much presumed on your idle leysure, and beene too bold to stand talking all this while in an other mans doore; but now I will leaue you to suruey the pleasures of Paphos, and offer your smiles on the Aulters of Venus.
Yours in all desire to please,