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An answere to maister Smyth seruaunt to the kynges most royall maiestye. And clerke of the Quenes graces counsell / though most vnworthy. |
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¶Whether ye trolle in or els trolle out | |
Ye trolle vntruly / loke better about. | |
WHere-as of late two thinges ye parused | |
Concerning the treason of Thomas_Crumwell | |
Undoutedly both your wyt and your syght were confused | |
Lackyng a medecyne / blyndnesse to expell | |
5 | Put on your spectacles and marke it well |
Than shall you se / and say / maugre your hart | |
That trolle_in / hath played a true subiectes part | |
For where-as trolle_a_way (as ye say) tolde trouth | |
Declaring the offences / wherin Crumwell offended | |
10 | It was not the thyng / wherwith troll_in was wroth |
For in that poynt / Troll_in / Troll_away commended | |
But this was the mater / wherfore they contended | |
Trolle_away / vnder pretence of trollyng against treason | |
Practised proude popery / as appereth by reason. | |
15 | And ye supporting the same / your pen runneth at large |
Boldly as blynde bayerd / ye write in his defence | |
And in your myscheuous maner / ye lay falsly to my charge | |
Sayeng / who that craftely coloureth any others offence | |
Of lykelyhode in his owne hert / hath the same pretence | |
20 | But here ye speke of lykelyhode / and so blyndly go by gesse |
Your fondnesse is the folyssher / and my faute is the lesse. | |
¶An horse beyng nothing galled / of force ye may make to kycke | |
With spurryng and with prickinge / more than reason wolde requyre | |
But if the horse were lustye / coragious and also quycke | |
25 | Ye might be the fyrst perchaunce / that might lye in the myre |
As wyse as ye / haue ben drowned in their owne desyre | |
Many a man / anothers mischefe / of malyce wyll prepare | |
And yet him-selfe the fyrst / that is caught in the snare. | |
¶Bycause of making stryfe (ye say) ye wyll take neither parte | |
30 | But here ye breke promyse / for agaynst all reason and r[i]ght right] rtght 1540 |
Speking with your mouth / that you thinke not with your harte | |
Agaynst trolle_in / ye take trolle_awayes parte / with all your myght | |
Thus all thinges lyghtly that ye make / amonge them-selues do fyght | |
Wherfore whatsoeuer ye write or saye / gretly it shall not skyll | |
35 | For if ye speke any-thing wysely / I thinke it be agaynst your wyll. Ve illi per quem scandalum uenit, Luce .xvij. |
¶But blyndly haue ye sclaundred me / good maister Thomas_Smyth | |
Scraping togither scriptures / your madnesse to mayntayne | |
Truly your rude rowsty reason / being so farre from the pyth | |
Had nede of suche a cloke / to kepe it from the rayne | |
40 | For all the worlde may perceyue / how falsly ye forge and fayne |
Yet styll you affyrme your falshed / as though ye knew thinges presysely | |
Christes blessyng on your hert / forsoth ye haue done full wysely. | |
¶Ye rumble amonge the scryptures / as one that were halfe mad | |
Wrestyng and writhyng them / accordyng to your owne purpose | |
45 | Facyonyng and framyng them / to your sayenges good and bad |
Lyke as the holy Papystes / were wont to paynt their popysshe glose | |
Do ye take the holy scripture to be lyke a shypmans hose? | |
Nay nay / although a shypmans hose / wyll serue all sortes of legges | |
Yet Christes holy scrypture / wyll serue no rotten dregges. | |
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50 | Counsell with some tayler / whan that ye wryte nexte |
Take measure of diuinyte / before ye cut the facyon | |
So shall ye square your scryptures / and the better trym your texte | |
And than shall men of lernyng / commende your operacyon | |
But howe shulde he be connyng / that knoweth not his occupacyon | |
55 | Howe shuld a cobler cut a cote / or a smyth tast good wyne |
Or how shulde you scarsely a clerke / be nowe a good deuyne? | |
What lyuyng man (excepte it were you) beynge in his right wyttes | |
Wolde write as ye haue written / and all not worth a myte | |
I thinke it be some peuysshe pange / that cometh ouer your hert by fyttes | |
60 | Under the coloure of charyte / to worke your cruell spyte |
If men wolde marke your madnesse / and beholde your deuelyssh delyte | |
Shuld se how ye wrest the scriptures to your sayeng / not worth .ii. chippes | |
And ioyne them all togither / as iust as Germans lyppes. | |
¶Whan ye haue spytte your poyson / and sayde euen the worst ye can | |
65 | Than come ye in with charite / wyllyng all stryfe to cease |
But surely good maister Smyth / ye speke lyke a mery man | |
Moche lyke a comen pyke-quarell / that stryfe wolde encrease | |
Continually cryeng in frayes / holde / kepe the kynges pease | |
But those be prety peace-makers / in-dede for euery daye | |
70 | That styll bestowe mo strokes / than they that began the fraye. |
What wyse man wolde not laugh / for to here you bragge and boste | |
Of your name / your seruyce / of your offyce and all this gere | |
As though ye were prymrose-perelesse / and a ruler of the roste | |
By the declaryng wherof / ye thinke to put pore men in fere | |
75 | But your braggyng and your bostyng / shall neyther be here nor there |
As longe as I may indifferently / be suffred to vse my pen | |
Ye shall neuer be able to face me out / with a carde of ten. Qui [s]e laudat stercore coronabitur, se] fe 1540se] fe 1540 | |
A wyse man wolde haue praysed god / and than prayed for the kyng | |
The which of their gret goodnesse / to your offyce dyd you call | |
80 | And not to haue bragged therof / and than put it out in printyng |
For ye stande not yet so sure / but it is possyble ye may fall | |
And though your offyce be great / I trust your power be but small | |
Or els parchaunce ye wold quickly thurst a poore man among the thornes thurst: =thrust | |
But god almyghty prouydeth well to sende a shrewde cow short hornes. | |
85 | ¶ Christ preserue the kynges most noble grace / and sende him longe lyfe |
Euen Henry the eight (next vnder god) of this church / the hed supreme | |
Christ preserue and kepe quene Katheryn / his most lawfull wyfe | |
Christ preserue Prince Edwarde / the very right heyre of this realme | |
Christ styll ensence their noble counsell / with the influence of heauen ensence: "inform"; see OED s.v. insense | |
90 | Christ for his tendre mercy / amende all-thing that is a_mys |
Christ sende maister Smyth more charite / whan his good pleasure is. | |
¶Amen. | |
By me a poore man whose herte if ye knewe | |
Wolde be the kynges seruaunt as fayne as you. | |
W._G. | |
set at the end of the first line of the above couplet | |
¶Imprinted at London by me Rychard_Bankes / And be to be solde in Pater_noster_rowe by Iohnn_Turke / at the sygne of the Rose. | |
Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum. | |
This line was set by the printer as part of the colophon |