Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/14

Too turn the truth to toyes and lyes. And of the selfsame rate
Are also theis: their Phlegeton, their Styx, their blisfull state
Of spirits in th'Elysian feelds. Of which the former twayne
Seeme counterfetted of the place where damned soules remaine,
Which wee call hell. The third dooth seeme to fetch his pedegree
From Paradyse which scripture shewes a place of blisse to bee.
If Poets then with leesings and with fables shadowed so
The certeine truth, what letteth us to plucke those visers fro
Their doings, and to bring ageine the darkened truth to lyght,
That all men may behold thereof the cleernesse shining bryght?
The readers therefore earnestly admonisht are to bee
To seeke a further meening than the letter gives to see.
The travail tane in that behalf although it have sum payne
Yit makes it double recompence with pleasure and with gayne.
With pleasure, for varietie and straungenesse of the things,
With gaine, for good instruction which the understanding brings.
And if they happening for to meete with any wanton woord
Or matter lewd, according as the person dooth avoord
In whom the evill is describde doo feele their myndes thereby
Provokte to vyce and wantonnesse, (as nature commonly
Is prone to evill) let them thus imagin in their mynd:
Behold, by sent of reason and by perfect syght I fynd
A Panther heere, whose peinted cote with yellow spots like gold
And pleasant smell allure myne eyes and senses to behold.
But well I know his face is grim and feerce, which he dooth hyde
To this intent, that whyle I thus stand gazing on his hyde,
He may devour mee unbewares. Ne let them more offend
At vices in this present woork in lyvely colours pend,
Than if that in a chrystall glasse fowle images they found,
Resembling folkes fowle visages that stand about it round.
For sure theis fables are not put in wryghting to th'entent
To further or allure to vyce: but rather this is ment,
That men beholding what they bee when vyce dooth reigne in stead
Of vertue, should not let their lewd affections have the head.
For as there is no creature more divine than man as long
As reason hath the sovereintie and standeth firme and strong:
So is there none more beastly, vyle, and develish, than is hee,
If reason giving over, by affection mated bee.
The use of this same booke therfore is this: that every man
(Endevoring for to know himself as neerly as he can,
As though he in a chariot sate well ordered,) should direct
His mynd by reason in the way of vertue, and correct
His feerce affections with the bit of temprance, lest perchaunce
They taking bridle in the teeth lyke wilfull jades doo praunce
Away, and headlong carie him to every filthy pit
Of vyce, and drinking of the same defyle his soule with it:
Or else doo headlong harrie him uppon the rockes of sin,
And overthrowing forcibly the chariot he sits in,
Doo teare him woorse than ever was Hippolytus the sonne

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