MANY, suiting their labours to the popular vein,
and guided by the gale of vulgar breath, have divulged
divers pathetical Discourses, in which if they had
shewn as much care to profit, as they have done desire
to please, their Works would much more have honored [l5]
their names, and availed the reader. But it is a just
complaint among the better sort of persons, that the
finest wits lose themselves in the vainest follies, spill-
ing much art in some idle fancy, and leaving their
own works as witnesses how long they have been in [l10]
travail, to be, in fine, delivered of a fable. And sure
it is a thing greatly to be lamented, that men of so
high conceit should so much abase their abilities, that
when they have racked them to the uttermost endea-
vour, all the praise that they reap of their employment [l15]
consisteth in this, that they have wisely told a foolish
tale, and carried a long lie very smoothly to the end.
Yet this inconvenience might find some excuse, if the
drift of their discourse levelled at any virtuous mark ;
for in fables are often figured moral truths, and that [l20]
covertly uttered to a common good, which, without a
mask, would not find so free a passage : but when the
substance of the work hath neither truth nor proba-
bility, nor the purport thereof tendeth to any honest
end, the writer is rather to be pitied than praised, and [l25]
his books fitter for the fire than for the press. The
common oversight more have observed than endea-
voured to remedy ; every one being able to reprove,
none willing to redress such faults, authorised, espe-
cially, by general custom. And if necessity (the [l30]
lawless patron of enforced actions) had not more
prevailed than choice, this Work, of so different a sub-
ject from the usual vein, should have been no eye-sore
to those that are pleased with worse matters : yet the
copies flew so fast and so false abroad, that it was in [l35]
danger to come corrupted to the print. It seemed a
less evil to let it fly to common view in the natural
plume, and with its own wings, than disguised in a
coat of a bastard feather, or cast off from the fist of
such a corrector as might haply have perished the [l40]
sound, and imped it in some sick and sorry feathers
of his own fancies. It may be that courteous skill will
reckon this, though coarse in respect of others' exqui-
site labours, not unfit to entertain well-tempered hu-
mours both with pleasure and profit ; the ground [l45]
thereof being in Scripture, and the form of enlarging it
an imitation of the ancient doctors in the same and
other points of like tenour. This commodity at the
least it will carry with it, that the reader may learn to
love without improof of piety, and teach his thoughts [l50]
either to temper passion in the mean, or to give the
bridle only where the excess cannot be faulty. Let the
Work defend itself, and every one pass his answer as
he seeth cause. Many carps are expected, when curi-
ous eyes come a-fishing ; but the care is already taken, [l55]
and Patience waiteth at the table, to take away when
this dish is served in, and to make room for others to
set on the desired fruit
Notes
The line numbers are mine, making use of the Walter edition (1822).
[l3] pathetical: 1. Arousing sadness, compassion, or sympathy;1598 Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost i. ii. 93 Sweet inuocation of a child, most pretty & pathetical . 2. Expressing or arising from passion or strong emotion; 1596 E. Cook Eng. Schoole-maister sig. M4v Patheticall, vehement.
[l13] conceit: The faculty for conceiving, apprehending, or understanding something; mental capacity. Obsolete.a1616 Shakespeare As you like It (1623) v. ii. 52 I know you are a Gentleman of good conceit .
[ll136-141]: To avoid the problem posed by corrupted manuscript versions, Southwell decided to print the work. Flawed manuscripts of his work proliferated, and he feared the 'danger to come corrupted to the print'. The work contains no overtly Catholic elements and so it escaped censure
and enjoyed a fairly wide readership. It underwent ten editions before 1636.
[l41] imped: to imp - Falconry. To engraft feathers in the wing of a bird, so as to make good losses or deficiencies, and thus restore or improve the powers of flight; hence, allusively, with reference to ‘taking higher flights’, enlarging one's powers, and the like. 1589 ‘Pasquill of England’ Returne of Pasquill sig. Biii Such an Eccho, as multiplies euery word..and ympes so many feathers vnto euery tale, that it flyes with all speede into euery corner of the Realme.
[l50] improof: Reproof, rebuke, censure. 1590 J. Greenwood Answere Giffords Def. 30 The whole Scripture is..inspired of God, & profitable vnto doctrine, vnto improof, vnto correction.
1591 R. Southwell Marie Magdalens Funeral Teares To Rdr. sig. A8v That the reader may learne to loue without improofe of puritie. sssss
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