A POETICAL RAPSODIE , Containing : Diuerse Sonnets , Odes , Elegies , Madrigals , Epigrams , Pastorals , Eglogues , with other poems , both in Rime and measured verse .

For varietie and pleasure , the like neuer yet published .

Newly corrected and augmented .

BEING induced by some priuate reasons , and by the instant entreaty of speciall friends , to suffer some of my worthlesse poems to be published , I desired to make some written by my deere friends Anonymoi , and my deerer Brother , to beare them company : Both without their consent , the latter being in the low-Country warres , and the rest vtterly ignorant thereof . My friends names I concealed ; mine owne and my brothers , I willed the Printer to suppresse , as well as I had concealed the other , which he hauing put in without my priuity , we must now vndergo a sharper censure perhaps then our namelesse workes should haue done , and I especially . For if their Poems be liked , the praise is due to their inuention : if disliked , the blame both by them , and all men , will be deriued vpon mee , for publishing that which they meant to suppresse .

If thou thinke we affect fame by these kinds of writings , though I thinke them no disparagement euen to the best iudgements , yet I answere in all our behalfes , with the princely shepheard Dorus ▪

If thou condemne Poetry in generall , and affirme that it doth intoxicate the braine , and make men vtterly vnfit , eyther for more serious studies , or for any actiue course of life , I onely say , Iubeo te stultum esse libenter . Since experience proues by examples of many , both dead and liuing , that diuers delighted , and excelling herein , being Princes or States-men , haue gouerned and counselled as wisely , being souldiers , haue commanded armies as fortunately , being Lawyers , haue pleaded as iudicially and eloquently , being Diuines , haue written & taught as profoundly , and being of any other profession , haue dischargèd it as sufficiently as any other men whatsoeuer : If liking other kinds , thou mislike the Lyricall , because the chiefest subiect thereof is Loue ; I reply , that louc being vertuously intended , and worthily placed , is the whetstone of wit , and spurre to all generous actions : and many excellent spirits with great fame of wit , and no staine of iudgement , haue written excellently in this kind , and specially the euer-praiseworthly Sidney : So as if thou will needs make a fault , for mine owne part ,

If any except against the mixing ( both at the beginning & end of this booke ) of diuerse things written by great & learned personages , with our meane and worthlesse scriblings , I vtterly disclaime it , as being done by the Printer , eyther to grace the forefront with Sir Philip Sidneys , and others names , or to make the booke grow to a competent volume .

For these Poems in particular , I could alledge these excuses , that those vnder the name of Anonymos were written ( as appeareth by diuers things to Sir Philip Sidney liuing , and of him dead ) almost twenty yeares since , when Poetry was farre from that perfection , to which it hath now attained ; that my brother is by profession a Souldier , and was not 18 years old when he writ these toyes : that mine owne were made most of them sixe or seuen yeares since , at idle times as I iourneyed vp and downe during my trauails . But to leaue their works to iustifie themselues , or the Authors to iustifie their works , and to speake of mine owne ; thy mislikes I contemne , thy praises ( which I neither deserue , nor expect ) I esteeme not , as hoping ( God willing ) ere long , to regaine thy good opinion , if lost ; or more deseruedly to continue it , if alreadie obtained , by some grauer worke . Farewell .