Touching whiche three vices I might
rehearse of all sortes of people
more than tenne thousande examples.
Whereof some (I speak but temporally,
and not of matters
concernyng the soule)
hauehave lost theyr money, goodes,
and estymation,
some their friendes, libertie,
life
&and goodes.
But
what neede I to spend my time, and to trouble my braines
about
it?it. Al bookes,
whether they speake of the
Assyrians, Egiptians, Persians,
or
Medians, Grecians, or
IewesJewes, Romaines, or other countreyes, are
full
of it. Wherof rede
Diodorus Siculus,
IosephusJosephus, Plutarch, Titus
LiuiusLivius,
&and
diuersdivers
other historiographers, which
hauehave
written
vntiluntil our age and time, and we
shall finde that all kinde of
euillevill, at the
least
cõmethcommeth out of one of these three, and daily we find it by
good
experience, that al
mischiefe
springeth out of these, yea
eueneven in such
as had and
ioynedjoyned them
seluesselves to the church of Christ,
foreseyng persecution,
crosses, and
tribulations to ensue therby, and
by and by for feare of a little losse of
worldly goodes,
commodities, honours, or otherwise, forsoke and
. And to sette the vanitie and inconstancie of
worldly
and transitorie thyngs,
the liuelierlivelier
before your eyes, I
hauehave broughte
inin in
here twentie sightes or vysions,
&and
caused them to be
grauengraven,
to
the ende al men may see that with their eyes, whiche I
go aboute
to expresse
by writing, to the delight and plesure of the eye and eares,
according
vntounto the saying of
Horace.
That is to say,
He that teacheth pleasantly and
well,
Doth in eche poynt all othersin all poyntes all other excell.
Of which oure visions the learned Poete
M. Francisce Petrarche Gentleman of
Florence,
did
inuentinvent and write in
Tuscan the
six firste, after suche tyme as
hee had
louedloved
honestly the space of
a faire, gracious, and a
noble Damosell, named
Laurette,
or (as it plesed him best)
Laura, borne of
AuinionAvinion, who afterward
hapned to die, he being in
Italy, for whose death (to shewe his great
grief) he mourned
togyther, and amongest
many of his songs
and sorowfull lamentations,
deuiseddevised and made a Ballade or song, containyng
the sayd visions, which
bicause they
serueserve wel to our purpose, I
hauehave out of the , turned
them into the Englishe
tongue.
The first then is: That he being
vponupon
a day alone in his window, where
he saw as it were in his minde by a
vysion a very faire hind, and also
two
swift hounds, one white and the other blacke chasing
&and
pursuing
hir so long,
that at length they caught and killed hir. Which sight
caused him to burst oute into sighes and teares for the piteous destinie
thereof: That is, for the apointed time
of
yͤthe death of his
louelove
Laura,
whiche he ment by the faire hinde, as by the houndes white and
black
he
the daye and nyght, meaning the time passyng
away, and
not tarying for any one.
MoreouerMoreover, he saw a faire ship or vessel made of
yuorieyvorie
&and Hebene wood,
wherunto also he
cõparedcompared his
louelove
Laura,
to wete hir whyte coloured
