_Dactile_ into verses _exameters_, as he that translated certaine
bookes of _Virgils Eneydos_ in such measures & not vncommendably: if I
should now say otherwise it would make me seeme contradictorie to my
selfe, yet for the information of our yong makers, and pleasure of all
others who be delighted in noueltie, and to th'intent we may not seeme by
ignorance or ouersight to omit any point of subtillitie, materiall or
necessarie to our vulgar arte, we will in this present chapter & by our
own idle obseruations shew how one may easily and commodiously lead all
those feete of the auncients into our vulgar language. And if mens eares
were not perchaunce to daintie, or their iudgementes ouer partiall, would
peraduenture nothing at all misbecome our arte, but make in our meetres a
more pleasant numerositie then now is. Thus farre therefore we will
aduenture and not beyond, to th'intent to shew some singularitie in our
arte that euery man hath not heretofore obserued, and (her maiesty good
liking always had) whether we make the common readers to laugh or to
lowre, all is a matter, since our intent is not so exactlie to prosecute
the purpose, nor so earnestly, as to thinke it should by authority of our
owne iudgement be generally applauded at to the discredit of our
forefathers maner of vulgar Poesie, or to the alteration or peraduenture
totall destruction of the same, which could not stand with any good
discretion or curtesie in vs to attempt, but thus much I say, that by some
leasurable trauell it were no hard matter to induce all their auncient
feete into vse with vs, and that it should proue very agreable to the eare
and well according with our ordinary times and pronunciation, which no man
could then iustly mislike, and that is to allow euery world _polisillable_
one long time of necessitie, which should be where his sharpe accent falls
in our owne _ydiome_ most aptly and naturally, wherein we would not follow
the license of the Greeks and Latines, who made not their sharpe accent
any necessary prolongation of their tunes, but vsed such sillable
sometimes long sometimes short at their pleasure. The other sillables of
any word where the sharpe accent fell not, to be accompted of such time
and quantitie as his _ortographie_ would best beare hauing regard to
himselfe, or to his next neighbour word, bounding him on either side,
namely to the smoothnes & hardnesse of the sillable in his vtterance,
which is occasioned altogether by