[Loue and Liue.
To all the[1]nobilitie, and all other in office, god graunt wisedome and all thinges nedefull for the preseruation of their estates. Amen.
Plato among many of[2]his notable sentences concernyng the gouernement of a common weale hath this: Well is that realme gouerned, in which the ambitious desire not to beare office. Whereby you may perceiue (right honourable) what offices are, where they be duely executed: not gainfull spoyles for the gredy to hunt for, but painefull toyles for the heady[3]to bee charged with. You may perceiue also, by this sentence, there[4]is nothing more necessary in a common weale then that magistrates[5]be diligent and trusty in their charges.
And sure in whatsoeuer realme such prouision is made, that officers be forced to do their duties, there is it as hard a matter to get an officer, as it is in other places to repulse and shift of[6]those that with flattery, brybes, and other shiftes, sue and preace for offices. For the ambitious (that is to saye prollers for power or gayne) seeke not for offices to helpe other, for whych cause officers[7]are ordained: but with the vndoing of other, to enrich themselues.[8]And therfore bar them once of this bayt, and force them to do their dueties, then will they geue more[9]to be rid from their charges, than they did at the first to come by them.[10]For they seeke onely their priuate profite.[11]And therfore where the ambitious seeke no office, thereno doubt offices are duely ministred. And where offices are duely ministred, it cannot be chosen, but the people are good, whereof must nedes follow a good common weale. For if the magistrates[12]be good, the people cannot be ill. Thus the goodnes or badnes of any realme lieth in the goodnes or badnes of the rulers. And therfore not without great cause do the holy appostles so earnestly charg vs to pray for the magistrates: for in dede the wealth and quiet of euery common weale, the disorder also and miseries of the same, come specially thorough them. I neede not go eyther to theRomainesorGreekesfor the profe hereof, neither yet to theJewes, or other nations: whose common weales haue alway florished whyle their magistrates[13]were good, and decayed and ran to ruyne when vicious men had the gouernement.[14]
Our countrey[15]stories (if we reade and marke them) wil show vs examples enow, would God we had not sene mo than enow. I purpose not to stand herevpon the particulars, because they be in parte setforth in the tragedies folowing.[16]Yet by the waye, this I note (wishing all other to doe the like) namely, that as good gouernours haue neuer lacked their deserued praises,[17]so haue not the bad escaped infamy, besides such plagues as are horrible to heare of. For God (the ordeiner of offices)[18]although he suffer them for punishment of the people to be often occupied of such, as are rather spoilers andJudasses, than toilers or justices (whom the scriptures cal hypocrits)[19]yet suffereth he them not to scape vnpunished, because they dishonour him. For it is God’s own office, yea his chief office which they beare and abuse. For as justice is the chief vertue so is the ministration thereof, the chiefest office: and therfore hath God established it with the chiefest name, honouring and calling kinges and all officers vnder them by his owne name,gods: ye be al gods, as many as haue in your charge any ministration of iustice. What a foule shame were it for any nowe to take vpon them the name and office of God, and in their doings to shew themselues deuils? God cannot of justice, but plague suche shamelesse presumption and hipocrisie, and that with shamful death, diseases, or infamye. Howe he hath plagued euil rulers from time to time, in other nations, you may see gathred inBochas’boke intituled:The fall of Princes, translated intoEnglishbyLydgate, (a monke of the abbey ofBuryinSuff.)[20]How he hath delt with some of our countrymen, your auncestours, for sundry vices not yet left, this boke namedA Mirrour for Magistrates, shall in parte plainlye set forth before your eyes which boke I humbly[21]offer vnto your honours, beseching you to accept it fauorably. For here, as in a mirror or loking glasse,[22]you shal se if any vice be found,[23]how the like hath ben punished in other heretofore, wherby admonished, I trust it will bee a good occasione to moue men to the[24]soner amendment. This is the chief end why this booke is[25]set forth, which God graunt it may talke according to the maner of the makers.[26]The worke was begon and part of it printed in queneMarie’stime, but staid by such as then were chief in office,[27]neuertheles, through the meanes of the right honorable Henry lordStafford,[28]the first part was licenced, and imprinted the first yeare of the raign of this our most noble and vertuous queene, and dedicated to your honours with this preface. Since which time, although I wanted such help as before, yet the said good lordStafford[29]hathnot ceased to cal vpon me to publish so much therof as I had gotten at other mens hands, so that through his lordship’s earnest meanes, I haue now also set forth another part, conteining as much as I could obtaine at the hands of my frends. Which[30]in the name of al the authours, I humbly dedicate vnto your honours, instantly wishing, that it may so like and delite your minds, that your chereful receiuing thereof, may encourage worthy wits to enterprise and perform the rest. Which as sone as I may procure, I entend through God’s leaue and your fauourable allowance, to publish with all expedicion. In[31]the meane whyle my lordes and gods, (for so I may cal you) I moste humbly besech your honours fauourably to accepte this rude worke,[32]and diligentlye to reade and consider it. And although you shal find in it, that some haue for their virtue bin enuied and brought vnto misery:[33]yet cease not you to be vertuous, but do your offices to the vttermost. Embrace vertue and suppresse the contrary, both in[34]your selues and other, so shall God, whose officers[35]you are, eyther so maintaine you that no malice shall preuaile, or if it do, it shall be for your good, and to your eternall glory both here and in heauen which I beseech God you may both seek[36]and attaine.
Amen.
Your’s most humbleW. B.[37]]