[When I had read this, one sayd: “It was very darke, and hard to bee vnderstoode: except it were diligently and very leasurely considered.” “I like it the better,” sayd[1484]another, “for that shall cause it to bee oftner read, and the better remembred. Considering also that it is written for the learned (for such all magistrates are, or should bee) it cannot be to hard, so long as it is sound and learnedly written.” Then sayd the reader: “The next here whome I finde miserable are kingEdward’stwo sonnes, cruelly murdered in the tower ofLondon: haue you their tragedy?” “No, surely,” sayd[1484]I, “The lordVaulxvndertoke to pen it, but what hee hath done therein I am not certayne, and therefore I let it passe till I knowe farder. I haue here the duke ofBuckingham, kingRichard’schiefe instrument, written by maisterThomas Sackuille.” “Read it we pray you,” sayd they. “With a good will,” quoth[1484]I, “but first you shall heare his Preface or Induction.” “Hath hee made a preface,” sayd[1484]one, “what meaneth hee thereby, seeing none other hath vsed the like order?” “I will tell you the cause thereof,” sayd[1484]I, “which is this: after that hee vnderstoode that some of the counsayl would not suffer the booke to bee printed in such order as wee had agreede and determined, hee purposed to[1485]haue gotten at my handes all the tragedies that were before the duke ofBuckingham’s, which hee would haue preserued in one volume. And from that time backward, euen to the time ofWilliamthe Conquerour, he determined to continue and perfect all the story him selfe, in such order asLydgate(followingBochas) had already vsed. And therefore to make a meete induction into the matter, hee deuised this poesie: which (in myiudgement) is so well penned, that I would not haue any verse thereof left out of our volume. Now that you knowe the cause and meaning of his doing, you shall also heare what hee hath done. His induction beginneth thus.”][1486]
[When I had read this, one sayd: “It was very darke, and hard to bee vnderstoode: except it were diligently and very leasurely considered.” “I like it the better,” sayd[1484]another, “for that shall cause it to bee oftner read, and the better remembred. Considering also that it is written for the learned (for such all magistrates are, or should bee) it cannot be to hard, so long as it is sound and learnedly written.” Then sayd the reader: “The next here whome I finde miserable are kingEdward’stwo sonnes, cruelly murdered in the tower ofLondon: haue you their tragedy?” “No, surely,” sayd[1484]I, “The lordVaulxvndertoke to pen it, but what hee hath done therein I am not certayne, and therefore I let it passe till I knowe farder. I haue here the duke ofBuckingham, kingRichard’schiefe instrument, written by maisterThomas Sackuille.” “Read it we pray you,” sayd they. “With a good will,” quoth[1484]I, “but first you shall heare his Preface or Induction.” “Hath hee made a preface,” sayd[1484]one, “what meaneth hee thereby, seeing none other hath vsed the like order?” “I will tell you the cause thereof,” sayd[1484]I, “which is this: after that hee vnderstoode that some of the counsayl would not suffer the booke to bee printed in such order as wee had agreede and determined, hee purposed to[1485]haue gotten at my handes all the tragedies that were before the duke ofBuckingham’s, which hee would haue preserued in one volume. And from that time backward, euen to the time ofWilliamthe Conquerour, he determined to continue and perfect all the story him selfe, in such order asLydgate(followingBochas) had already vsed. And therefore to make a meete induction into the matter, hee deuised this poesie: which (in myiudgement) is so well penned, that I would not haue any verse thereof left out of our volume. Now that you knowe the cause and meaning of his doing, you shall also heare what hee hath done. His induction beginneth thus.”][1486]