In Black and White/The Dedication
THE DEDICATION.
To My Most Deare Father,
When I was in your House and we went abroade together, in the outskirtes of the Citie, among the Gentoo Wrestlours, you had poynted me how in all Empryzes he gooing forth flang backe alwaies a Word to hym that had instruct hym in his Crafte to the better Sneckynge of a Victorie or at the leaste the auoidance of anie greate Defeate: And presentlie each man wolde run to his Vstad (which is as we shoulde say Master) and geat such as he deserued of Admoneshment Reprouf and Council, concernynge the Gripp, the Houlde, Cross-buttock and Fall, and then lay to afreshe.
In lyke maner I, drawynge back a lytel, from this my Rabble and Encompasment of Labour, have runn asyde to you who were euer my Vstad and Speake as it were in your priuie Eare [yet that others may knowe] that if I have here done aught of Faire Craft and Reverentiall it is come from your hande as trewly [but by i. Degree remouen] as though it had been the coperture of thys Booke that you haue made for me in loue. How may I here tell of that Tender Diligence which in my wauerynge and inconstante viages was in all tymes about me to showe the Passions and Occasions, Shifts, Humours, and Sports that in due proporcion combinate haue bred that Rare and Terrible Mystery the which, for lacke of a more compleat Vnderstandinge, the Worlde has cauled Man: aswel the maner in which you shoulde goo about to pourtraie the same, a lytel at a tyme in Feare and Decencie. By what hand, when I wolde have dabbled a Greene and unused Pen in all Earthe Heauen and Hell, bicause of the pitiful Confidence of Youthe, was I bounde in and restrict to wayte tyl I coulde in some sort discerne from the Shadowe, that is not by any peynes to be toucht, the small Kernel and Substance that mighte conforme to the sclenderness of my Capacitie. All thys and other Council (that, though I dyd then not followe, Tyme hath since sadlie prouen trewe) is mj unpayable Debt to you (most deare JFather) and for niarke I have set asyde for you, if you will take it, thys my thirds Booke. The more thys and no other sense it is of common kiowledge that Men do rather esteem a Pebble gathered under the Burnynge Lyne (or anie place that they haue gone farr to travel in) then the Paue-way of theyr owne Citie, though that may be the better wrouglit. Your Charitie and the large Tenderness that I haue nowhere founde sense I haue gone from your House shall look upon it fauorably and ouerpass the Blemyshes, Spottes, Eoul Crafte, and Maculations that do as throughly marke it as anie Toil of Me. None the less it is sett presomptuously before that Wnde Beaste the Publick which, though when aparte and one by one examined is but compost of such meere Men and Women as you in theyr outwarde form peynt and I would fayne peynt in theyr inward workynges, yet in totalitie, is a Great and thanklesse God (like unto Dagon) upon whose Altars a man must offer of his Beste alone or the Priestes (which they caul Reuiewers) pack hym emptie awai. If I faile in thys Seruyce you shall take me asyde and giue mo more Instruction, which is but the olde Counsel unreguarded and agayne made playne: As our Vstads take hym whose Nose is rubben in the dyrte and speak in hys Eare. But thys I knowe, that if I fail or if I geat my "Wage from the God aforesayd; and thus dance perpetually before that Altar till he be wearyed, the Wisdom that made in my Vse, when I was neere to listen, and the Sweep and Swing temperate of the Pen that, when I was afarr, gaue me alwaies and untyryng the most delectable Tillage of that Wisdom shall neuer be lackynge to me in Lyfe.
And though I am more rich herein then the richest, my present Pouertie can but make return in thys lytel Booke which your owne Toil has nobilitated beyon the deseruynge of the Writer your Son.