52 THE ARTE OR CRAFTE OF RHETHORYKE
infidious audacite. And thefe be the commune formes of beneuo- lence.
A man may alfo fetche his pr^heme 1 out of the nature of the place wher he fpeketh / as Tullye dothe in the oracyon made for Pompeius for the fendynge of hym unto Afie agaynft kynge Mithri- dates of Pontus / and kynge Tigranes of Armenie on this maner : howe be it my lordes & maifters of this noble cite of Rome / I haue al tymes thought it a fynguler reioyfe to me if I myght ones fe you gadred to gyther in a company / to here fome publique oracion of myne / and agayne I iuged no place to be fo ample and fo honour- able to speke in as thys is. &c.
Or he maye begyn at the nature of the tyme that is then / or at fome other ryrcu^ftaunce of his mater / as Tully taketh the begyn - nygne of his oracion for Celius at the tyme / this wyfe.
If fo be it my lordes iudges any man be nowe prefent here that is ignorant of your lawes / of youre proceffe in iugementes & of your cuftomes / furely he may well maruell what fo heynous a mater this fhulde be /that it onely fhulde be fyt vppon in an [B iiii a] hygh feafte day / whan all the comonaltye after theyr olde cuftome are gyuen to the fight of playes / ordeined after a perpetual vsage for the nones for them / all maters of the law layd for the tyme vtterly a part.
He began alfo an other oracion for one Sextus Rofcius / out of the dau//ger of the feafon that he fpake in.
One may befyde thefe vie other maner of prohemes / whiche bycaufe they are nat fet out of the very mater it felfe / or els the cercumftaunces / as in thefe aforfayd they are called peregrine or fira.u/zge prohemes. And they be taken out of fe^tences / folewpne peticions / maners or cuftomes / lawes / ftatutes of nacions & con- treys. And on thys maner dothe Ariftides begyn his oracion made to the prayie of Rome.
Demofthenes in his oracyon made agaynft Efchines / toke his preface out of a folempne petycyon / befechynge the goddes that he myght haue as goode fauour in that caufe / as he had founde in all other maters that he had done afore for the comon welthe.
In lyke maner begynneth Tully the oracion that he made for one Murena / & alfo the oracyon that he made vnto the Romaynes after his retourne from exyle.
1 B. proeme.
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