iy PREFACE. 



&quot; poesy we see the exposition of fables doth fall out 

 &quot; sometimes with great felicity ; as in the fable that 

 &quot; the giants being overthrown in their war against 

 &quot; the gods, the Earth their mother in revenge 

 &quot; thereof brought forth Fame : 



&quot; Illam Terra parens, ira irritata deoruna, 



&quot; Extremarn, ut perhibent, Coeo Enceladoque sororem 



&quot; Progenuit,&quot; 



&quot; expounded, that when princes and monarchs have 

 &quot; suppressed actual and open rebels, then the malig- 

 &quot; nity of the people, which is the mother of rebellion, 

 &quot; doth bring forth libels and slanders, and taxations 

 &quot; of the state, which is of the same kind with rebel- 

 &quot; lion, but more feminine. So in the fable, that the 

 &quot; rest of the gods having conspired to bind Jupiter, 

 &quot; Pallas called Briareus with his hundred hands to 

 t his aid, expounded, that monarchies need not fear 

 &quot; any curbing of their absoluteness by mighty sub- 

 &quot; jects, as long as by wisdom they keep the hearts 

 &quot; of the people, who will be sure to come in on their 

 &quot; side. So in the fable, that Achilles was brought 

 &quot; up under Chiron the Centaur, who was part a 

 &quot; man and part a beast, expounded ingeniously, but 

 &quot; corruptly by Machiavel, that it belongeth to the 

 &quot; education and discipline of princes to know as 

 &quot; well how to play the part of the lion in violence, 

 u and the fox in guile, as of the man in virtue and 

 &quot; justice. Nevertheless, in many the like encoun- 

 &quot; ters, I do rather think that the fable was first, and 

 &quot; the exposition then devised, than that the moral 

 &quot; was first, and thereupon the fable framed. For I 



