630 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , a/itf Letters. 
is not soe. thay coulde doe littell, if thay coulde not doe so muche, 
and a greate deale more, and better, whensoever thay shall be 
tryde. for what is the disciplyne of Momus, but the schoole of 
carpinge, nippinge, depravinge, and reprehendinge, of evrye good 
thinge? of all other thinges, I thought you woulde not, or coulde 
not have taken any exception, to that speeche of myne. for what 
dothe Momusses <lp. 60> disciplyne touche you (from the which, 
I ame perswaded, you are as free, as any man lyvinge) or any other 
your frendes, whome you meane by We, thay, Vs? and I marvayle 
that vnder thos termes, you shoulde defende others agaynst me, 
whom I knowe not, in this case, whoe thay are, neyther whosoever 
thay are, have I willingely hurte them, but surely owre younge 
men shall the lesse esteeme the censure or the disciplyne of Momus, 
because thay are instructed and perswaded, that neyther S. 
Cyprian, nor the holy Ghost in your places alleaged, beinge rightly 
vnderstoode, doe importe owre Playes to have any affinytye at 
all w th the strumpetts discipline mentioned in y e Prouerbes. Wheras 
you wryte, meaninge me; You demande whether we dare dispyse 
learned Poetrye; I did not demande of you, or them, or any man, 
but Momus, any suche question; if I may be beleeved, as I see 
no cause why I shoulde not. for I was as sure, that you, or any 
learned man, did not dispyse it, as I was certayne that Momus 
did. An tu poesin despicere doctam audeasP I sayd not An vos; 
but An tu ? and I meant it no otherwise then I sayde it. Your 
difference betweene Agere and Recitare * 1 2 I coulde not well be 
ignorant of before, but because Agere woulde not stande so well 
in that place of my verse as Recitare dothe 3 ; and for that the worde 
is vsed in Quintilian not only de scripto ; but also memoriter recitare, 
may. Sure they shall the better if they bee informed that this which you terme 
the discipline of Momus, is not his, but Cyprians, who entitled the stage 
a stewes of publicke shame; or rather the holy Ghosts, who willeth vs to abstaine 
from all appearance of evill: and that the contrarie, for the loue whereof you 
would disgrace this, hath to great affinitie with the strumpets discipline, 
mentioned in the Proverbs. [Overthrow, p. 21.] 
1 Momus, 1. 177. 
2 But it is one thing to recite; an other thing to play: as you may learne by 
Juvenal, who dispraised not Poets for reciting comedies, yet thought a man 
ought rather choose to dye then play them: by Plinie, who esteemed (no dout) 
of stage-playing like a Roman; yet prayed others to recite, or praised them for 
doeing it, and did it him selfe; by Scaliger, who reporteth out of the same 
Plinie that a Latin comedie endited in such sort as the olde comedie of the 
Greeke was recited in his time at Rome, but not played. And if your tragedie 
had bene recited onely, as by the title [side-note: Vlysses redux, tragedia nova, 
in eede Christi Oxonise publice recitata.] a stranger might conceue, who knew 
not that it had bene played: surely for mine owne parte I would haue accounted 
it no more losse of time to haue heard you pronounce it then my selfe to reade 
it. But it beeing played as Terences were: a looser Poet then Terence would 
controll my iudgement and very iustly might, if seeing there is in it a sweete 
Melantho, a lewde queane, I should not thinke there came hurt by the playing 
of it. [Overthrow, p. 22.] 
3 See Momus, line 178: Senecamne tu recitare iacturam putes? 
