Choise

Ye shall haue choise of a thousande as good as shee, And ye must pardon hir, it is for lacke of witte.

Behold him now, according to his wish, at libertie: in that age, wherein Hercules had the choise, to take the way of vertue or of vice, reason or passion for his guide, and of these two must take one.

Tis not vnknown to you, The feruent loue I beare to young Anne Page, And mutally her loue againe to mee: But her father still against her choise, Doth seeke to marrie her to foolish Slender, 10 And in a robe of white this night disguised, Wherein fat Falstaffe had a mightie scare, Must Slender take her and carrie her to Catlen, And there vnknowne to any, marrie her.

And therefore my desire is, to take this paines, for the pleasure, and profit of the publicke; endeavouring to accommodate it to the content of all, according to the variety of those things, wherewith it may be mixt; that so every man may make choise of that, which shal be most agreeable to his disposition.

Since this then is plainly the case, there can be no choise in dying honourably in the field for so just a cause, or leving to see the ruin and intire destruction of our country, our King, and our friends and relations.

Muſes, I oft inuoked your holy ayde, / With choiſeſt flowers my ſpeech to engarland ſo; / That it deſpiſde in true but naked ſhew, / Might winne ſome grace in your ſweet grace arraid.

I doubt not but ye ſhall have more adoe to drive out dulleſt and lazieſt youth, our ſtocks and ſtubbs from the infinite deſire of ſuch a happy nurture, then we have now to hale and drag our choiſeſt and hopefulleſt wits to that aſinine feaſt of ſowthiſtles and brambles which is commonly ſet before them, as all the food and entertainment of their tendereſt and moſt docible age.

When Cato Utican, in vacation times, and at his beſt leaſure, went to recreate himſelf in the country, he uſed to cary with him the beſt Philoſophers, and choiſeſt bookes.

But why then have ſuch an infinite number of other fooleries been taken into conſideration, and thought a fit ſubject for their learned Pens, which are a thouſand times more Ridiculous in appearance, then this is? whereas, on the contrary, there is no Aſtrologer, to whom this Science is not neceſſary; nor any ſearcher into the choiſer pieces of Theological antiquity, to whom in like manner it may not be uſeful; if at leaſt it be true.