Page:The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (IA b30323241).pdf/11

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TO MY DEARE LADY AND
SISTER, THE COVNTESSE
OF PEMBROKE.

HEre now haue you (moſt deare, and moſt worthie to bee moſt deare Ladie) this idle work of mine: which I feare (like the Spiders webbe) will bee thought fitter to bee swept away, then worne to any other purpoſe. For my part, in very trueth (as the cruell fathers among the Greekes, were wont to doe to the babes they would not foſter) I could well find in my heart, to caſt out in ſome deſert of forgetfulnes this child, which I am loth to father. But you deſired me to do it, and your deſire, to my heart is an abſolute commandement. Now, it is done onely for you, onely to you: if you keepe it to your ſelfe, or to ſuch friends, who will weigh errors in the ballance of good will, I hope, for the fathers ſake, it will be pardoned, perchance made much of, though in it ſelfe it haue deformities. For indeed, for ſeuerer eyes it is not, being but a trifle, and that triflingly handled. Your deare ſelfe can beſt witnes the maner, being done in looſe ſheetes of paper, most of it in your preſence, the rest, by ſheetes, ſent vnto you, as faſt as they were done. In ſumme, yong head, not to well ſtaied as I would it were, (and ſhall bee when Godwill)

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