BOOKS.RESEAU.ORG - English-French Library

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[Transcriber's note: The original text has no page
numbers. Page breaks have been marked with double
lines || like this. Three apparent typographic errors
were corrected and are listed at the end of this
text. All other spelling and punctuation are as in
the original.]

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                [C]Two dyaloges
                wrytten in laten
         by the famous clerke. D. Eras-
         mus of Roterodame/ one called
          Polyphemus or the gospeller/
         the other dysposyng of thynges
             and names/ translated
               in to Englyshe by
                    Edmonde
                     Becke.
           And prynted at Cantorbury
            in saynt Paules paryshe
                by Johñ Mychell.
                      [+]

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           The preface to the Reader.

  Lucius Anneus Seneca amonge many other pratie
  saienges (gentle reder) hathe this also, whiche in
  my iudgement is as trew as it is wittie. Rogãdo
  cogit qui rogat superior. And in effecte is thus
  moch to say, yf a mãnes superior or his better
  desyre any thige, he might aswell cõmãde it by
  authoritie as ones to desyre it.

  A gentleman a nere cosyn of myne, but moch nerer
  in fryndshyp, eftesones dyd instant and moue me to
  translate these two dyaloges folowynge, to whose
  getlenes I am so moch obliged, indetted and
  bounde, that he myght well haue cõmaunded me to
  this and more paynes: to whome I do not onely owe
  seruyce, but my selfe also. And in accõplysshynge
  of his most honest request (partly by cause I
  wolde not the moost inhumane fawte of Ingratitude
  shuld wor||thely be imputed to me, & that I
  might in this thynge also (accordynge to my
  bounden dutie) gratifie my frende) I haue hassard
  my selfe in these daungerous dayes, where many
  are so capcyous, some prone and redy to malygne &
  depraue, and fewe whose eares are not so
  festidious, tendre, and redy to please, that in
  very tryfles & thynges of small importaunce, yet
  exacte dylygence and exquisite iudgement is loked
  for and requyred, of them whiche at this present
  wyll attempte to translate any boke be it that the
  matter be neuer so base. But what diligence I have
  enployed in the translaciõ hereof I referre it to
  the iudgement of the lerned sort, whiche cõferynge
  my translacion with the laten dyaloges, I dowte
  not wyl condone and pardone my boldnesse, in that
  that I chalenge the semblable lybertie whiche the
  translatours of this tyme iustlie chalenge. For
  some heretofore submytting them selfe to
  seruytude, haue lytle ||respecte to the
  obseruaciõ of the thyng which in translacyõ is of
  all other most necessary and requisite, that is to
  saye, to rendre the sence & the very meanyng of
  the author, not so relygyouslie addicte to
  translate worde for worde, for so the sence of the
  author is oftentimes corrupted & depraued, and
  neyther the grace of the one tonge nor yet of the
  other is truely observed or aptlie expressed. The
  lerned knoweth that euery tonge hathe his peculyer
  proprietie, phrase, maner of locucion, enargies
  and vehemêcie, which so aptlie in any other tõg
  can not be expressed. Yf I shal perceyue this my
  symple doinge to be thankefully taken, and in good
  parte accepted, it shall encorage me hereafter to
  attempte the translaciõ of some bokes dysposing of
  matters bothe delectable, frutefull, & expedient
  to be knowen, by the grace of God, who gyuynge me
  quyetnes of mynde, lybertie, and abylytie, shall
  not desyste to communicat the frute of my
  ||spare howers, to such as are not lerned in
  the laten tonge: to whome I dedycat the fyrste
  frutes of this my symple translacyon.

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