An answer to master Smyth servant to the kings most royal majesty. And clerk of the queens graces counsel/ though most unworthy. ¶ Whether ye troll in or else troll out ye troll untruly/ look better about. WHere as of late two things ye parused Concerning the treason of Thomas Crumwell Undoubtedly both your wit and your sight were confused Lacking a medicine/ blindness to expel Put on your spectacles and mark it well Than shall you see/ and say/ maugre your heart That troll in/ hath played a true subjects part ❧ For where as troll a way (as ye say) told troth Declaring the offences/ wherein Crumwell offended It was not the thing/ wherewith troll in was wroth For in that point/ Troll in/ Troll away commended But this was the matter/ wherefore they contended Trolle away/ under pretence of trolling against treason Practised proud popery/ as appeareth by reason. ☞ And ye supporting the same/ your pen runneth at large Boldly as blind bayard/ ye write in his defence And in your mischievous manner/ ye lay falsely to my charge Saying/ who that craftily coloureth any others offence Of likelihood in his own heart/ hath the same pretence But here ye speak of likelihood/ and so blindly go by guess your fondness is the foolisher/ and my fault is the less. ¶ An horse being nothing galled/ of force ye may make to kick With spurring and with pricking/ more than reason would require But if the horse were lusty/ courageous and also quick ye might be the first perchance/ that might lie in the mire As wise as ye/ have been drowned in their own desire Many a man/ another's mischief/ of malice will prepare And yet himself the first/ that is caught in the snare. ¶ Because of making strife (ye say) ye will take neither part But here ye break promise/ for against all reason and right We illi per qem scandalum venit, Luce, xvij. Speaking with your mouth/ that you think not with your heart Against troll in/ ye take troll aways part/ with all your might Thus all things lightly that ye make/ among themselves do fight Wherefore whatsoever ye writ or say/ greatly it shall not skill For if ye speak any thing wisely/ I think it be against your will. ¶ But blindly have ye slandered me/ good master Thomas Smyth Scraping together scriptures/ your madness to maintain Truly your rude rowsty reason/ being so far from the pith Had need of such a cloak/ to keep it from the rain For all the world may perceive/ how falsely ye forge and fain Yet still you affirm your falsehood/ as though ye knew things presysely Christ's blessing on your heart/ forsooth ye have done full wisely. ¶ Ye rumble among the scriptures/ as one that were half mad Wresting and writhing them/ according to your own purpose fashioning and framing them/ to your sayings good and bad Like as the holy papists/ were wont to paint their popish gloze Do ye take the holy scripture to be like a shipman's hose? Nay nay/ although a shipman's hose/ will serve all sorts of legs yet Christ's holy scripture/ will serve no rotten dregs. ☞ Counsel with some tailor/ when that ye write next Take measure of divinity/ before ye cut the fashion So shall ye square your scriptures/ and the better trim your text And than shall men of learning/ commend your operation But how should he be cunning/ that knoweth not his occupation How should a cobbler cut a core/ or a smith taste good wine Or how should you scarcely a clerk/ be now a good divine? ❧ What living man (except it were you) being in his right wits Would write as ye have written/ and all not worth a mite I think it be some peevish pang/ that cometh over your heart by fits Under the colour of charity/ to work your cruel spite If men would mark your madness/ and behold your devilish delight Should see how ye wrist the scriptures to your saying/ not worth ii chips And join them all together/ as just as Germans lips. ¶ When ye have spit your poison/ and said even the worst ye can Than come ye in with charity/ willing all strife to cease But surely good master Smyth/ ye speak like a merry man Moche like a comen pike quarrel/ that strife would increase Continually crying in frays/ hold/ keep the kings pease But those be pretty peace makers/ in deed for every day That still bestow more strokes/ than they that began the fray. ☞ What wise man would not laugh/ for to here you brag and boast Of your name/ your service/ of your office and all this gear Qui se laudat stercore coronabit, As though ye were primrose peerless/ and a ruler of the roast By the declaring whereof/ ye think to put poor men in fere But your bragging and your boasting/ shall neither be here nor there As long as I may indifferently/ be suffered to use my pen ye shall never be able to face me out/ with a card of ten. ❧ A wise man would have praised god/ and than prayed for the king The which of their great goodness/ to your office did you call And not to have bragged thereof/ and than put it out in printing For ye stand not yet so sure/ but it is possible ye may fall And though your office be great/ I trust your power be but small Or else perchance ye would quickly thirst a poor man among the thorns But god almighty provideth well to send a shrewd cow short horns. ¶ Christ preserve the kings most noble grace/ & send him long life Even Henry the eight (next under god) of this church/ the head supreme Christ preserve & keep queen Katheryn/ his most lawful wife Christ preserve Prince Edward/ the very right heir of this realm Christ still incense their noble counsel/ with the influence of heaven Christ for his tender mercy/ amend all thing that is a miss Christ send master Smyth more charity/ when his good pleasure is. ¶ Amen. W.G. ☞ By me a poor man whose heart if ye knew Would be the kings servant as fain as you. ¶ Imprinted at London by me Richard Banks/ Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum. And be to be sold in Pater noster row by John Turk/ at the sign of the Rose.