THE NEEDLE'S EXCELLENCY A New Book wherein are diverse Admirable Works wrought with the Needle. Newly invented and cut in Copper for the pleasure and profit of the Industrious.  
Printed for james Baler and are to be sold at the Sign of the Marigold in Paul's Church yard 1631   

THE PRAISE OF THE NEEDLE.  

TO all dispersed sorts of ARTS and TRADES,  
I write the Needle's praise (that never fades)  
So long as Children shall be got or borne,  
So long as Garments shall be made, or worn,  
So long as Hemp or Flax, or Sheep shall bear  
Their linnen-woollen fleeces year by year;  
So long as Silkworms, with exhausted spoil  
Of their own Entrails, for man's gain shall toil:  
Yea, till the world be quite dissolved and passed;  
So long at least, the Needle's use shall last,  
And though from Earth, his being did begin,  
Yet through the fire he did his honour win:  
And unto those that do his service lack,  
he's true as steel, and mettle to the back.  
He hath I pierce eye, small single sight,  
Yet like a Pigmy; Polipheame in fight:  
As a stout Captain, bravely he leads on,  
(Not fearing colours) till the work be done.  
Through thick and thin he is most sharply set,  
With speed through stitch, he will the Conquest get.  
And as a Soldier (Frenchefyde with heat)  
Maimed, from the wars is forced to make retreat:  
So when a Needle's point is broke, and gone,  
No point monsieur, he's maimed, his work is done.  
And more the Needle's honour to advance,  
It is a Tailor's javelin, or his Lance.  
And for my Country's quiet, I should like,  
That Womenkind should use no other Pike.  
It will increase their peace, enlarge their store,  
To use their tongues less, and their Needles more.  
The Needle's sharpness, profit yields, and pleasure,  
But sharpness of the tongue, bites out of measure.  
A Needle (though it be but small and slender)  
Yet is it both a maker and a mender;  
A grave Reformer of old Rents decayed,  
Stops holes and seams, and desperate cuts displayed.  
And thus without the Needle we may see,  
We should without our Bibbs and Biggings be;  
No shirts or smocks, our nakedness to hide,  
No Garments gay, to make us magnifyde;  
No Shadows, Shapparoones, Cawls, Bands, Ruffs, Cuffs,  
No Kerchiefs, Quoyfes, Chin-clowtes, or marry-Muffes,  
No Cros-cloathes, Aprons, Handkerchiefs, or Falls,  
No Tablecloths for Parlours or for Halls.  
No Sheets, no Towels, Napkins, Pillowbeares,  
Nor any Garment man or woman wears.  
Thus is a Needle proved an Instrument  
Of profit, pleasure, and of ornament:  
Which mighty Queens have graced in hand to take,  
And high-born Ladies such esteem did make,  
That as their Daughter's Daughters up did grow,  
The Needle's Art, they to their children show.  
And as 'twas then an exercise of praise,  
So what deserves more honour in these days,  
Then this? which daily doth itself express,  
A mortal enemy to idleness.  
The use of Sewing is exceeding old,  
As in the sacred Text it is enrolled:  
Our Parents first in Paradise began, 
Gen. 3.7.   
Which hath descended since from man to man:  
The Mothers taught their Daughters, Sires their Sons,  
Thus in a line succesfively it runs  
For general profit, and for recreation,  
From generation unto generation. 
Embroidery ancient.   
With work like Cherubims' Embroidered rare,  
The Covers of the Tabernacle were. 
Exod. 26.1.   
And by th' Almighty's great command, we see, 
Chap. 28.2, 3, 4, 5, 6.   
That Aaron's Garments broydered work should be;  
And further, God did bid his Vestments should  
Be made most gay, and glorious to behold.  
Thus plainly, and most truly is declared  
The Needle's works hath still been in regard,  
For it doth ART, so like to NATURE frame,  
As if IT were HER Sister, or the SAME.  
Flowers, Plants, and Fishes, Beasts, Birds, Flies, & Bees,  
Hills, Dales, Plains, Pastures, Skies, Seas, Rivers, Trees:  
There's nothing near at hand, or farthest sought,  
But with the Needle, may be shaped and wrought.  
In clothes of Arras I have often seen  
Men figured, counterfeits so like have been,  
That if the party's self had been in place,  
Yet ART would vie with NATURE for the grace.  
Moreover, Poesy's rare, and Annagrams,  
Signifique searching sentences from Names,  
True History, or various pleasant fiction  
In sundry colours mixed, with Art's comixion,  
All in Dimension: Ouals, Squares, and Rounds,  
Arts life included within Nature's bounds;  
So that Art seemeth merely natural,  
In forming shapes so Geometrical.  
And though our Country every where is filled  
With Ladies, and with Gentlewomen, skilled  
In this rare Art, yet here they may discern  
Somethings too teach them, if they list to learn.  
And as this Book, some cunning works doth teach,  
(Too hard for mean capacities to reach)  
So for weak learners, other works here be, 
I say here are the grounds and directions for many more works than are in this Book.   
As plain and easy as are A B C.  
Thus skilful, or unskilful, each may take  
This Book, and of it, each good use may make.  
All sorts of works, almost that can be named,  
Here are directions how they may beframed:  
And for this Kingdom's good are hither come,  
From the remotest parts of Christendom.  
Collected with much pains and industry,  
From scorching Spain, and freezing Moscovye,  
From fertile France, and pleasant Italy,  
From Poland, Sweaden, Denmark, Germany,  
And some of these rare Patterns have been fet  
Beyond the bounds of faithless Mahomet:  
From spacious China, and those Kingdom's East,  
And from great Mexico, the Indies West.  
Thus are these works, far fetched, and dearly bought,  
And consequently, good for Lady's thought.  
Nor do I derogate (in any case)  
Or do esteem of other teachings base,  
For Tent-worke, Raisd-worke, Laid-worke, Frost-worke, Network,  
Most curious Purls, or rare Italian Cutwork,  
Fine Ferne-stitch, Finny-stitch, New-stitch, and Chain-stitch,  
Brave Bred-stitch, Fisher-stitch, Irish-stitch, and Queene-stitch,  
The Spanish-stitch, Rosemary-stitch, and Mow-stitch,  
The smarting Whip-stitch, Backstitch, and the Cros-stitch:  
All these are good, and these we must allow,  
And these are every where in practice now;  
And in this Book, there are of these some store,  
With many others, never seen before.  
Here Practice and Invention may be free,  
And as a Squirrel skips from tree to tree,  
So Maids may (from their Mistress, or their Mother)  
Learn to leave one work, and to learn another.  
For here they may make choice of which is which,  
And skip from work to work, from stitch to stitch,  
Until in time delightful practice shall  
(With profit) make them perfect in them all.  
Thus hoping that these works may have this guide  
To serve for ornament, and not for pride:  
To cherish virtue, banish idleness,  
For these ends, may this book have good success.   

Here follow certain Sonnets in the Honourable memory of Queens and great Ladies, who have been famous for their rare Innentions, and practise with the Needle.  

I  

King David by an apt similitude 
Psal. 45.   
Doth show, with Majesty the Church her worth:  
And to a King's fair Daughter, doth allude,  
Where to her Spouse, he bravely brings her forth,  
In Garments wrought of Needlework and Gold,  
Resplendent and most glorious to the eye:  
Whose outside much more glory did enfold,  
The presence of th'eternal Majesty.  
Thus may you see Records of holy Writ  
Set down (what Death or Time can ne'er deface.)  
By these comparisons, comparing fit,  
The noble worth of Needle-workes high grace.  
Then learn fair Damsels, learn your times to spend  
In this, which such high praisings doth commend.    

2  
Katharaine first married to Arthur Prince of Wales, and afterward to Henry the 8. King of England.  

I Read that in the seaventh King Henry's Reign,  
Fair Katherine, Daughter to the Castille King,  
Came into England with a pompous train  
Of Spanish Ladies, which she thence did bring.  
She to the eight King Henry married was,  
And afterwards divorced, where virtuously  
(Although a Queen) yet she her days did pass  
In working with the Needle curiously,  
As in the Tower, and places more beside,  
Her excellent memorials may be seen:  
Whereby the Needle's praise is dignifide  
By her fair Ladies, and herself, a Queen.  
Thus for her pains, here her reward is just,  
Her works proclaim her praise, though she be dust.    

3  
Marry, Queen of England, and wife to Philip King of Spain.  

HEr Daughter Mary here the Sceptre swayed,  
And though she were a Queen of mighty power:  
Her memory will never be decayed,  
Which by her works are likewise in the Tower.  
In Windsor Castle, and in Hampton Court,  
In that most pompous room called Paradise:  
Whoever pleaseth thither to resort,  
May see some works of hers of wondrous price.  
Her Greatness held it no dis-reputation,  
To take the Needle in her Royal hand:  
Which was a good example to our Nation,  
To banish idleness from out her Land:  
And thus this Queen, in wisdom thought it fit,  
The Needles work pleased her, and she graced it.    

4  
Elizabeth Queen of England, and Daughter to King Henry the eight.  

When this great Queen, whose memory shall not  
By any term of time be overcast:  
For when the world, and all therein shall rot,  
Yet shall her glorious fame for ever last.  
When she a Maid, had many troubles past,  
From jayleto jail, by Mary's angry spleen:  
And Woodstock, and the Tower in prison fast,  
And after all, was England's Peerless Queen.  
Yet howsoever sorrow came or went,  
She made the Needle her companion still:  
And in that exercise her time she spent,  
As many living yet, doth know her skill.  
Thus was she still a Captive, or else Crowned,  
A Needle-woman Royal, and renowned.    

5  
The Right Honourable, Virtuous, and learned Lady, Mary, late Countess of Pembroke.  

A Patterne and a Patroness she was  
Of virtuous industry, and studious learning:  
And she her earthly Pilgrimage did pass,  
In Acts, which were high honour, most concerning.  
Brave Wilton-house in Wiltshire well can show,  
Her admirable works in Arras framed:  
Where men, and beasts, seem like, trees seem to grow,  
And Art (surpassed by Nature) seems ashamed.  
Thus this renowned Honourable Dame,  
Her happy time most happily did spend:  
Whose worth recorded in the mouth of fame,  
(Until the world shall end) shall never end.  
She wrought so well in Needlework, that she,  
Nor yet her works, shall ere forgotten be.    

6  
The Right Honourable and religious Lady, Elizabeth Dormer, Wife to the late Right Honourable, the Lord Robert Dormer deceased.  

THis Noble Lady imitates time past,  
Directs time present, teacheth time to come:  
And longer than her life, her laud shall last,  
Works shows her worth, though all the world were dumb.  
And though her Reverend self, with many days  
Of honourable age is loaden deep,  
Yet with her Needle (to her worthy praise)  
she's working often, ere the Sun doth peep.  
And many times, when Phoebus in the West  
Declined is, and Luna shows her head:  
This ancient honoured Lady rests from Rest,  
And works when idle sloth goes soon to bed.  
Thus she the Needle makes her recreation,  
Whose well-spent pains are others imitation.    

To all degrees of both sexes, that love or live by the laudable employment of the Needle.  

IF any ask to whom these lines are writ,  
I answer, unto them that do inquire:  
For since the world's creation none was yet,  
Whose wants did not the Needles help desire.  
And therefore, not to him, or her, or thee,  
Or them, or they, I do not write at all:  
Nor to particulars of he or she,  
But generally, to all in general.  
Then let not Pride look scurvily a-scewe,  
Without the Needle, Pride would naked go:  
Nor yet let Scorn cry pish, and tush, and mew,  
Scorn is forgetful much in doing so.  
Nor yet let any one presume to prate,  
And call these lines poor trifles, by me penned:  
Let not opinion be prejudicate,  
But mend it, ere they dare to discommend.  
So fare-thou-well my well-deserving Book,  
(I mean, the works deserts, and not my lines)  
I much presume that all that on it look,  
Will like and laud the workman's good designs.  
Fools play the fools, but 'tis through want of wit,  
Whilst I to wisdom's censure do submit.     
FINIS.  john Taylor.  


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