A FREE AND OFFENCELES justification, OF A LATELY PUBLISHED and most maliciously misinterpreted Poem: ENTITLED Andromeda liberata.  Veritatem qui amat, emat. 
LONDON, Printed for LAURENCE L'ISLE and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's churchyard at the sign of the Tigers-head, 1614   

A FREE AND OFFENCELES Justification: Of a lately published and most maliciously misinterpreted Poem; Entitled▪ Andromeda liberata.  
AS Learning, hath delighted from her Cradle, to hide herself from the base and profane Vulgar, her ancient Enemy▪ under divers veils of Hierogl●phikes Fables, and the like; So hath she pleased herself with no disguise more; then in mysteries and allegorical fictions of Poesy. These have in that kind, been of special reputation; as taking place of the rest, both for priority of time, and precedence of use; being borne in the old world, long before Hieroglyphics or Fabels were conceived: And delivered from the Fathers to the Sons of Art; without any Author but Antiquity. Yet ever held in high Reverence and Authority; as supposed to conceal, within the utter bark (as their Eternity's approve) some sap of hidden Truth▪ As either some dim and obscure prints of divinity, and the sacred history; Of the grounds of natural▪ or rules of moral Philosophy, for the recommending of some virtue, torturing some vice in general (For howsoever Physicians allege; that their medicines, respect non Hominem, ●e●t Socratem; not every, but such a special body: Yet Poets profess the contrary, that their physic intends non Socratem sed Hominem, not the individual but the universal) Or else recording some memorable Examples for the use of policy and state: ever (I say) enclosing within the Rind, some fruit of knowledge howsoever darkened; and (by reason of the obscurity) of ambiguous and different construction. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. Est enim ipsa Natura 〈◊〉 Poe●●● anigmatu● plena, 
Pl●t. in A●●b. 2.  nec qu ●is eam dignostit: This Ambiguity in the sense, hath given scope to the variety of expositions; while Poem in all ages (challenging, as their Birthrights, the use and application of these fictions) have ever been allowed to fashion both, pro & contra, to their own offenceless, and judicious occasions. And borrowing to far the privileged licence of their professions; have enlarged, or 〈◊〉 the Allegory, with inventions and dispositions of their own, to extend it to their present doctrinal and illustrious purposes▪ By which authority, myself (resolving amongst others, to offer up my poor mite, to the honour of the late Nuptials; betwixt the two most Noble personages, whose honoured names renown the front of my Poem) singled out (as in some parts harmelesly, and gracefully applicable to the occasion) The Nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda, an innocent and spotless virgin, rescued from the polluted throat of a monster; which I in this place applied to the savage multitude; perverting her most lawfully-sought propagation, both of blood and blessing, to their own most lawless and lascivious intentions: from which in all right she was legally and formally delivered. Nor did I ever imagine till now so far-fetched a thought in malice (such was my simplicity) That the fiction being as ancient as the first world, was originally intended to the dishonour of any person now living: but presumed, that the application being free I might pro meo iure dispose it (innocenly) to mine own object: if at least, in mine own wrighting, I might be reasonably & conscionably master of mine own meaning. And to this sense, I confined the allegory throughout my Poem; as every word thereof, (concerning that point) doth clearly and necessarily demonstrate: without the least intendment (I vow to God) against any noble personages free state, or honour. Nor make I any noble (whose mere shadows herein, the vulgar perhaps may imitatate) any thought the more mixed with the gross substance of the vulgar: but present the vulgar only in their unseverd herd; as ever in ancient tradition of all authentical Authors they have been resembled: To whom they were never beholding for any fairer Titles; 
Caligula.  then the base, ignoble, barbarous, giddy multitude; The Monster with many heads (which the Emperor, in his displeasure, wished to have sprung all from one neck; that all at one blow, he might have v●trunkt them) cui lumen 〈◊〉; without an Eye; or, at most, seeing all by one fight (like the Lamiaes, who had but one eye to serve all their directions, which, as any one of them went abroad, she put on, and put off when she came home) giving up their understandings to their affections, and taking up their affections on other men's credits, 
 never examining the causes of their Loves or hates, but (like curs) always ba●king at all they know not: whose most honoured deservings (were they known to them as to others of nearer and truer observation) might impress in them as much reverence as their ignorance doth rudeness: Evermore baying loudest at the most eminent Reputations, & with whom as in the kingdom of Frogs) the most loud Crier, is the loftiest Rule●▪ No reason nor authority able to stoop them; though never so judicially & religiously urdging them: whose impartial and clear truth; not their own bold blindness can deny; unless they will dare to mutter with the Orator touching the Delphic Oracles, and say our Oracles of Truth, 
〈…〉  did likewise 〈◊〉 incline to Philip putting no difference betwixt Illusion and Truth, the consciences of learned religious men▪ and the cunnings of profane. And then how may my poor endeavours, in duty to Truth, and my most dear Conscience (for Reputation, since it stands, for the most part, on beasts feet, and Deserts hand is nothing to warrant it, let it go with the beastly) reform or escape their unrelenting detractions? The Loves of the right virtuous and truly noble, I have ever as much esteemed, as despised the rest▪ finding ever of the first sort, in all degrees, as worthy as any of my rank, till (having enough to do in mine own necessary ends, hating to insinuate and labour their confirmation, and increase of opinion, further than their own free judgements would excite and direct them) I still met with undermining labourers for themselves, who (esteeming all worth their own, which they detract from others) diminished me much in some changeable estimations (Amicu●● 〈◊〉 Animal facile mutabil●) whose supplies yet far better have still brought me unfought: and till this most unequal impression oppressed me, I stood firm up with many, now only, with God and myself. For the violent hoobub, setting my song to their own tunes, have made it yield so harsh and distasteful a sound to my best friends, that my Integrity▪ even they hold, affected with the shrill echo thereof, by reflection receiving it from the mouths of others. And thus (to 〈◊〉, as struck dumb with the disdain of it, their most unmanly lie both of my ba●●●ing and wounding, saying▪ Take this for your Andromeda, not being so much as touched, I witness God, nor one syllable suffering) I will descend to a conclusion with this, that in all this my seed time, sowing others honours, 〈◊〉 super semi●auit Zizania etc. Whiles I slept in mine innocency, the envious man hath been here, who like a venomous spider, drawing this subtle thread out of himself, cunningly spread it into the ears of the many (who as they see all with one eye, so hear all with one ear, and that always the left) where multiplying and getting strength it was spread into an Artificial web, to entangle my poor poetical fly; being otherwise (God knows) for enough from all venom, save what hath been ●oro'st into her, by her poisonous enemy to sting her to death. But the allusion (you will say) may be extended so far; but qui nimium emulget elicet sanguinem; a malicious reader by straining the Allegory past his intentional limits, may make it give blood, where it yields naturally milk, and overcurious wits may discover a sting in a fly: But as a guiltless prisoner at the bar said to a Lawyer thundering against his life, Num quia tu disertus es, ego peribo? because malice is witty, must Innocence be condemned? Or if some other, not sufficiently examining what I have written, shall by mistaking the title, suppose it carry such an understanding; doth any Law therefore cast that meaning upon me? Or doth any rule of reason make it good, that let the writer mean what he list, his writing notwithstanding must be construed in mentem Legentis? to the intendment of the Reader? If then, for the mistaking of an envious or unskilful Reader, who commonly being praeiudicia pro judicijs, I shall be exposed to the hate of the better sort, or taken forcibly into any powerful displeasure, I shall esteem it an act as cruel and tyrannous, as that of the Emperor, who put a Consul to death for the error of a public Crier; misnaming him Emperor in stead of Consul. For myself I may justly say thus much, that if my whole life were laid on the rack, it could never accuse me for a Satirist or Libeler, to play with worthy men's reputations; or if my vain were so addicted, yet could I so far be given over, as without cause or end, to adventure on personages of renowned nobility? having infallible reason to assure myself, that even those most honoured personages, to whose graces I chiefly intended these labours, might they but in the least degree have suspected any such allusion by me purposed, as is now most injuriously surmised against me, they would have abhorred me and banished me their sight. To conclude Hic Rhodus, hic saltus; as I said of my life, so of my lines; here is the Poem; let every syllable of it be tortured by any how partial and prejudicate so ever (for as the case hath been carried: I can now look for no difference) and if the least particle thereof, can be brought, necessarily or justly to confess, any harmful intention of mine to the height imagined, having already past the test of some of the most judicial and Noble of this Kingdom: if Malice will still make unanswerably mine, what herself hath merely invented, and say with Physicians, that the fault of the first concoction cannot be corrected in the second, (my meat supposed Harpy-like ravished at first, into her vicious stomach) And that as Herodotus is unjustly said to praise only the Athenians, that all Grecians else he might the more freely deprave, so Malice will as licentiously affirm, that my Poem hath something honourably applicable, that the rest might the more safely discover my malignance: And lastlly, If my judges (being preiudicd with my accusation, have no ear left to hear my defence) will therefore powerfully continue their hostility both against my life & reputation, than Collun securi, I must endure at how inhuman hands soever (at least) my poor credit's amputation: humbly retiring myself within the Castle of my Innocence, & there in patience possessing my Soul, quietly abide their uttermost outrage: dedefending myself, as I may, from the better sort, by a clear conscience, from the base, by an eternal contempt.  
Pereas, qui calamitates hominum colligis.  Eur: 
The worst of the greatest Act.  
Aetna quenched.  Dist: 
Two Plants in one soil fruitless; Both transplanted:  
(Untouched) find fit means for posterity granted.  
The worst of the least.  
The spleenelesse Flie.  Dist: 
The Innocent delivered, her destroyer  
Her trophy is: Her Saver, Her Enjoyer.  
Tamen haec fremit Plebs.  Liv: 
Yet further opposed; admit a little further answer.  

Dialogus.  The Persons Pheme and Theodines. Phe. 
HO! you! Theodines you must not dream  
Y'are thus dismissed in Peace, see as too extreme  
Your song hath stirred up, to becalmd so soon:  
Nay, in your haven you shipwreck, y'are undone,  
Your Perseus is displeased, and sleighteth now  
Your work, as idle, and as servile, you.  
The People's god-voice, hath exclamd away  
Your misty clouds, and he se●s clear as day  
Y'ave made him scandald for another's wrong,  
Wishing unpublisht your unpopular song.  Theo. 
O thou with people's breaths and bubbles filled.  
Ever delivered, evermore with child:  
How Court and City burnish with th● breed  
Of news and nifles? seasoning all their feed  
With nothing, but what only (dressed like thee)  
Of surfeit tastes and superfluity?  
Let all thy bladder- 〈◊〉 still inspire▪  
And make embroidered facte-●als for the mire  
With thy suggestions: On the cloven feet  
Of thy chimera tossed from street to street;  
Out Perseus 〈…〉 with the pre●s●  
Or like th' inconstant Moon be, that like these  
M●kes herself ready by her glass the 〈◊〉  
The common Rends vous of all rude streams:  
And fed in some part, with our common Thames  
As that is hourly served with sewers and sinks,  
Strengthening and cleansing our sweet meats and drinks,  
Our Perseus by Minerva's perfect Mirror  
Informs his beauties: that reformed from th'●rror  
Which Change and Fashion in most others find,  
Like his fair body, he may make his mind,  
Deck that with knowing ornaments, and then  
Effuse his radiance, upon knowing Men,  
Which can no more fail then the sun to show  
By his insight, his outward overflow.  
Perseus? (that when Minerva in her spring  
Which renders deathless, every noble thing  
Clarified in it, thri●● 〈◊〉 hath his 〈◊〉)  
Take from a Sow, th●t washeth in her stood  
(The common ken●ell) every gut she feeds?  
His food then thinking cleaner? And 〈◊〉 then  
Take it for manly; when unfit for Men?  
Can I seem servile to him, when alas  
My whole Life's freedom, shows I never was?  
If I be rude in speech, or not express  
My Plain Mind, w●th affected Courtlines  
His Insight can into the Fountain reach,  
And knows, sound meaning near used glozing speech.  Phem. 
Well, be he as you hope, but this believe,  
All friends have left you, all that knew you grieve  
(For fair condition in you) that your Thrall,  
To one Man's humour, should so lose them all:  Theo. 
One may be worth all, and they thus imply  
Themselves are all bad, that our Good ●●uie▪  
Goodness and Truth they are (the All-good knows)  
To whom my free Sole all her labours vows.  
If friends for this forsake me, let them fly;  
And know that 〈◊〉 their inconstancy  
Grieves, or disheartens my resolved endeavours  
Then I had shaken off so many fea●ers.  
M● fair condition moves them ● Even right thus  
Fared the Physician, 〈◊〉  
With still poor Socrates; who terming rude,  
Lustful, unlearnd▪ and with no wit endued,  
The most wise Man, did add yet, he is just.  
And with that praise, would give his dispraise trust.  
For as a man, whom Art hath flattery taught,  
And is at all parts, master of his Craft;  
With long and varied praises, doth sometimes  
Mix by the way, some sleight and perviall crimes  
As sauce; to give his flatteries taste and scope,  
So, that Malignity, may give her hope  
Of faults believed effect, she likewise lays  
In her strewed passage, some light flowers of praise.  
But 'tis not me alas, they thus pursue  
With such unprofiting, Cunning, nor imbrue  
Their bitter spent mouths, with such bloud-mixt some,  
In chase of any action that can come  
From my poor form, but from the foot they tread  
Those passages, that thence affect the head.  
And why? who knows? not that next spirit that is  
Organ to all their knowing faculties,  

Lynceus.  Or else, I know I oft have read of one  
So sharpe-eyd, he could see through Oak and Stone,  

Callicrates.  Another that high set in Sicily  

Mirmecides.  As far as Carthage numbered with his eye,  
The Navy under sail▪ which was dissite  
A night and days sail; with winds most foreright;  
And others, that such curious chariots made  
As with a flies wing, they hid all in shade,  
And in a Ses●●●ine (small Indian grain)  
Engraved a page of Homer's verses plain.  
These farre-seene marvels, I could never see  
Being made of down right, flat simplicity,  
How near our curious Craftsmen come to these  
They must demonstrate, ere they win the wise:  Phe. 
But who are those you reckon Homicides  
In your racked Poem? I swear, that divides  
Your wondering Reader, far from your applause.  Theo. 
I joy in that, for weighing with this cause  
Their other Reason, men may clearly see,  
How sharp and pregnant their constructions be.  
I prove by Argument, that he that loves  
Is dead, and only in his lover moves.  
His Lover as 'twere taking life from him:  
And praising that kind slaughter I condemn  
As churlish Homicides, 
See my reasons in their places.  who will deny  
In love twixt two, the possibility  
To propagate their lives into descent  
Needful and lawful, and that argument  
Is Plato's, 
Quip non minus homicida censendus est qui hominem praecipit nasciturum; quam qui natum tollite medio. Audacior autem, qui presentem ab●umpit vitam, crudelio●, qui lucem invidet naseituro, & nondum natos filios suos enecat. Plat. in Sympo.  to a word, which much commends  
The two great personages, who wanting th'ends  
Of wedlock, as they were; with one consent  
Sought clear distunction, which (with blessed event)  
May join both otherwise, with such increase  
Of worthy Offspring, that posterities  
May bless their fautors, and their favours now:  
Whom now such bans and poisons overflow.  Phem. 
Bound to a barren rock, and death expected,  
See that with all your skill then clean dissected.  
That (barren) clear your edge of, if you can.  Theo. 
As if that could applied be to a Man?  
O barren Malice! was it ever said  
A man was barren? or the burden laid  
Of bearing fruit on Man? if not, nor this  
Epithet barren, can be construed his  
In least propriety: but that such a one  
As was Andromeda; 
Virgo sanè egreg●●, & omnibus animi & corporis dotibus ornatissima Natal: Co: de Andromeda.  in whose parts shone  
All beauties, both of body and of mind  
The sea dame to a barren rock should bind  
In envy lest some other of her kind  
Should challenge them for beauty any more;  
Increased the cause of making all deplore  
So dear an innocent, with all desert  
No more than (for Humanity's shame) pervert  
For of your whole huge reckonings here's the sum,  
O saeclum insipiens, & inficetum.  Quod dignis adimit, transit ad Impios.