From Rutter, The Shepherd’s Holiday, ‘To ... Master Joseph Rutter’

[From The Shepherd’s Holiday, 1635]

You look, my Joseph, I should something say

Unto the world in praise of your first play;

And truly so I would, could I be heard.

You know I never was of truth afeared,

And less ashamed, not when I told the crowd 5

How well I loved truth. I was scarce allowed

By those deep-grounded, understanding men

That sit to censure plays, yet know not when

Or why to like; they found it all was new,

And newer than could please them, because true. 10

Such men I met withal, and so have you.

Now, for mine own part, and it is but due

(You have deserved it from me), I have read

And weighed your play, untwisted every thread,

And know the woof and warp thereof, can tell 15

Where it runs round and even; where so well,

So soft and smooth it handles, the whole piece,

As it were spun by nature off the fleece.

This is my censure. Now there is a new

Office of wit, a Mint, (and this is true) 20

Cried up of late, whereto there must be first

A master-worker called, th’old standard burst

Of wit and a new made; a Warden then,

And a Controller, two most rigid men

For order, and for governing the pyx, 25

A Say-Master hath studied all the tricks

Of fineness and alloy. Follow his hint,

You’ve all the mysteries of wit’s new Mint,

The valuations, mixtures, and the same

Concluded from a carat to a dram. 30