Two Dyaloges (c. 1549)

Excerpt

Annius. what hunt Polipheme for here?
Poliphem. Aske ye what I hunt for here, and yet ye se me haue neyther dogges, dart, Jauelyn, nor huntyng staffe.
Cannius. Paraduenture ye hunt after some praty nymphe of the couert.
Poliphemus. By my trouth and well coniectured, be holde what a goodly pursenet, or a hay I haue here in my hande.
Canni. Benedicite, what a straunge syght is this, me thinke I se Bachus in a lyons skin, Poliphemus with a boke in his hande. This is a dogge in a doblet, a sowe w a sadle, of all that euer I se it is a non decet.
Poliphe. I haue not onely paynted and garnyshed my boke with saffron, but also I haue lymmed it withe Sinople, asaphetida, redleed, vermilõ, and byse.
Can. It is a warlyke boke, for it is furnished with knottes, tassils plates, claspes, and brasen bullyons.
Poliphe. Take the boke in your hand and loke within it.
Canni. I se it wery well. Truly it is a praty boke, but me thynkes ye haue not yet trymmed it sufficiently for all your cost ye have bestowed upon it.
Poliphe. Why what lackes it?
Canni. Thou shuldest haue set thyne armes upon it.
Poliphem. what armes I beseche the?
Cãni. Mary the heed of Silenus, an olde iolthed drunkard totynge out of a hoggeshed or a tunne, but in good ernest, wherof dothe your boke dyspose or intreate? dothe it teache the art and crafte to drynke a duetaunt?
Poli. Take hede in goddes name what ye say lest ye bolt out a blasphemie before ye be ware.
Cãni. why bydde ye me take hede what I saye? is there any holy matt in the boke?
Poli. what mã it is the gospell boke, I trow there is nothynge can be more holye.
Canni. God for thy grace what hathe Poliphemus to do withe the gospell?
Poli. Nay why do ye not aske what a chrysten man hathe to do with christe?
Canni. I can not tell but me thynkes a rousty byll or a halbard wold become such a great lubber or a slouyn as thou arte a great deale better, for yf it were my chaûce to mete such one and knewe him not upon seeborde, and he loked so lyke a knaue and a ruffyã as thou dost I wolde take hym for a pirate or a rouer upon the see/ and if I met such one in the wood for an arrante thefe, and a man murderer.
Poli. yea good syr but the gospell teache vs this same lesson, that we shuld not iudge any person by his loke or by his externall & outwarde apparaunce. For lyke wyse as many tymes vnder a graye freers coote a tyrannous mynde lyeth secretly hyd, eue so a polled heed, a crispe or a twyrled berde, a frowninge, a ferse, or a dogged loke, a cappe, or a hat with an oystrich fether, a soldyers cassocke, a payre of all to cut and manglyd, may couer an euangelycall mynde.
Cannius. why not, mary God forbyd elles, yea & many tymes a symple shepe lyeth hyd in a wolfes skynne, and yf a man maye credite and beleue the fables of Aesope, an asse maye lye secretely unknowen by cause he is in a lyons skynne.
Poliphe. Naye I knowe hym whiche bereth a shepe vpon his heed, and a in his brest, to whome I wold wysshe with al my hart that he had as whyte and as fauorable frendes as he hathe blacke eyes....