of gljtfflttnjj, 67

But yfthat God ' fo for meJJiap
That home agaync Imaye ones come,
Let me neuer tmoye that hap,
Nor ener twyfe looke on thefonne^
Jfbowe andJJiaftts I do not burne
Whyche nowefo euel doth feme my turne.

But to let paffe al Poetes, what can be forer faid
agaynft any thing, than the iudgement of
Cyrus is agaynft ihotynge, whiche doth Xen Cyn.
caufe his Perfians beyng the beft fhooters
to laye awaye theyr bowes and take them to fweardes
and buckelers, fpeares and dartes, and other lyke
hande weapons. The which thing Xenophon fo wyfe
a philofopher, fo experte a captayne in warre hym
felfe, woulde neuer haue written, and fpecially in that
booke wherein he purpofed to fhewe, as Tullie fayeth in
dede, not the true hiftorie, but the example
of a perfite wife prince an d common welthe, QplFrju* ad
excepte that iudgement of chaungyng
Artillerie, in to other wepons, he had alwayes thought
beft to be folowed, in all warre. Whofe
counfell the Parthians dyd folowe, whan ^utj£j
they chafed An tonie ouerthe mountaines of
Media, whiche being the befl fhoters of the worlde, lefte
theyr bowes, and toke them to fpeares and morifpikes.

And thefe fewe examples I trowe, of the beft fhooters,
do well proue that the befl fhotinge is not the befl
thinge as you call it in warre.

2Cox. As concernynge your firft example, taken
oute of Euripides, I maruayle you wyl bring it for ye
difprayfe of fhotyng, feyng Euripides doth make
thofe verfes, not bicaufe he thinketh them true,
but bicaufe he thinketh them fit for the perfon
that fpake them. For in dede his true iudge-
ment of fhoting, he doth expreffe by and by after
in the oration of the noble captame Amphytrio
agaynfte Lycus, wherein a man maye doubte. whether
he hath more eloquentlye confuted Lycus fayenge, or
more worthelye fette oute the prayfe of fhootynge.