¶ A Treatiſe contayning a playne and perfect Deſcription of Irelande, with an Introduction, to the better vnderſtanding of the Hyſtories, appartayning to that Iſlande: compyled by Richard Stanyhurst, and written to the Ryght Honorable, Syr Henry Sydney Knight, Lorde Deputie of Irelande, Lorde preſident of Wales, Knight of the moſt noble order of the Garter, and one of hir Maieſties priuie Counſell with|in hir realme of England.

[1] _MY VERY good Lorde, there haue beene diuers of late, that with no ſmall [...]oyle, and great commenda [...]ion, haue through|ly imployed themſelues, in [...]l|ling and packing togither the ſcrapings and fr [...]gments of the Hyſtorie of Ireland. Amõg which crow, my faſt friende, & inwarde com|pagnion, M. Edmond Campion, dyd ſo lear|nedly bequite himſelfe, in the penning of cer|tayne briefe notes, cõcerning that countrey, as certes it was greatly to be lamented, that eyther hys, theame had not béene ſhorter, or elſe his leaſure had not beene longer. For if Alexander were ſo ra [...]iſht with Homer hys hyſtorie, that notwithſtãding Therſites were a crabbed and a rugged dwarfe, being in out|warde feature ſo deformed, and in inwarde conditions ſo cr [...]ked, as he ſeemed to ſtande to no better ſtéede, then to leade Apes in h [...]ll, yet the valiaunt capitayne weighing, howe liuely the goldẽ Poet ſet foorth the ougly da [...]|deprat in his coulours, dyd ſooner wyſhe to be Homer his Therſites, then to be the Alexander of that doltiſh rythmour, which vndertooke, with his woodden verſes to blaſe his famous and martiall exploytes: howe much more ought Irelande (being in ſundry ages ſeized of diuers good and couragious Alexanders) ſore to long, & thirſte after ſo rare a clarcke, as M. Campion, who was ſo vpright in con|ſcience, ſo déepe in iudgement, ſo rype in elo|quence, as the countrey might haue bene wel aſſured, to haue had their hyſtorie truely re|ported, pithily handled, and brauely poliſhed.