[1] [2] [3] If theſe chinkes, when firſt they beganne to chappe, had béene diligently by the dwellers ſtopt, hir Maieſtie at this daye, to hir great charges, ſhoulde not haue béene occaſioned, to damme vp with many thouſand poundes, yea & with the woorthy carkaſſes of valiaunt ſouldiours, the gaps of that rebellious Nor|thren countrey. Now put the caſe that the I|riſhe tongue were as ſacred as the Hebrewe, as learned as the Gréeke, as fluent as the latin, as amarous as ye Italian, as courtious as the Hiſpaniſh, as courtelike as ye French, yet truely (I know not which way it falleth out) I ſée not, but it may be very well ſpared in the Engliſhe pale. And if reaſon will not leade you to thinke it, truely experience muſt force you to graunt it. In olde time when the Romaines were firſt acquaynted wyth the Gréeke tongue, as it is cõmonly the nature of mã to be delighted with newfangle wares, ſo he was accompted no gallant among the Romaines, that coulde not prattle & chatte Gréeke.Cic lib. 2. de orat. Marcus Cicero, father vnto Tully, being at that tyme ſtept in yeres, perceyuing hys countreymen to become changelings, in being bylwyſe and polmadde, & to ſuck with the Gréeke the conditions of the Grecians, as to be in wordes talkatiue, in behauiour light, in condicions quaint, in maners haute, in promiſes vnſtedfaſt, in othes raſh, in bar|gaines wauering (which were reckened for Gréekiſh properties in thoſe dayes) the olde gentleman not ſo much reſpecting the neate|neſſe of the language, as the naughty fruite it brought wyth it, ſayde, that his countrey|men, the Romaynes, reſembled the bonde ſlaues of Siria. For ye more parfit they were in the Gréeke, the woorſe they were in theyr maners and lyfe. If this gentleman had bene now liuing and had ſéene what alteratiõ hath happened in Irelãd, through the entrecourſe of languages, he woulde, I dare ſaye, breake patience, & woulde demaunde, why the Eng|liſhe pale is more giuen to learne the Iriſhe, then the Iriſhman is willing to learne Eng|liſhe? we muſt embrace their language, and they deteſt oures. One demaunded meryly,O Neale why he would n [...] lerne En+gliſhe. why O Neale, that laſt was, would not frame himſelfe to ſpeake Engliſh? what: quoth the other, in a rage, thinkeſt thou, that it ſtandeth with O Neale his honor, to wryeth his mouth in clattering Engliſhe? and yet forſooth we muſt gagge our iawes in gybbriſhing Iriſh. But I dwelt to long in ſo apparẽt a matter. As all the ciuities and townes in Irelande, wyth Fingall, the king his lande, Méeth the Coũtey of Kildare, Louth, Weiſford, ſpeake to this day Engliſhe (whereby the ſimplicitie of ſome is to be derided, that iudge the inha|bitantes of the Engliſhe pale, vpon their firſt repayre to England, to learne their Engliſh in thrée or foure dayes, as though they had bought at Cheſter a groates woorth of Eng|liſhe, and ſo packt vp the reaſt to be caryed after them to London) euen ſo in all other pla|ces their natiue language is Iriſhe.