THE REGAINING OF THE METROPOLIS OF THE WORLD,
OR, THE LOSING AND TAKING AGAIN OF THE
TOWN OF MANSOUL.
"I HAVE USED SIMILITUDES."-Hose
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
56, PATERNOSTER Row; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD;
AND 164, PICCADILLY.
BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, SURREY.
SOME say the "Pilgrim's Progress" is not mine, Insinuating as if I would shine
In name and fame by the worth of another,
Like some made rich by robbing of their brother.
Or that so fond I am of being sire,
I'll father bastards; or, if need require,
I'll tell a lie in print to get applause.
I scorn it: John such dirt-heap never was,
Since God converted him. Let this suffice
To show why I my "Pilgrim" patronize.
It came from mine own heart, so to my head,
And thence into my fingers trickled ;
T'hen to my pen, from whence immediately
I did dribble it daintily.
Manner and matter, too, was all mine own, Nor was it unto any mortal known
Till I had done it; nor did any then
By books, by wits, by tongues, or hand, or pen,
Add five words to it, or wrote half a line
Thereof the whole, and every whit is mine.
Also for THIS, thine eye is now upon,
The matter in this manner came from none
But the same heart, and head, fingers, and pen,
As did the other. Witness all good men ;
For none in all the world, without a lie,
Can say that this is mine, excepting I.
I write not this of my ostentation,
Nor 'cause I seek of men their commendation;
I do it to keep them from such surmize,
As tempt them will my name to scandalize.
Witness my name, if anagram'd to thee,
The letters make-" Nu hony in a B."
'TIS strange to me, that they that love to tell Things done of old, yea, and that do excel Their equals in historiology,
Speak not of Mansoul's wars, but let them lie
Dead, like old fables, or such worthless things,
That to the reader no advantage brings :
When men, let them make what they will their own,
Till they know this, are to themselves unknown.
Of stories, I well know, there's divers sorts,
Some foreign, some domestic; and reports
Are thereof made as fancy leads the writers:
(By books a man may guess at the inditers.)
Some will again of that which never was,
Nor will be, feign (and that without a cause)
Such matter, raise such mountains, tell such things
Of men, of laws, of countries, and of kings;
And in their story seem to be so sage,
And with such gravity clothe every page,
That though their frontispiece says all is vain,
Yet to their way disciples they obtain.
But, readers, I have somewhat else to do,
Than with vain stories thus to trouble you.
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