“That our tong is able in that kynde to do as praiseworthely as the rest, the honorable stile of the noble earle of Surrey, and the weightinesse of the depewitted sir Thomas Wyat the elders verse, with severall graces in sondry good Englishe writers, doe show abundantly.”

Claiming English as equal to Latin and Italian for lyric eloquence · Preface, The Printer to the Reader, Songes and Sonettes (1557)

• England
• Language
• Poetry

“That to have well written in verse, yea and in small parcels, deserveth great praise, the works of divers Latines, Italians, and other, do prove sufficiently.”

Defending short lyric as a form worthy of the same honour given to classical and Italian verse · Preface, The Printer to the Reader, Songes and Sonettes (1557)

• Language
• Poetry
• Praise

“And I exhort the vnlearned, by reding to learne to be more skilfull, and to purge that swinelike grossenesse, that maketh the swete maierome not to smell to their delight.”

Urging the untrained reader to refine taste through verse · Preface, The Printer to the Reader, Songes and Sonettes (1557)

• Education
• Reading
• Taste