“And for this point (good reder) thine own profit and pleasure, in these presently, and moe hereafter, shal answere for my defence.”

Letting the reader's gain stand as the printer's justification · Preface, The Printer to the Reader, Songes and Sonettes (1557)

• Pleasure
• Profit
• Readers

“To stuffe a preface with praise of this boke, or with exhorting you to reding of it, were in a matter not doubtfull to take fond peine not nedefull.”

Refusing empty puffery where the book's use is already plain · Printer's preface to a law-book edition

• Books
• Honesty
• Prefaces

“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