68 THE ARTE OR CRAFTE OF RHETHORYKE
ydolyfhe god Bacchus / begynneth his oracyon at prayenge on this wyfe.
[D ii a] The folempne makynge of prayers vnto the goddes was neuer fo apte nor yet fo neceffary in any oracyon as it is in this / whiche fhall f hewe and admonyfhe you that they be very & right goddes / whom our elders haue ordeyned to be worf hypped / adoured / and prayed vnto.
Bryefly in all prefaces belongynge to oracyons delyberatyues the offyce of the perfo/z : & the neceffytye or cozwmodytye of the matter that we treate of are confydered.
The narracyon.
In oracyons dylyberatyues 1 we vie very feldome narracyons / but for the more parte in ftede of them we make a bryef propofyo/z conteynynge the fumme of our entent. As nowe adayes nothynge is fo neceffary as to labour to brynge thefe diffencyons that be in the churche to a perfecte vnite and concorde / that accordynge to Chriites fayenges / there be but one f hepherde and one folde. Neuertheles we vie fometyme briefe narracyons / whan that fome- thynge hathe bene done all redy of that that we gyue our councel vpon / as ' in the aboue fayd oracio// that Tuly made for Powpey / where he maketh this narracyon.
Great & very perillous warre is made bothe agaynfte your tribu- tours / and alfo them that bothe confederate with you / [D ii b] and by you called your felowes / whiche warre is moued by two ryght myghty kynges / Mythrydates and Tigranes. &c.
After this maner is a narracyon in the oracion that Haniball made to Scipio / & is conteined in the .x. boke of the .iii. decade of Liuius / ryght proper and elegant without any preface 2 beginning his narraciotf thus. 33|P
If it hathe ben ordeined by my fortune and defteny that I whiche fyrfte of all the Carthaginois began warre with the Romayns / and whiche haue almofte had the victory fo often in myne handes / fhuld now come of myne owne mynde to afke peace. I am glad that fortune hathe prepared that I f hulde afke it of you fpecially. And amonge all your noble lawdes 3 this fhall not be one of the lefte 4 that Hanibal gaue ouer to you / to whom the goddes had gyuen
1 B. deliberatiues. 3 Sic in A and ft, for laudes.
2 B. preface B. leeft.
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