Page:Of-englishe-dogges.djvu/38

 The thirde Section of this abridgement.

Owe followeth in due order and convenient place our Englishe Dogges of the thirde gentle kinde, what they are called to what vse they serue, and what sort of people plant their pleasure in thē, which because they neede no curious canuassing and nye syfting, wee meane to bee so much the briefer.

Of the delicate, neate, and pretty kind of dogges called the Spaniel gentle, or the comforter, in Latine Melitæus or Fotor.

Here is, besides those which wee haue already deliuered, another sort of gentle dogges in this our Englishe soyle but exempted from the order of the residue, the Dogges of this kinde doth Callimachus call Melitœos, of the Iseland Melita, in the sea of Sicily, (what at this day is named Malta, an Iseland in deede famous and renoumed, with couragious and puisaunt souldiours valliauntly fighting vnder the banner of Christ their vnconquerable captaine) where this kind of dogges had their principall beginning.

These dogges are litle, pretty, proper, and fyne, and sought for to satisfie the delicatenesse of daintie dames, and wanton womens wills, instrumentes of folly for them to play and dally withall, to tryfle away the treasure of time, to withdraw their mindes from more commendable