| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Concerning the Honour of Books | | By John Florio (1553?–1625) |
| | | SINCE honour from the honourer proceeds, | |
| How well do they deserve, that memorize | |
| And leave in books, for all posterities | |
| The names of worthies and their virtuous deeds; | |
| When all their glory else, like water-weeds | 5 |
| Without their element, presèntly dies, | |
| And all their greatness quite forgotten lies, | |
| And when and how they flourished no man heeds! | |
| How poor remembrances are statues, tombs, | |
| And other monuments that men erect | 10 |
| To princes, which remain in closèd rooms | |
| Where but a few behold them, in respect | |
| Of Books, that to the universal eye | |
| Show how they lived; the other where they lie! | | | | |
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