A Discourse of English Poetrie (1586) by the laborious but uninspired tutor, William Webbe, is not a defense; but interspersed among his remarks advocating the reformed versifying, and his arid catalog of poets, ancient and modern, is a good deal about the moral purpose and value of poetry.

[Odyssey] of HOMER out of Greek into Spanish, hath, by good judgement, avoided the fault of rhyming, although [he hath] not fully hit perfect and true versifying: so hath HENRY HOWARD, that true and noble Earl of SURREY, in translating the fourth book of VIRGIL's AEneas: whom MICHAEL DRAYTON in his England's Heroical Epistles hath eternized for an Epistle to his fair GERALDINE.