Skip to content
ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students
Poetry Library

— Stephen Crane

I looked here;

I looked there;

Nowhere could I see my love.

And--this time--

…

Read full poem →

adverb

In an accidental manner; by chance, unexpectedly.

“He discovered penicillin largely accidentally.”

Know more →

THE SCHOOLE OP SHOOTYNGE 31

40 lines
Sir Philip Sidney·1554–1586
✦
tringers, of whome we muste bye them on. Eustathius apon this verse of Homere, Twang quoth the bow, and twang quoth the string,out quicklie the shaft flue. doeth tel, that in oulde tyme they made theyr bowe stryngesof bnllox thermes, whiche they twyned togither as they doropes, and therfore they made a great twange. Bowestmyges also hath bene made of the hare of an horse taylecalled for the matter of them Hippias as dothe appeare inmanye good authors of the Greke tongue. Great stringes,and lytle strynges be for diverse purposes: the great stringis more surer for the bowe, more stable to pricke wythal,but slower for the cast, the lytle stringe is cleane contrarye,not so sure, therfore to be taken hede of, lest with longetarrying on, it breake your bowe, more fit to shoote farre,than apte to pricke nere, therfore when you knowe the na-ture of bothe bigge and lytle you must fit your bow, accord-ing to the occasion of your shootinge. In stringinge of yourbow (though this place belong rather to the handlyng thanto the thjmg it selfe, yet bycause the thynge, and the hand-lynge of the thynge, be so joyned together, I must nedesome tyme couple the one wyth the other), you must markthe fit length of your bowe. For yf the stringe be too short,the bending wyll gyve, and at the last slyp and so put thebowe in jeopardye. Yf it be longe, the bendynge mustnedes be in the small of the string, which beinge sore twinedmust nedes snap in sunder to ye distruction of manye goodbowes. Moreover you must looke that youre bowe be wellnocked for fere the sharpnesse of the home shere a sunderthe strynge. And that chaunceth ofte when in bending,the string hath but one wap to strengthe it wyth all: Youmust marke also to set youre stringe streygte on, or ellesthe one ende shall wriethe contrary to the other, and sobreake your bowe. When the stringe begynnethe never solytle to weare, trust it not, but a waye with it for it is anyll saved penny that costes a man a crowne. Thus you seehowe many jeopardyes hangeth over the poore bowe, byreason onlye of the strynge. As when the stringe is shorte,when It is longe, when eyther of the nockes be nought, whenit hath but one wap, and when it taryeth over longe on.
✦