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| SOME say the Pilgrim’s Progress is not mine, | |
| Insinuating as if I would shine | |
| In name and fame by the worth of another, | |
| Like some made rich by robbing of their Brother. | |
| Or that so fond I am of being Sire, | 5 |
| I’ll father Bastards; or if need require, | |
| I’ll tell a lye in print to get applause. | |
| I scorn it: John such dirt-heap never was, | |
| Since God converted him. Let this suffice | |
| To show why I my Pilgrim patronize. | 10 |
| It came from mine own heart, so to my head, | |
| And thence into my fingers trickled; | |
| Then to my pen, from whence immediately | |
| On paper I did dribble it daintily. | |
| Manner and matter too was all mine own, | 15 |
| Nor was it unto any mortal known, | |
| Till I had done it. Nor did any then | |
| By books, by wits, by tongues, or hand, or pen, | |
| Add five words to it, or write half a line | |
| Thereof: the whole and every whit is mine. | 20 |
| Also, for this thine eye is now upon, | |
| The matter in this manner came from none | |
| But the same heart and head, fingers and pen, | |
| As did the other. Witness all good men; | |
| For none in all the world, without a lye, | 25 |
| Can say that this is mine, excepting I. | |
| I write not this of any ostentation, | |
| Nor’ cause I seek of men their commendation; | |
| I do it to keep them from such surmise, | |
| As tempt them will my name to scandalize. | 30 |
| Witness my name, if anagram’d to thee, | |
The letters make, Nu hony in a B.
JOHN BUNYAN. | |
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