For here no one is from th' extremity
Of vice by any other reason free,
But that the next to him still 's worse than he
In this world's warfare they, whom rugged Fate
(God's Commissary) doth so th❜roughly hate
As i' th' court's squadron to inarshal their state;
If they stand arm'd with silly honesty,
With wishing, prayers, and neat integrity,
Like Indians 'gainst Spanish hosts they be.
Suspicious boldness to this place belongs,
And t' have as many ears as all have tongues;
Tender to know, tough to acknowledge wrongs.
Believe me, Sir, in my youth's giddiest days
When to be like the court was a player's praise, 20
Plays were not so like courts as courts like plays.
Then let us at these mimic antiques jest,
Whose deepest projects and egregious gests,
Are but dull morals at a game at chess.
But 'tis an incongruity to smile;
Therefore I end, and bid farewell a while
At court, tho' from court were the better stile.
TO SIR HENRY WOTTON, H
AT HIS GOING AMBASSADOR TO VENICEL 1137CVL
AFTER those rev'rend papers, whose soul is
Our good and great king's lov'd hand and fear'd name, By which to you he derives much of his,'
And (how he may) makes you almost the same,
A taper of his torch, a copy writ
From his original, and a fair beam
Of the same warm and dazzling sun, tho' it
Must in another sphere his virtue stream:
After those learned papers which your hand
Hath stor'd with notes of use and pleasure too,
From which rich treasury you may command
Fit matter whether you will write or do:
After those loving papers which friends send
With glad grief to your sea-ward steps farewell,
Which thicken on you now as pray'rs ascend
To heav'n in troops at a good man's passing bell;
Admit this honest paper, and allow
It such an audience as yourself would ask;
What you must say at Venice this means now,
And hath for nature what you have for task.
To swear much love, not to be chang'd before,
Honour alone will to your fortune fit;
Nor shall I then honour your fortune more
Than I have done your noble-wanting wit.
But 'tis an easier load (tho' both oppress)
To want than govern greatness; for we are
In that our own and only business;
In this we must for others' vices care.
'Tis therefore well your spirits now are plac'd In their last furnace, in activity,
Which fits them (schools, and courts, and wars, o'erTo touch and taste in any best degree.
For me, (if there be such a thing as I) ;
Fortune (if there be such a thing as she)
Spies that I bear so well her tyranny,
That she thinks nothing else so fit for me.
But tho' she part us, to hear my oft' prayers
For your increase, God is as near me here;
And to send you what I shall beg, his stairs
In length and ease are alike every where,
Who makes the last a pattern for next year,
Turns no new leaf, but still the same things reads; T Seen things he sees again, heard things doth hear, 11, And makes his life but like a pair of beads.
A palace, when 'tis that which it should be,
Leaves growing, and stands such, or else decayst
But he which dwells there is not so; for he
Strives to urge upward, and his fortune raise.
So had your body' her morning, hath her noon,
And shall not better; her next change is night:
But her fair larger guest, to whom sun and moon
Are sparks, and short liv'd claims another right,
The noble soul by age grows lustier;
Her appetite and her digestion mend:
We must not starve, nor hope to pamper her
With woman's milk and pap unto the end.
Provide you manlier diet. You have seen
All libraries, which are schools, camps, and courts;
But ask your garners if you have not been
In harvest too indulgent to your sports?
Would you redeem it? then yourself transplant
A while from hence. Perchance outlandish ground
Bears no more wit than ours; but yet more scant
Are those diversions there which here abound.
To be a stranger hath that benefit;
We can beginnings but not habits choak.
Go. Whither? Hence. You get, if you forget;
New faults, till they prescribe to us, are smoak.
Our soul, whose country 's heav'n, and God her father,
Into this world, corruption's sink, is sent;
Yet so much in her travel she doth gather,
That she returns home wiser than she went.
It pays you well if it teach you to spare,
And make you' asham'd to make your hawk's praise Which when herself she lessens in the air, [your's, You then first say that high enough she tow'rs.
However, keep the lively taste you hold
Of God; love him now, but fear him more;
And in your afternoons think what you told
And promis'd him at morning prayer before.
Let falsehood like a discord anger you,
Else be not froward. But why do I touch
Things of which none is in your practice new,
And tables and fruit-trenchers teach us much?
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