Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

SATIRE IV.

WELL; I may now receive, and die. My sin Indeed is great, but yet I have been in

A purgatory, such as feared hell is

A recreation, and scant map of this.

My mind, neither with pride's itch, nor yet hath been

Poisoned with love to see, or to be seen;

I had no suit there, nor new suit to show,
Yet went to court. But as Glare, which did go
To mass in jest, catched, was fain to disburse
The hundred marks, which is the statute's curse,
Before he 'scaped; so't pleased my destiny
(Guilty of my sin of going) to think me
As prone to all ill, and of good as forget-
ful, as proud, lustful, and as much in debt,
As vain, as witless, and as false as they

Which dwell in court, for once going that way.
Therefore I suffered this. Towards me did run
A thing more strange, than on Nile's slime the sun
E'er bred, or all which into Noah's ark came :
A thing which would have posed Adam to name :
Stranger than seven antiquaries' studies,

Than Afric's monsters, Guiana's rarities,
Stranger than strangers: one, who for a Dane

In the Dane's massacre had sure been slain,

SATIRES.

Keep the truth which thou hast found; men
not stand

In so ill case, that God hath with his hand
Signed kings' blank-charters to kill whom they
hate,

Nor are they vicars, but hangmen to fate.
Fool and wretch, wilt thou let thy soul be tied
To man's laws, by which she shall not be tried
At the last day? Or will it then boot thee
To say a Philip or a Gregory,
A Harry or a Martin, taught me this?
Is not this excuse for mere contraries,
Equally strong? Cannot both sides say so?
That thou mayst rightly obey power, her bounds

know;

Those past, her nature and name 's changed; to be
Then humble to her is idolatry.

As streams are, power is; those blest flowers, the

dwell

At the rough stream's calm head, thrive a

well;

But having left their roots, and themse
To the stream's tyrannous rage, alas
Through mills, rocks, and woods, and
Consumed in going, in the sea are
So perish souls, which more choo
Power, from God claimed, the

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[graphic]

Tis sw Said I, And for

Of all o

From k

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »