man here with us More rank in wealth then churlish Anodus Whose Bills and Bonds lye smother'd in his chest Yet are of great Use yield much Interest His grounds are throng'd with cattel and with grain His Barns ore-charg'd ready to crack again Nor wife nor child he owns that might require His pains yet drudgest as for daily hire Layes down a weary carcass every night That dreams of theeves and startles with affright His diet 's like himself who still 's his own Cook in a Kitchin like the frozen Zone Both cold and comfortless in rags he goes And shakes them with his coughing whilst he throwes Infection from his Lungs which age and ill Viands with purulent diseases fill Thus lives he vassall'd to his wealth and thus Proves no less wretched then ridiculous A poor mans curse a rich mans scorn a meer Stranger to what true wisdome holds most dear Sweet contentation that like Hermes wand Charms querulous cares and silence doth command O Avarice how dost thou tyrannize On slavish worldlings mak'st them early rise And ply their wretched drudgery till night Then plot and cark and toss and wake in spight Of Morpheus send'st them over wrackful Seas Steep mountains roughest forrests foulest wayes Enur'st their limbs to stormy winters cold And dusty Summers heat thus mak'st them old In greener years through troubles sorrows pains That plague them whilst they scratch for sordid gains Old frowning Saturn whose voracity Was such that he devour'd his progeny Should not be leaden-heel'd so wondrous slow But rather nimble Mercurie out-goe If he did well and signally express As some would have him this vile greediness Of gath'ring wealth that 's ever every way Trudging and toiling never at a stay Can find no Centre where to rest at all So much its motion seems unnatural Some through a dull and languid sluggishness Leave hold of what they lately did profess And fall on new quests seek more pleasing wayes Rig up their vessels for unwonted Seas Wherein nor working billowes must there be Nor quick-sands but a calm security Fain would they who can blame them for 't obtain Riches yet would not purchase them with pain But as it were upon blind Fortune steal And in their earnest suit with ease prevail Strike into wealth as Eels do into weeds Or mud and prove as slippery in their deeds Have their light wits took wing and flown so far That they see not how like a block or bar In their preferments way dull slotli doth lye All good things being the fruits of industry 'T is certain that by mighty Natures Laws The whole world works and does by motion cause Daily and great effects the Spheres above Still turn and so the fiery Orb do move The air 's still flitting as the wind impels The Ocean too is tost and sinks and swells Yea th' earth it self the dullest element Still labours in her womb and oft doth vent Sad sighs and grones in her concussions then Is it not most irregular that men Should snort in ease and settle into mud Contributing no share to humane good But like vile weeds appearing apt to spoil The fruits o' th' earth and vitiate the soil That which most frequently conspires with fate To break mens rest and makes them estuate And pine with fretting is their canker'd spight Conceiv'd at some that prosper in their sight And had the happiness t' obtain the same Friendship or fortunes at which these did aim These whom this passion doth bestorm in vain Look for calm days expect they rather pain Of inward wounds such as with horrid scourge The Furies do inflict or Fates do urge In their just angers height when down they throw Aspiring fools and leave them deep in woe Once in the Sun-shine of a royal Court Did Alpert live and in a gallant sort Belov'd of Nobles with his Prince in grace And by him trusted in an honour'd place By means whereof he might the businesses Of friends promote of enemies repress As a Court-Meteor he appearâ—d both bright And eminent yet then because he might Not as chief Favourite embosom'd be He lost the fruit of such felicity The sweets of honour and preferment sowr'd Wore clouds upon his forehead frown'd and â—owr'd Grew big with envy and disdainful hate Did boldly libel and calumniate Some that ore-tope him in so vile a sort That he became the ear-wig of the Court With so much spiteful mischief vext the brave Gallants that all began to loth the Knave And as when men do in their bodies know Somewhat to lurk that may destructive grow They speedily take care t' expel the same So 't was decreed to put to publique shame This make bate by his present banishment From that high Stage of honour whence he went Like a cow'd Cock to 's dunghil where he drops Le ts fall his crest and to misfortune stoops Such miscreants consider not what small Reason they have to spew out so much gall 'Gainst their Superiors and with so much spite To look upon their more-advanced height They least observe how full of care and pain Those are that up to high preferment strain And then how servilely they must comply With Greatness t' under-build their dignity And make it if 't were possible to last And stand in spight of Envies rudest blast You that speak thunder and from Crowns of Gold Shoot l'ghtning which with terror we behold I envy not th' elation of your state On which so many urgent cares do wait Restless as Scylla's Dogs too sure to keep Your hearts from solace and your eyes from sleep Happy contentment is not ty'd to great Power or wealth but finds a frequent seat 'Mongst meaner fortunes and more oft doth bless Poor shaded Cells then shining Palaces He that from error strives t' emancipate His judgment and the force doth moderate Of wilder passions holds â—air vertue dear And in one form of life keeps Conscience clear At the low ebbs of Fortune neither chides Nor yet runs riot with her swelling Tides That man I say that does these manly things Affects but little the big pomp of Kings Their wealth or potency as having gain'd A state that Princes rarely have attain'd His work is done and well enjoy may he The fruit of wisdom sweet tranquillity THE END
passage out Rather how unfit for great services Are all such persons whose weak tenderness Will not such change endure but like some trees Transplanâ—ed lose their hopefull'st qualities Who to one station are affected thus As if affixed like Prometheus May thank their folly for much discontent Sith nothing in this world is permanent Poor dreaming fools they phansie that they can Slumber the waves of this worlds Ocean And charm all troubles that they may at ease Pass to what point of happiness they please But when they find the cousenage of conceit Themselves raise tempests or contribute great Winds to a little storm while sighs they vent In Vollies for some lighter accident Crispus that plods on in his formal way That eats and drinks by method every day Points his mustaches with one single hair And washes after meals with cleanly care Looks like a Lady sitting to be limm'd And speaks as comptly as his head is trimm'd When once he comes among the common rout Is fain to traverse and to tack about With such deformity as makes him be Ridiculous to all his company Troubled whereat he angry goes anon Home like a Wasp that came forth like a Drone What thing in man can seem unmanlyer Then in his carriage to be singular Or what more weak then not to dare to take Such wayes as others common rodes to make Especially when nothing lyes therein For vertue t' stumble at no rub of sin The force of vertue did sometime appear In sharp reproofs of those we did indear When men did boldly as by verbal war Oppose their friends that were irregular And by close Monitory charges sought To have their erring lives int' order brought But who now if his friend do chance to prove Lewdly exorbitant will shew his love By casting as it were in 's harmful way Rough reprehensions his career to stay And to divert him to the happyer path Of vertue that no ground of danger hath That sweet Psalmographer and warlike King Whose acts of honour were past equalling A wholesome reprehension took to be Like Balm upon the head of Majesty But as this precious unguent of the East Is either quite lost or impair'd at least So is the friendly office of reproof Which to good natures is of great behoof Turn'd out of service out of fashion grown Like garments which our Ancestors did own Men are of vile ill-fashion'd courtesie So full as rather to keep company With lewdest Russians then to strive to stay Their sliding steps in a declining way Rather then chide them from their vices and Cause them their down-hill danger t' understand Nor will men suffer it the skin of vice So tender seems that they are very nice To have it toucht I did but lately tell A thristless Kinsman that he did not well To stumble in the night so oft upon The youngsters crime call'd fornication That he would work his ruine by his play And by carouzing drink his health away I did but mildly thus admonish him When straight he lookt with countenance as grim As Savage ready to have kill'd our Queen Or Faux when in the fatal cavern seen The man grew strangely brutish quite destroy'd All force of kindred and of love beside And no less hatred unto me did show Then unto Parricides did Romans owe How dear do men destructive vices hold Looking with hatred on their friends that would Deter them from the same and to that end Their tongues artillery upon them spend Men of infected manners rather should Value such friends above their weight in gold Indear their warnings and in treasuries Of grateful minds repose such courtesies No less then if they had with friendly cares Rescu'd their lives from the Gemonian stairs Or the Tarpeian rock when most they were Agast with terrour deepest in despair Our weakness here looks wretchedly and he That slights these goodly fruits of amity And so not brooking of well-aiming tongues The wholesome hits his sickly manners wrongs May well be noted for the apparent heir Of folly and her Coat may justly bear What else may those that seek with busie quest For Knowledg yet on others judgments rest Seldome bestir their faculties to shake This or that point but all on trust do take Ranging through Authors as beasts through a Wood Which when they think they once have understood Their work is done great things they have atchiev'd And as Apollo's sons must be believ'd Learning is like a tree infixt in ground So far that none the depth of it have found The softer leaves whereof most wits do seem T' affect but little do its pitch esteem Admire its beauty but no farther go Nor strive its inward excellence to know Opinions when they vulgarly are tost Seem like rude streams disdaining to be crost They pass unquestion'd none dares go about To censure them or of their truth to doubt Though falsly they inform us those that said This earthly Globe was not inhabited Near the worlds hinges and the torrid Zone Did gain belief till Navigation Shew'd their mistakes so whatsoere a fair Semblance and face of likelihood doth bear Doth pass for verity without controll Though it involve an errour nere so foul Man that of causes and effects pretends To frame a subtile chain whose utmost ends Touch the worlds Centre and circumference He that with Opticks of intelligence May clearly see goes blindly yet by guess Grounds has conceits on meer apparences And rather then he will by weighing learn The truth of things the Scales will over-turn Thus we forgo our privilege devest That which becomes mans eminency best The spirits liberty thus we degrade Our natures and a mockery are made To nobler wits that dare Philosophize More freely and maintain their dignities Longer then Virgil was about the frame Of his grand Poem accented by Fame Did Bibliack lead an Academick life Weary'd old Authours with a plodding strife Hammer'd his brain-pan spent as many lights As those that solemniz'd Minerva's rites With kindled brands yet by his watchful pains All that he purchas'd th' upshot of his gains Was when he did with Countrey Ladies dine To pour out Greek and Latine with their wine To tell them who his meaning took by guess What Knowledg Aristotle did profess What causes of the thunder hail and wind Earth-quakes and other Meteors he assign'd And to maintain discourse with many more Raw fruits of study fetcht from others store Nothing would he examine save how much The Flagon did contain did nothing touch That relished of wit nor ought produce That serv'd or moral ends or civil use Was not this time spent vainly that brought forth Nothing but froth nothing of solid worth Nothing but dull opinions that require To clear their darksome doubts Apollo's fire As weakly do our sons of Levi go To work who 'mongst poor Laicks do bestow Their breath in quarrelling with Bellarmine Campion and others that with many a line Labour'd to draw us to the Romish side Such
turn these therefore meerly to a flame Is so dis-tune the most harmonious frame And to betray a life to the surprize Of the severe dead-handed destinies But what cares Gultch the Alderman for this Will he for future life lose present bliss Abridg his meals abate his costly chear Or draughts of Wine or Usquebath forbear No for meer empty words he matters not A short life and a merry is his Mot He 's wedded unto pleasure so as nere To be divorc'd but hold it ever dear Yet his delight deludes him still who stuffs His gorge all day and swels and sweats and puffs But then at night doth belch spew snott and toss His limbs as if his life were at a loss Or lothsome fumes were ready forth to drive His soul as Bees are banisht from their Hive Look how his teeth are blackned how his eyes Blear'd and suffus'd in quest of novelties How both his feet and hands to th' peace are bound With knotty Gouts How with the Dropsie drown'd Some other parts are and all ill at ease Untowardly perform their offices Like a great Globe of earth and water plac'd Upon a frame fits he in 's chair to taste The choicest liquors and the cud to chew But nothing fair of laudable to do As for his brain an Anvile that is hit And hammer'd still is not more dull then it His apprehensive faculties as flow As a tir'd beast and so to work doth go His memory is ever wont to play At fast and loose and dearest trusts betray Then such a judgment does he pass on things As sometime was that foolish Phrygian Kings Who â—ans rude Pipe preferred to the Lyre Of Phoebus Master of the Mules quire These are thy fatal fruits damn'd Gluttony Foul lothsome fly of all impurity Deep gulf of greatest fortunes that dost draw Whole Kingdomes into thy distended jaw Black mud of Hell that art so apt to boil Up to the stomach and all parts defile What thundering force of eloquence can throw Three down so deep as thou deserv'st to go That eat'st into this age as rust doth waste Iron and wilt consume it sure at last That Northern beast the Gulon said to be A creature of a wild rapacity And so insatiate that when he hath once Devour'd and gnawn a carcass to the bones And swells with his surcharge betwixt two trees His loads of crudities he forth doth squeeze Then seeks new preys whereon to gluttonize The Gormonds of this age doth emblemize That daily raven after dainty cheer As if they deem'd that onely born they were To fill and to evacuate and so To make their bellies like to bellowes go And to take care such Ballast to provide As weightyer is then all the Ship beside Such greedy Gulls are bold to deifie Their bellies with a gross idolarry Their Kitchins are their onely Temples where The sacrifices offer'd all the year Are sundry sorts of fatted fowls and beasts Their Cooks while sober may well stand for Priests Tables for Altars and the steams that rise From meats for incense fuming to the skies Then in the stead of Hymns about do go Their Catches heightned as their cups do flow ' O said Gorgony that gross Parasite ' I was at th' house of bounty yesternight ' My Lord 's a royal-minded man we were ' Almost three hours at Supper I dare swear ' Where both the Shambles and the Poultry too ' You might at once upon the Table view ' Besides Italian and French dishes such ' As you would think it almost sin to touch ' They were so pleasing both to sight and sent ' And to the palate gave so rich content ' So farsed larded seasoned with the meat ' That the most qual mish could not chuse but eat ' And fill their bellies though their eyes they nere ' Could fill with those delightful objects there ' When now with grinding-work our chaps were tir'd ' Of all the dainties that could be desir'd 'A banquet came such junkets were brought in ' As more then goodliest apples might to sin ' Another Eve entice and straight excite ' The drowziest sense and deadest appetite ' I' th' close of all the Master of the Feast ' Began a health in Sack a quart at least ' And round it 'mongst us went who certainly ' Nere dream'd this last night of sobreity ' For my part I who have spun a fair thred ' Went reeling home and slipt so into bed ' As a blind man into a ditch should fall ' Wallow'd in sleep but when I wakened all ' My bowels seem'd on fire my throat was dry ' And still the head-ach pains me wickedly Base fawnings Smell-feast I beleeve thou art Shrewdly distemper'd both in head and heart Thy wits are dreggish and thy spirits dull And restive c'ause thy belly 's always full While such diseases as ere long to feed The worms will send thee in thy bowels breed 'T is not great wonder that so little cause We have to boast of policies or lawes Manners or Sciences sith oft we be So full-fed so engulft in Gluttony That with its muddy fumes our brains are quite Ore clouded and afford us little light Yet may we see how much the English man Is still out-witted by th' Italian The Spaniard and the French who as they say Do feed like Simulus and Cybale For the most part chiefly beholden are To Orchards and to Gardens for their fare But if sometimes on costlyer meats they feed They seldome pass the bound of Natures need But take delight sweet temperance to show As we in fulsome gluttony to flow As men at first in skins of beasts attir'd Themselves but afterwards more proud desir'd Quaint costly ornaments and so in gay Purple and Scarlet did themselves away Wrought up the Webs of Silk-worms and made bold To rob the Elements for Pearls and Gold So the first mortals did their hunger stake With bread and water and of fruits did make Some frugal use but th' ill-rul'd appetite Would taste some delicates that might delight As well as nourish so both Land and Sea Ere long were searcht their longings to allay By th' deaths of other creatures did they live And the full reins to ranging humors give Whence the just Fates have made our threds of life More short and fretted them with care and strife Our dreadful wars that set a bloudy stain Upon this Land as in prodigious rain The Heavens had wept the direful pestilence That with lean bloudless hand pluckt thousands hence Nay the distempers and diseases all For which Physicians shake the Urinal Emp'ricks and Mountebanks do boldly quack And which old mumbling Beldames undertake To cure have not such numbers infinite Sent to the solitary Coasts of night As gluttony from time to time hath done That cramming Nurse of inconcotion That quels the force of Nature dampeth quite As with a Stygian mist the vital light Or in the bowels leaves the feeds of death