Nor Progne which on turrets steepe For mens false periuries doth weepe Then I when fatall palenes there I had espi'd to clould my deare O Astrabonica I cri'd And eccho halfe the name repli'd Bonica is gone to keepe A flocke of heauens golden sheepe Then viewed I her in such sad sort As sorrow none can now report Cursing planets of lifes might Starres of birth that did this spight And all that vnto death belongs Teares of graue and herses songs Breathing out her finall grone Shee desird to passe alone This is my last request quoth shee Stay here till I do come for thee So here I stay amidst this vale Till my Elizian Nightingale Inuite me to the miâ—le spring If my cares thorne her bosome sting So here I stay against my brest As Philomele when I should rest The thorne of fortune which spares none To make me mindefull to be gone Nema foelix est dut fuit aut vxâ—â— quam erit Zen. From hence where man is made the slaue Of all mishaps vntil his graue This apparant to the woods The Nimphes selected verdant buds And time the daffadilly gaue So shee was wedded to her graue In maiden yeeres who was destroid For good thinges seldome are enioi'd HEre is no sage Astidamus to please Enuy that honest actions doth displease No liquide incke of Hellicon to write Rurall my songs and I arurall wight In Westerne Vallies by the Sycomers Elizian sorrowes shed in Aprill teares Relent not reede though fawning Gnatho spight Asses more often vse to bray then bite Yet as thou art submissiue to the wise Malignant curs deride and sotts despise Of Zeuxes pensill let Apelles tell Nature ordain'd thee to an oaten Quill Depart and liue for Hiltons olde content Eternizd by Thamesis continent FINIS THE VVORLDES VANITIE Very profitable for allsorts to consider Est Vita aegra salus Vexata quies pius error Bellica pax Vullnus duceque suaue malum WHen Zephirus the primrose loue was come To raize the sleeping pawnce from winters spight And Aprill seasons nutrimentall blome The sable earth in daffadillies dight Whilst vnto Flora birds on euery tree Their homage paid in Tubals harmonie Then on a promontory by the west I spent my time in meditation To sing vnto my reede esteeming best Some song thot might remain when I am gone Where full of care for Astrabonica This languishment of life my voice did draw In methode which perchance it selfe may saue From the inuasion of dissoluing daies And keepe from deaths subuersion the graue My thoughts inclosed in suruiuing laies Which spurnd by enuy shall affirme with schools No praise so great as the contempt of fooles Frondeum infelix Philomela nidum ponit argutum medidit anicanoro Cutture carmeÌ„ Toren O who will learne me griefe come Philomele That to the virgin Muses Lutes doest sing And wilt thy wofull desteny reueale To shepheardes in the tender lipped spring Cimbale a siluer straine then sob among And with sweet discords melodie my song This fickle worlds delight is but distresse Which wise men title false felicitie Fooles sweet whose substance is but bitternesse Asilly toy to mocke our fantasie For none inherits ioy vpon the ground Vntill their bodies on the beare be bound First straÌ„gers here we greet the world with cries Cares eat our life and we feede wormes at last Nothing haue we secure but miseries Our goods are trifles for mishap to wast And he that seems too rich too strong to fade Lies soonest leuell by the deluers spade Here if in vertuous partes we spend our dayes The euill minded mock and hate vs sore And if we sinne and follow vicious waies The good and vertuous will detest vs more Thus enuy combates life but happy those That force the scum their enuy to disclose Life linked to the corse appeares in view Like feathers on the arrowes that are sold Which are but fastned with a little glue And fall away by heate arwatry colde So fals our life with euery little griefe Into the dust so falles the greenest leafe How can life be of any valour when A soldier but for eight pence doth it sell How can it be that men should not be men But so like brutes in base affections dwell When counting at their end their season spent Their life shall seeme a short imprisonment Here men repose securenes in their hope In which their lot most fatall doth appeare For oft their purpose aymes beyond the scope Of the short time they haue to soiourne here Admit they liue life but augments their thrall Their wishes to some others lot do fall Man seemes to be most happie in his youth Florida aetas multos mortis casus habet Cicer. And in the ioy to that fraile flame assign'd But youth is frailest if we note the truth And soonest spent for youth with foolish minde Falls vnawares on care or timeles end His ioyes deride him and to cares descend In wealth some other would be counted blest But vaine presumption or vnthriftie pride VVith seruants falshood empties oft his chest Or his insatiate spirite doth hoorde and hide That hauing store he plaines of pouertie Or prodigall is eate of vsurie Thus mortall happines if any be Doth iointely yeeld vs most vnhappines For losse or gaine proue both alike to thee For losse or gaine proue both alike distresse Frail earthly things corrupt both root seed For to their losse or gaine great cares proceed All earthly pleasures that content the eie One blast their being and their worth subdues Fortune with death mischife with miserie And momentarie end our mirth pursues Then if thou wilt thy heart on pleasures lay Choose God to be thy confidence and stay This life is but a may game mixt with wo An aierie stage where we like poppits play Quis sit an aditciant hodierna crastina vita temporadis supri Horat. The greatest ioy doth passe as minutes do And looke what time hath brought time takes away VVith Sisiphus we role a restles stone The best to day a man to morrow none Ioy is the image of vnconstancie Day but a lampe for men to view their paines Time purseuant of imbecilitie Rest an vnrest where sinne in thoughts remain All thinges vnpermanant saue miserie Mishap our wealth and death our desteny To know this world make but anotomie Of the dissembling hippocrites that liue Search him that yeelds thee formall curtesie And hee 'le be thine no longer then thou giue Making himselfe a Ianus with two faces Fallit vitium specie virtutis Innenal Now yeelding honour and anon disgraces So doth the world like to a parasite Or flatterer vnto some fat-purst foole Intice vs on with pleasure and delight But when her blandishments atach our soule We find her painted craft was to beguile And Syren like to kill although she smile Here is that radiant Iewell vertue spurn'd Naked conceit bare witted brauerie Doth sit her chariot she being quite
oreturnd Here short liud gnats hate perpetuitie VVhose wit with Midas maks theÌ„ wear loÌ„g eares Though for their welth wise men with flatterers O nunimi vobis hunc prastat honorem Iune The ocean of obliuion must not drowne Those Guls which to produse a benefit In all offences will a man renowne Th'ile say that madnes is a manly heate And if insatiately we swallow foode These will commeÌ„d our stomacks to be good Our humors these will sound with subtill slight And where we estimate our selues most deare Either for forme of body wit or might In that they will protest we haue no peere But mock vs gone to such no counsell tell But seldome speake and alwaies listen well Donec eris foelix multos numera bis amicos Tempora si fuerint nubila solus eris Ouids Here whilst a man hath welth to spend and giue These threed-bare ecchoes of vnconstancie That like to droanes on others hony liue VVill counterfeit with men to liue and die But if their patron once they needie see They seeke a new and then say farewell hee If they perceiue thy tables spring is drie These fawning Gnathoes from thy need wil turn To other bordes and to thine enemy PerchaÌ„ce wil go to to do thee some shrewd turn Some wil be friends their aimed stroke to strike Of which preuented they will thee dislike They call him foole in these deceitfull daies That is to seeke with both his hands to play VVherfore that wight is thrale to great dismaies On frindships trust which doth his councels lay Then with thy friend as still your friendship grow Remember he may liue to be thy foe As when Sybell the troian duke did lead Vnto the mirtle woods and realme of ghosts Virtutis comes inuâ—dia The helhound snarled with the triple head And hegs and furies serpents at him tost So here with slimie mouthes at vertue fights Lusts fat-braind fragmeÌ„ts cropstuft parasites Thus in this world the laborinth of woes VVith false resemblances we are supprest Learning and vertue haue ten thousand foes In no degree content or fortune rest Helth beuty strength life but spring to fall And enuie springs with either to wrong all Inuidus alterius rebus macrescit opimis Hor. Effundet mala lingua Virus atrum Virg. A wight with neighbours happines and ioy Perplexed euer with contagious paine Is enuy euer laughing at annoy But stings her heart with snakes at others gaine At bookes and learning she will poyson fling As thicke as Bacchus wiues at orphy sling Thus we with sundry woes are martired Being poore in wealth and strangers to our own Here in the vale of mourning banished Liuing but deputies and must begone And the more perfect all our vertues are The fouler enuies do against vs warre Then that which we call death is not to die But rather to exchange a death for life Dico tunc vitam beatam fata cum peracta sint Solon And scape the cloister of all misery And earthly ambages and hellish strife If by contemplating our state we see We boÌ„dslaues liue death shall make vs free The glutton thinks his belly is too small The couetous still wanteth drosse and slime The flatterer protests hee 's at thy call While for theÌ„selues these cuÌ„ning mates but clime Here with such counterfets wee alwaies dwell That seeke our goods but wish our souls in hel Here being borne we rather die then liue For all our life is as a seeming death Few howres we sport but many daies we grieue Whilst deth with secret haÌ„d doth stop ourbreth So though we ioy or grieue while we be here VVe onely seeme as shadowes to appeare Both wealth friends both ioys and sports also VVill flit away if danger come in place And sure they proue vntrue to make vs know That this fraile mansion is no dwelling place To teach vs loue those things that still endure And seeke a hauen wherein to liue secure Mans mortall life is like a speedy post That from all places swiftly cuts a way Vntill he hath attaind his aimed cost Both youth and age haste on make no stay In the beginning middle end of either Cum sapido capimus supe Vanena Cibo Both seeke such things and will abide with neither A wretched soule that fortune down hath fluÌ„g Finds no assistance in his shipwracks flaw In seeking flowers with nettles we are stung Thus bound we are in worldly yokes to drawe And we resemble till in dust we lie The flowet that in a day doth spring and die Let not my words supply a wonders place For truth doth witnesse that I do not faine He that is mortall knowes a mortals case And that each mortall liues in mortall paine For we were borne to die and die we must To day aliue to morrow turn'd to dust What wight can well behold a dead mans skull And sighing will not say the same with me That were thy corps as Salamander wooll A vault of slime thou art and once shalt be Clos'd in a charmell house as could as stone And meat to worms that now thou treadst vpon This world is like vnto a common Inne VVhere Adoms child doth liue as passenger Here some one day some many daies haue been Yet in their being they are nought the neare For tim 's so swift Dum loquimur fugit inuida atas Hor. that none can time retaine And Time once gone Time neuer turns again Mans life is very fitly term'd a span And we are but earths worst and that is clay Wormes are the garland of vaine glorious man O be not proud sith thou must die to day Then if thou trust trust death for he is sure For all on earth will perish as impure Life may be likened to a violet flower Beg nawne with Caterpillers or the glew That wise Medea gaue her paramour VVhich choking balls the buls of Colchos slew Life may be like to nothing sith man sees Nothing more like to nothing then life is Mandeeme thy selfe no better then thou art A sory iourniman from birth to graue All worldly goods which we encroach by art Are momentarie trash and what we haue Is of the world and must be left behinde And on the earth is no content of minde VVealth comes not in by hap or is increast By fathers toile the sonnes good to prepare Promotion comes not from the East nor VVest Such fortuns dwel neither in moon nor star But he doth all encrease and blessings hold That first composed man of earthly mould As he in danger liues who hath a theefe Hid closely in the night behind his doore So all that liue haue euen of theeues the chiefe Death lodg'd within their bosoÌ„ Thebes therfore Wisely ordaind that licence none shold haue To build his house that made not first his graue Triphon and Agamendo hauing made Apolloes temple and for leu of this Desir'd the happiest thing that could be had
come Ornamus tumulos lauro terra Vireâ—ts spargitur Iuue And keepe this obiet at that tombe VVhich was our ioyes bereauer Times siluer daughter purest maide I will adorne where thou art laide That wast and art for euer A Phoenix thy dead cinders gaue Gentis humana pater custos tibi cura magni Casaris data Hor. From thee a roiall king we haue Good angels be his guider And Monarchs his posteritie Till time the day of doome descry He is our cares deuider Dearling to the graces three VVhilst Alchamists ordaine for thee A tombe of Gold and Amber The marigold Mollia luteola pinget vacinia caltha Virg. the sunnes delight Greene Basil and the Primrose white Shall deck thy bridall chamber Husbandles faire wedded maide To Christ Gloria virtuieÌ„ tanquam Vmbra sequitur Cicero true vertues haue defraide In steed of deaths short slumber Such praises to thy Virgin name Such lucent attomies of fame No Linceus eie can number Yet wil I tell although a Swaine The golden age was in thy raigne It was an Aprill season Thy bountie seem'd the verdant showers Thy vertues rare a wreath of flowers As sun-beames bright thy reason It was a sight of worth to view What maiestie did thee endew Thy wisedomes true decerning How other realms did deifie Would aske Minerua to descry VVhich is the Queene of learning Though insolence doth now repine At times extinct those daies of thine Derided fond supposers Thy counsailers were famous farre Championi Thy champions terror in all warre Thy fleete new worldes disclosers Thy realme was like an Indian mine The purest mettall was thy coine The arts that then were vsed Insuing times may imitate But not exceede in any rate Vnpartially perused Thy fleetes resembled Zerxes power Each leader in them was a tower Thy soldiers rocks of honour The companies which those did yeeld Could beat great Caesar from the field And wound their foes with horror The illustrious bands were infinite Which she kept disciplin'd to fight And readie at an hower Her Cannon Musket and her pike Her troupes of horse so thunder-like Scornd Alexanders power Pallam siguis auroque rigentem colloque monile baccatum duplicem gemmis auroque coronam Virg. Purpuret Christis iuuenes auroque coruscâ— Virg. Her captaines march't in suites of gold And siluer cloth of price vntold In chaines and indian pearle For silke and veluet was but meane Such happie plentie flourish'd then To blesse this heauenly girle Her men most fierce to sight at hand Could vse the vtmost of a band For high exploites resolued VVell set they were and fitly made Famous to charge and to inuade They sternest foes dissolued To lead those valours liued then Yong Essex that braue Mars of men VVho in Galizia raised His Speare and dar'd at single sight T'in counter proudest spanish knight He was like Hector praised There were no Idols in her daies One God with vnprophaned praise She most deuoutly serued Her Clergie were a noble sort Of learning rare and good report And were by faith preserued Her lawyers were profound and wise No priuate fee could right surprise Vice had such sickles readie Troiaues opibusque egenos Dido Virg. It neuar had a time to grow Great pentions she did still bestow Vpon the sick and needie The damaske rose her ensigne bore Her cheeke that badge in beauty wore The Lyon was her banner Her minde heroicke fixt to this Made her the milke-white Lionesse Of pittie mixt with honour Thus was the land-like to the cost Of Edin which old Adam lost Insula diues opuÌ„ Priams dum regna mane bant Virg. Nempe Alcides mortalis obiit Sene. Whilst that white rose remained But for she liu'd below the sunne Where all thinges vnto ending runne Shee could not be retained Our liues are at so fraile a rate Death is our sur'st associate Our ioyes resigne to sorrow Nemo tam diuos habet fauentes crastinum vt sibi possit polliceri Seneca And lost or gotten thinges but grieue Lesse happie time then bad we liue Vncertaine of the morrow Thus life enioyes no residence Short minutes do our time dispence And sixtie times an hower Time changeth as the moments runne Things seeming permanent begunne Time doth like gnats deuoure But loe the Lapidaries come With orient Iems to raise thy tombe In forme of heauens faire motion Of Iasper cleare shal be the skie The Sunne of guilded Yuorie Diana in her stacion VVith siluer starres shall make a night Her selfe a blasing Chrisolite And interposed vnder Greene mirtle groues of Emerauld For earth center shal be impald In this applausiue wonder Reuested in a Saphire blew Shall lie a maide of snowie hew Vpon a tombe of pearle The Muses nine in corrall drawne Clouded in Tinsill and pure lawne Shall mourne about this girle VVhite turtles also pensil'd theare Of diamond shall tapers beare VVhich starres shall tip in burning In violet gownes nimphs manifold Shall sit and pray in bookes of gold And make harmonious mourning Poore shepheard then I will away Sweet nightingale and larke go play Her obiet thus was ended And she suruiues in heauen aboue And ioyes of paradise doth proue And is with saints attended Cant. XI LIke as the Swan which neuer sings before Piscospue amne padusae Dat sonitum raues per stagua loquac iacycni Virg. Time naturs steward bids him life restore Then with such tunes receiues his finall sleep That all Meanders continent do weepe So do I sing though not so sweet a lay Yet it presageth of my dying day And speaking Astrabonica of thee The turtle doues resort to visit me The Nymphes as witnesses about me come How I dy'd speaking though I liued dombe Some to deride me Bubosape queriet longas inslet umducero voces Virg. but none proue more bad Then such as seeme so wise so good so sad The lasie Owle that harbendger of death Besoundes a dirge for thy expired breath Canto XII THe bird that makes his song-booke of a thorne By the inclosure of thy graue doth mourn The glo-worme kinde thy obsequies to hold In steed of tapers shines like Phebus gold The glistering yeikle when winters come VVith siluer labels beautifie's thy tombe Despise not then that by th' Elizian coast In shepheardes musicke I salute thy ghost For feare the sunne should languish in desire And by descending set the world on fire Nitor tui splendentis pario marmore purius Hora. Nature death decreed that thou sholdst die Viewing the starry casement of thine eye VVhose browes of beauty still inclos'd such sight As dim'd the carbuncle the Chrisolite Canto XIII WHen flowring Floras vesture doth begin To shew the cowslip with his balmy chin Her verdure rare infusd into some flower Might with Adonis dill vp Maies bower VVithin her face that features Hellicon Latona had her chast Pauilion And to the waters doth lament her losse VVho with an orient stellifi'd the
They were repaid with death as chiefest blisse This common peril salue of vanitie Is good because it endeth miserie The power of flesh is but a rotten reede And truth to say Breuis est magnifortuna fauoris Sen. what is prosperitie A slaue to alteration care and dread A slipperie step that ill men magnifie And life is but a warfare against sinne And flesh a bridewell to torment it in All worldly louers die not worthily But twise the paines of fleshly death they beare Whereas the stout and valiant men but die These Cowards feele a double death for feare But fate which none can flatter or suborne Nor tongue entreat ought stoutly to be born I know the propertie of pleasure is To leaue more sorrow when it goes away Then when it came it brought deluding blisse And well I know that death will haue his day 〈…〉 The which defrauding lusts wheÌ„ we haue took In their best stay do vanish all like smoke And done we circumuent our selues thereby The time thereof departs and there we stand Detected factors of a villany Mock'd by the deed and of the hellish band The iudge our coÌ„scieÌ„ce doth coÌ„demn the euil VVhich we commit and leaues vs to the deuill To some good art if Tutors do not binde Vs Otium omnia mala docet a dolescentes Cicer. in our youth the cares of life to trie VVe being free our idle vexed minde To pleasures damned faculties apply That worse then preÌ„tiship our fancie wouÌ„ds Our selues to death proue Acteons hounds Here such as gifts do spare those made poore By giuing no respect can haue for all Pleasure excludeth who can giue no more Then pouertie her Syren voice doth call If once enrich'd she rich poore doth weed Then turn's them out vnto small friended need To harbor in all weathers poore and bare On the cold ground of such as friends had been Some will deride them none relieue their care But say wherefore had he not kept it then Thus when our wealth will not keepe coÌ„pany None will redresse our states in miserie And can we any earthly thing attaine VVithout displeasure labour miserie VVhich of them are not slippery in the gaine And very may games of vncertaintie Their vanitie no author can discusse They are as common vnto beasts as vs. The graue deliuers all men from their care And life once gon sinnes time seemes finished Praemia quanta bonos maneant Inuen In spite of all the snarling curs that are VVhich gnaw the liuing and torment the dead Both rich and poore euen all that suffer grief If good shall after death find full reliefe VVhen Thian from the worldes great voiage came Some ask'd him what a world he then had seen I haue beheld vertue opprest with blame Quoth he poor meÌ„s suits coÌ„founded clean By the vsurping proud and fooles expresse And beat the wise great theeues haÌ„g the les And how for money Argus wil not see How rich meÌ„s falts were sport but poore mens crime How best deserts with thaÌ„ks scarce guerdoÌ„'d be How the opprest bought pitty in his time And how most seeming holy men in gownes Vnder that sanctimony fish'd for crowns This was the worlds rude reuolution then VVhich euer was but vaine and euer shall Remaine mans hurt sinnes shop a daemons den Or like a dreame or tossed tennise ball Mans life is fitly term'd a nothing got The gainers loose the hauers haue it not Care eat 's man's entralls Enuie gnaws his back Fortune with slipperie chances trip his foote Greedines tels him somwhat still doth lacke VVhen he hath tooke his deepest shallow roote His name fame time doth dissolue to noght And one as vaine into his roome is brought The triumph daies which Rome to Caesar gaue Carthage to Hanniball the spartan host Vnto Leonides that Athens graue Impos'd on Pericles and Persia coast Allotted Syrus after victorie Had no repose no perpetuitie For this the heathen Emperours ordain'd So much this worlds vaine frailenes did they know That wheÌ„ they had their diadeÌ„s attaind Masons Caruers should vnto them goe Enquiring of what forme that tombe should be Sowell the Pagans knew their vanitie For this the Romans made a wise decree That when a Consull did in triumph ride In Coach with him a slaue should placed be Which slaue shold say my friend for all this pride Take heed thou know thy self chaÌ„ce doth butleÌ„d This which in shame without great heedwil end seasons yeers Through howrs through daies weeks months Through labor hunger cold care paine teares watchings Throgh false delights fools vniust friends losse From birth life fades vnto the graue again And death the sweet release of sorrow great The flouring bud of youth doth first defeat To Ciperissus youth he was extreame And vnto Hilas who his locks did dight Making his noone daie mirror of a streame And Adlington whose surname Welsteed hight In belgicke wars his launce did ouercome Circling that yong Apollo with a tombe Si quid mea carmina possint Nulla dies vnâ— quam memori te eximet ano Virg. But most obliged friend thou shalt not lie In lowest dust as though thou neuer were Although alas we all are borne to die My loue shall one day greet thy warlike beare Meane time repose thee in the Elizian field Fame hath thy name and honours tent thy shield Raptam euridiceâ— atque irrita lâ—itisdona querens Virg. Yet will I moure for thee with such sad laies As Orpheus once resounded for a ghost When in the prime of all her flouring daies His yong wife whom he dearly loud he lost The woods shal be my house my bed soÌ„e stone There wil I liue for thee die alone Here as they wold who can their hopes receiue Here as they would who can esteemed be Here Fates and friends perfidiously deceiue Here as they wold Time who can feed on thee None for on earth where al things are vnsure Things seldome be or being not indure My youth declin'd and felt no kind of ioy The wanton daies wherein I tooke delight VVere but a dreame a shadow and a toy And were but lent to breede me more despight But why vnpittied should I murmur so I naked came and naked hence must go Respect the vniuersall liues of men And see what toile in liuing dust remaines This man is fleshly crimes detested den That seeks out Anaxarchus worlds for gaines Diseases need and wrong an other knowes Like leaues in storms so are we tost with woes And liuing here with whom doth man frequeÌ„t But with old lechers enuious parasites Murtherers belly-slaues what snares are bent Noua terris incumbit febriuÌ„ cohors Hora. To take his soule against his body fight Intollerable stones and stranguries VVith feuers postumes swelling maladies Man in this world is laid as sure in hold Till he be put to execution For what gaile hath more labor hunger cold Or more diseases then this