A fig for Momus: Containing Pleasant variety, included in satires, Eclogues, and Epistles, by T. L. of Lincoln's Inn Gent.  
Che pecora si fa, il lupo selo mangia.  
AT LONDON Printed for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop at the little North-door of Paul's Church. 1595.   

To the Right Honourable and thrice renowned Lord, William Earl of Derby:  
T. L. his most humble and devoted servant, wisheth all health and happiness.  
MY honoured good Lord, having resolved with myself to publish certain my poems, and knowing them subject to much prejudice, except they were graced with some noble and worthy patron: I have followed the example of Metabo, king of the Uolschi, who desirous to deliver his only daughter from all peril and danger, consecrated and dedicated her to the sister of the sun. So I no less careful of my labours, than the king of his Camilla, with deliberate and advised judgement, wholly devote, and offer up my poems to your favour and protection: who being the true Maecenas of the Muses, and judicial in their exercises, are of power to relieve my weakness, by your worthiness, and to privilege me from envy, though she were priest to devour me: If midst your general favour to all desert, your honour vouchsafe this particular benefit to my industry, no day, or time, (as Tully counseleth) shall define the memory of your benefits, but as your noble father in mine infancy, with his own hands incorporated me into your house, so in this my retired age and study, my labour, lines, and whole life, shall be employed to do you honour and service.  
Your Lordship's most bounden in all humility, Thomas Lodge.   

To the Gentlemen Readers whatsoever.  
GEntlemen, I know you wonder, that having so long time kept silence, I salute the world with so peremptory a title: But if thou consider the reasons before you enter into mislike; you shall be satisfied, and I excused.  
I entitle my book (A fig for Momus,) not in contempt of the learned, for I honour them: not in disdain of the well mindded, because they cherish science; but in despite of the detractor, who having no learning to judge, wanteth no liberty to reprove.  
Who worthily deserving the name of Momus, shall rather at my hands have a fig to choke him, than he, and his lewd tongue shall have a frump to check me: Sheep are soon worried by curdogs, because they are mild: but he that nips him sound, that bites him cowardly, purchaseth his own peace, & escapes much peril.  
Heraclitus intituling one of his books with Ponou Encomion, the praise of labour, King Ptolemey (causing all the copies to be bought,) commanded the first letter of Ponou to be put out, and called the book Onou Encomion, the praise of the ass: But had Heraclitus begun with Ptolemey, and touched him with cowardly flight from Demetrius, with effeminate vanity in apparel, with exceeding gluttony, and drunkenness; with his lechery with Agathoclea, and bawdry with Oenante, the King would rather have given a talon to stop his mouth, then devised (by taking away of a letter) to abuse his title. Where detraction is given to challenge, it is good striking first, for whelps that are whipped for brawling, are quickly quiet.  
This cause (gentlemen) hath drawn me to use this title, and under this title I have thought good to include satires, Eclogues, and Epistles: first by reason that I study to delight with variety, next because I would write in that form, wherein no man might challenge me with servile imitation, (wherewith heretofore I have been unjustly taxed.) My satires (to speak truth) are by pleasures, rather placed here to prepare, and try the ear, then to feed it: because if they pass well, the whole Centon of them, already in my hands shall suddenly be published.  
In them (under the names of certain Romans') where I reprehend vice, I purposely wrong no man, but observe the laws of that kind of poem: If any repine thereat, I am sure he is guilty, because he bewrayeth himself. For my Eclogues, I commend them to men of approved judgement, whose margins though I fill not with quotations, yet their matter, and handling, will show my diligence: For my Epistles, they are in that kind, wherein no Englishman of our time hath publicly written, which if they please, may draw on more; if displease, have their privilege by authority. Briefly, I have so written, as I have read: so read, as I can judge: In which respect, if any man doubt, let him ask and I will resolve him: if any man reprove, let him look to it, I will nip him: for as I am ready to satisfy the reasonable, so I have a gird in store for a Railer. Finally, gentlemen as Prometheus, after he had form his image of earth, presented it to the sun; and Ops when she had brought forth jupiter, (for fear lest he should be devoured by time, figured in Saturn) gave him in keeping to the Cureti; So I present this frail image of my art, to take life, and light, from the sun of your approved judgements, & desirous to commend, this infant of my wit to immortality, and defend it from the assaults of time, and envy: commit, and submit it to your protection, the true Cureti of all cunning: who accepting these fragments in good worth, shall shortly receive from me, matters both worthy regard and reading. Vale 6. Maij. 1595.  
Yours as you use him,  
T. L.   

Gentle Reader, faults escaped correct thus:  
Satire 1. page. 2. line. 17. reproved, read reproved. page. 4. line. 5. will, read. ill. line. 8. deal (). Epost. 1. ad Momum. p. 2. lin. 22. manners, read movers. pa. 3. l. 19 humours, r. humour. Eclog. 2. p. 1. l. 14. were, r. now. pag. 2. l. 25. awe, r. policy. p. 3. l. 28. thrift, r. thirst. Eclog. 3. p. 2. l. 10. nor r. or. Ecl. 4. l. 8. virtues, r. virtue. Epist. 2. lin. 15. contaging, r. containing. p. 3. l. 13. of, r. if. p. 5. l. 1. mortal, r. moral. p. ead. l. 15. tongue, r. longs. p. 6. l 1. cheer, r. cheered. Sat. 4. pag. 2. li. 20. lere, r. tear. p. 3. l. 23. rest, r. roast. p. 4. l. 13. is, r. was. Sat. 5. p. 2. l. 19 dread, r. dreads. Epist. 3. p. 2. l. 16. are, r. do. p. 3. l. 6. harkt in mine, r. lay lip to. pag. 6. lin. 2. Gredoes, r. Predoes. ead. lin. 9 sure, r. since. Epist. 4. p. 1. l. 6. no, r. may. p. 2. l 8. peace, r. pence ead. lin. 25. retain, r. reclaim. Epist. 5. p 4. lin. 5. Pieria's, r. Pierius. Epist. 6. p. 1. l. 7. worth, r. North. p. 2. lin. 1. accursed, r. incensed. ead. pa. lin. 19 distraundged, r. distourning.   

To Master E. Dig.  

Satire. 1.  
DIgbie whence comes it that the world gins.  
To wink at follies, and to soothe up sins?  
Can other reason be alleged then this,  
The world soothes sin, because it sinful is?  
The man that lives by bribes, and usury,  
Winks (like a fox) at loathsome lechery;  
Craft gives ambition leave to lay his plot,  
And cross his friend, because he sounds him not:  
All men are willing with the world to halt,  
But no man takes delight to know his fault.  
He is a gallant fit to serve my Lord  
Which claws, and soothes him up, at every word;  
That cries, when his lame poesy he hears,  
'tis rare (my Lord) 'twill pass the nicest ears:  
This makes Anphidius welcome to good cheer;  
And spend his Master forty pounds a year,  
And keep his plaise-mouthed wife in welts & guards:  
For flattery can never want rewards.  
And therefore Humphrey holds this Paradox;  
'tis better be a fool then be a fox;  
For folly is rewarded and respected,  
Where subtlety, is hated and rejected:  
Self-will doth srowne, when honest zeal reproves,  
To hear good counsel error never loves.  
Tell pursy Rollus, (lusking in his bed)  
That humours, by excessive ease are bred,  
That sloth corrupts, and chokes the vital sprights,  
And kills the memory, and hurts the lights:  
He will not stick (after a cup of sack)  
To flout his counsellor behind his back.  
For with a world of mischiefs, and offence  
Unbridled will, rebels against the sense,  
And thinketh it no little prejudice,  
To be reproved though by good advice:  
For wicked men repine their sins to hear,  
And folly flings, if counsel touch him near.  
Tell Sextus wife (whose shoes are underlaid)  
Her gate is girlish, and her foot is splayed;  
she'll rail with open mouth as martial doth:  
But if you praise her (though you speak not sooth)  
You shall be welcome both to bed, and board;  
And use herself, her husband and his sword.  
Tell blear-eid Linus that his sight is clear,  
he'll pawn himself, to buy thee bread, and beer:  
But tuch me Quintus with his stinking breath,  
The dastard will defy thee to the death:  
Thus, though men's great deformities be known,  
They grieve to hear, and take them for their own:  
Find me a niggard that doth want the shift,  
To call his cursed avarice good thrift?  
A rakehell, (sworn to prodigality)  
That dares not term it liberality?  
A lecher, that hath lost both flesh and fame,  
That holds not lechery a pleasant game?  
And why? because they cloak their shame by this,  
And will not see the horror what it is.  
And cunning sin being olad in virtues shape  
Flies much reproof, and many scorns doth scape.  
Last day I chanced (in crossing of the street)  
With Diffilus the Innkeeper to meet,  
He wore a silken nightcap on his head,  
And looked as if he had been lately dead:  
I asked him how he fared, not well (quoth he)  
An ague this two months hath troubled me;  
I let him pass: and laughed to hear his skuce:  
For I knew well, he had the pox by Luce:  
And wore his nightcap ribbind at the ears,  
Because of late he sweat away his hears:  
But had a stranger, chanced to spy him than  
He might have deemed him for a civil man.  
Thus with the world, the world dissembles still,  
And to their own confusions follow will;  
Holding it true felicity to fly,  
Not from the sin, but from the seeing eye.  
Then in this world (who winks at each estate)  
Hath found the means to make him fortunate:  
To colour hate with kindness, to defraud  
In private, those in public we applaud:  
To keep this rule, kaw me and I kaw thee;  
To play the Saints, whereas we devils be.  
What ere men do, let them not reprehend:  
For cunning knaves, will cunning knaves descend.  
Truth is pursewed by hate, then is he wise  
That to the world, his worldly wit applies:  
What is he wise? I as Amphestus strong,  
That burned his face, because his beard was long.    

Ad Momum. Epistle. 1.  

SIr, laugh no more at Pliny, and the rest,  
Who in their public writings do protest  
That birds, and beasts, (by natural respects  
And motions) judge of subsequent effects:  
For I will prove, that creatures being dumb,  
Have some foreknowledge of events to come.  
How prove you that I hear some Momus cry?  
Thus (gentle sir) by good Philosophy.  
First brutish beasts, who are possessed of nought  
But fantasy, to ordinate their thought.  
And wanting reasons light, (which men alone  
Partake to help imagination)  
It followeth that their fantasies do move,  
And imitate Impressions from above:  
And therefore often by the motion  
Of birds and beasts, some certain things are known:  
Hereon the Stragerite (with judgement deep)  
Discourseth in his book of watch and sleep;  
That some imprudent, are most provident,  
He meaneth beasts, in reason indigent,  
Where naitheles their intellective parts  
(Nothing affected with care-killing hearts,  
But desert as it were and void of all)  
Seem with their manners half conaturall.  
For proof, the bitter stings of fleas, and flies,  
The slime-bred frogs, their harsh reports and cries  
foresignify and prove a following rain:  
How prove you that cries Momus once again?  
Why thus dull dunce: The moist and stormy time  
Fitting the frogs that dwell in wet and slime,  
Makes them by natural instinct to croak,  
Because 〈…〉 suing 〈◊〉 the spleen provoke:  
And so the fleas, and flies in their degree,  
By their attracted moist humidity,  
Drawn from a certain virtue elative,  
Whence rain his generation doth derive:  
Seek more than their accustomed nutriment.  
So cocks in season inconvenient  
That often crow, and asses that do rub  
And chafe their hanging ears against a shrub;  
A following rain do truly prophecy,  
And this the reason in Philosophy:  
The cock whose dri●nes by the heat was fed,  
By moisture feels the same extinguished:  
The ass with vapours caused by the rain,  
The humours then abounding in his brain:  
Engendereth an it thing in his head:  
What need I more, he that hath Virgil read,  
(Were he as ●to, crooked and precise)  
Would grant that birds, and beasts were wether wise:  
But if some misbelieving lad there be  
That scorns here into judge, and join with me:  
This pain I do enjoin him for his sins:  
When purpose, beat the sea with eager sins,  
And beasts, more greedily do chaw their cud,  
And cormotants, seek shore, and fly the flood;  
And birds do bows them in the pleasant springs,  
And crows do ceaseless cry, and beat their wings:  
That cloakles, in a champion he were set  
Till to the skin he thoroughly be wet.    

To reverend Colin. Eclogue. 1.  

Ergasto.  
Damian.   Ergasto. 
SIng us that carol (Damian)  
Amintas sung when he began,  
To follow Ringdes minstrelsy,  
And made us merry melody.  Damian. 
Young lad, my strings are broke and spent,  
My harp, records no merriment,  
The modern and new fangled lays,  
From ancestry bear hence the praise;  
Such strange Terpander's now profess.  
To move both mirth, and heaviness,  
By every motion of the fingers,  
That old men seem but sorry singers.  Ergasto. 
Let young men boast what art they list,  
Mine ears chief pleasure doth consist,  
In hearing what concentfull lays  
Our Fathers chanted in their days;  
For often have I found this true,  
The sense is old, the words be new:  
What ere the younger boast and brave,  
Their worth, & wit, from eld they have:  
Old sense by upstarts newly suited  
In words ill warped, is not reputed  
The deed of him that formed the style,  
But his that did the sense compile.  Damian. 
Since thou canst argue so for age,  
My voice with harp some war shall wage:  
And I will sing thee such a lay  
As erst I heard my Ringde play.  
At Galateas wedding feast,  
(Where sea to hear, his music ceased.)  

Cantus.  
THere was a time (or writers have missung)  
Wherein our partial mother's balance hung  
With equal poise: and fish, wild beasts, and birds,  
Had use of reason, and of needful words:  
Wherein four-footed beasts of savage field,  
(UUho sought the state of winged fowls to wield)  
Conspired, (the better to defence their states)  
To choose the fish, to be their mutual mates:  
UUho vainly trusting to their frail defence,  
Consented quickly to the beasts pretence,  
Supposing nature, equally had lent  
Like force in earth, as liquid element:  
Hereon (ambition egging on the flocks  
Of proud four-footed beasts) the shores, and rocks  
As filled with fish; and heaven, with shouts and cries,  
And ghastly breathe, almost lost his eyes:  
When all the fowls, embatailed in the air  
(Seeing their fortunes almost in despair)  
Besought the Gods, (who all injustice hate)  
To be assistant in this dire debate:  
jove, by a thunderclap a signal gave  
Upon their prayers, they should good fortune have,  
And speedily sent out the Southern wind  
To drive the waters from their bounds assind;  
A murrain on the beasts he thrilled down:  
UUhilst thus the reverend judge doth threat and frown,  
The fowls they stoop, and offering urgent blows,  
Find heartless beasts, and each where lifeless foes:  
The fish, on waveles shore dispersed, and left,  
Of pride, and life, were all at once bereft:  
The fowls prevailed, and fed them fat with pray,  
And after victors like did fly away;  
And beating off the air with open wings  
They tuned this carol to the woods and springs,  
To beasts, to fish, (reserved from brunt of war)  
To all, that (with both factions mortal are)  
Beware (o what soever race you be)  
(Too much ambitious in felicity)  
To strive to raise your fortunes through oppression,  
Or count your neighbours purchase your possession,  
For God's revenge each impious attempt  
Before the plague, or punishment be dreamed:  
Be sure the square whereby you build your states,  
Must break and fail, in dangers and debates;  
For Nemesis hath every hour reserved  
A plague for pride, that hath from justice swerved:  
Oh you, whose calm, makes neighbours storms seem sore  
Try you your tides, before you trust your ore,  
The surge may rise on sudden ere you think,  
And force you, (whilst you swim, secure) to sink.  
UUho trusts to choice of proud confederate,  
And fails in choice of faithful friends estate;  
Let him disclaim his arms, and claim foresight;  
Lest he with beasts, manage a beastly fight.   Engasto. 
In soothe this is a witty lay  
More pleasant than the verrelay,  
The shepherd sings unto his sheep  
As soon as day gins to peep.  Damian. 
Weigh not the words, but mark the worth,  
Great floods do often issue forth  
From humble waters, and deep skill,  
May flow from an impolish quill.  
Who waits for words, may get him hence,  
For shepherds only sing for sense.   

To happy Menalcus'. Eglogue. 2.  

Philides.  
Eglon.   Philides. 
WHat wrong, or discontent, old Eglon hath withheld  
Thine honourable age from governing the state?  
Why liv'st thou thus apart, whose wisdom wont to shield  
Our kingdom from the storms of foes, and homebred hate.  Eglon. 
Ah Philides, the taste of trouble I have felt,  
Mine actions misconceived, my zeal esteemed impure,  
My policy deceit, (where faithfully I dealt)  
These wrongs, (all undeserved) have made melive obscure:  
Besides, my youthful years were canceled by mine age,  
(The very Inn of griefs, of sickness, and of cares,)  
Time bids me now prepare, with death some war to wage  
And think upon mine end, and shun these worldly snares:  
And time it is (God wot) when age hath got the start,  
To fly from public noise, and brawls of judgement seat,  
For now my wits wax weak, and scarce yield use of art,  
My limbs are stiff and stark, my pulses faintly beat.  
And this late-purchased age, (besides all other pains)  
Is subject to contempts, accused of avarice,  
And youth, with self conceit, hath so bewitched his brains,  
As he esteemeth years, wits chiefest prejudice.  Philides. 
Can men so far forget the reverence and awe,  
They should in justice, yield to siluer-suted hairs?  
Is duty so despised, (enjoined by nature's law)  
That youth impugneth age, in managing affairs?  
Then worse then Ethnics far, may Christians be esteemed,  
For both among the Greeks and Romans, I have red,  
Such honours given to eld, that nothing happy seemed  
Wherein their counsel mist, and wisdom had not led:  
In Solon's happy laws, in old Lycurgus schools,  
In Numas sage decrees, and grave Prometheus' books,  
Amercements were set down for such misgoverned fools,  
As did malign at eld, and loath their reverent looks:  
For where they first ordained, the Gods should be adored,  
Next, that the silly poor, should want no due relief,  
They lastly, did command the younger to afford  
All honour unto age, and still to hold them chief:  
The Roman Senate wont, in giving dignities  
To take respect of years, of judgement, and discretion,  
The Lacedaemon state, in all their soverainties,  
Did yield their public charge, to aged men's possession:  
Taught by these flowering states, by men so fortunate,  
(As reading what they did, our minds are stirred to follow)  
I wonder that our world, should so degenerate,  
From perfect awe, and carry hearts so hollow?  Eglon. 
Ah Philides, forbear to wonder at the time,  
There must be some contempt, before a plague succeed:  
I see great storms at hand, and sigh to see them climb,  
Whose fall I might bewail, before it come indeed.  
But let all reasons pass, of envy, and disgrace,  
Sufficient to withdraw, a man from common weal,  
Not these alone procure, me leave mine honoured place  
But this, because 'tis time with state no more to deal:  
The hour prefixed is come, the revolution fixed,  
Wherein I must, and will, give over government;  
Taught by those happy men, whose weal, with sorrow mixed,  
Did make them leave the world, which danger doth present:  
Oh when I sadly think of old Lucullus wit,  
Who having fortune thrall, and fame attending him,  
Thought good to leave the world, when he had conquered it,  
And rather cease in time, then sink, in hope to swim:  
I cannot choose but smile, because by like advise  
I fly from froward hate, (as old Metellus did)  
And leave ungrateful men, (as erst did Scipio wise)  
Deeming it happiness in private to be hid:  
Had Cicero forethought, how sweet this course had been  
When he had mastered fame, and conquered Catiline,  
His Tusculanum then, he had more often seen,  
And left ungrateful Rome, before he did decline:  
But hope of further fame, so fondly him besotted,  
That wrestling with lewd chance, at last he caught the fall,  
And where he presupposed, true fame was him allotted,  
There lost he his desire, his fortunes, life, and all:  
His lessons make me wise; these warnings are mine arms;  
Wherewith I conquer chance, and false Rhamnusia's trains,  
And now dear Philides, my mind no trouble farms,  
And great content is bought, with little thrift of gains.  Philides. 
Thy reasons have their weight, and so have won my heart,  
As I will leave the world, and come and live with thee:  Eglon. 
So doing thou art wise, who from the world doth part,  
Gins to travel on to true felicity.   

To Rowland. Eclogue. 3.  

Wagrin.  
Gold.   Wagrin. 
Why sings not Gold as he whilom did  
In sacred numbers, and diviner vain,  
Such hymns, as from bace-humored brains are hid?  
For shame revive thy mated Muse again,  
Let not ambitious ignorance forbidden  
Thy worthful style immortal praise to gain,  
Live thou to after age, and let thy fame,  
eternize thy deserts, and tell their shame.  Gold. 

Why should I make mine industry a slave,  
To day, and night? why should I dwell on thought  
When as some scoffing idiot shall deprave  
That which with travail learning forth hath brought:  
Proud Aristarchus will the credit have,  
And bear that palm, the happier muse hath bought,  
And though in furnace of true art I try  
My laboured lives, yet scape not obloquy.   

In such a world where worth, hath no reward,  
Where all the gods, want shrines, but greedy gain,  
Where science sleeps; and ignorance is hard,  
Why should I lose my sleep, or break my brain?  
Can virtue spring that wanteth true regard?  
No Wagrin no: 'tis wisdom to refrain  
In such an age, where learning hath no laud,  
Nor needy Homer welcome, or applaud.   

Sweet Muses, my companions, and repose,  
Tired with contempts in silence now record  
Your pleasures past; disdaining to disclose  
Your worth to them, who wisdom have abhorred:  
Make me the judge, and writer of your woes:  
Whilst senseless walls, (where I your treasure's hoard)  
Do hear such grief, as were they ought but stone,  
Hewed in this age, they might consume with moan.   Wagrin. 

Fie Gold, blame not all men for a few,  
The Muses have some friends, who will esteem  
A man of worth, and give desert his dew:  
Did Mercury (as many wisemen deem)  
Surcease the wavering Cynthia to pursue,  
His cross aspects to arts, more sweet would seem:  
There are some few, (alas that they were more)  
That honour poesy, and wit adore.   

To these firm oaks (who boldly can resist  
The tempest of lewd tongues,) thyself apply,  
Like ivy, round about their body's twist,  
And live to them, whose fame should never die:  
Sweeten their ears, and glut them when they list  
With such nice numbers of sweet poetry:  
That reading, they may think, that every line  
Refines their wits, and makes them more divine.   Gold. 

On these strong pillars (UUagrin) have I built,  
And lived a while in sunshine of their grace,  
But time (sweet friend) believe me if thou wilt,  
Hath made them worldly, covetous, and base,  
Their niggard minds, with golden words they gilded,  
They are not as they seem, in outward face,  
To live in hope of that they mean to give,  
Is to deceive ourselves, and not to live.   

Arts perish, wanting honour, and applause,  
And where imperious need doth tyrannize,  
The holy heat, through worldly cares doth pause,  
The mind, (withdrawn to study for supplies)  
Is soiled with earthly thoughts, and downward draws;  
Hence come those dull conceits amongst the wise,  
Which coy-eard readers censure to proceed,  
From ignorance, whereas they grow by need.   

Oh were the world so forward to affect  
The high conceits of artists as of yore,  
When least deserts, were held in high respect;  
Did wise Maecenas flourish still t'adore  
The heavenly lines his Virgil did erect,  
Or he whom Rome admired for wisdoms store;  
Want, should not wring good wits, and this our age  
For science, should with theirs, the battle wage.   

But now, these frugal patrons, who begin  
To skantle learning with a servile pay,  
Make Poets count their negligence, no sin:  
The cold conceit of recompense doth lay  
Their fiery fury when they should begin,  
The priest unpaid, can neither sing, nor say:  
Nor Poets sweetly write, except they meet  
With sound rewards, for sermoning so sweet.   

Which sound rewards, since this neglectful time  
Repines to yield to men of high desert,  
I'll cease to revel out my wits in rhyme,  
For such who make so base account of art:  
And since by wit there is no means to climb,  
I'll hold the plough a while, and ply the cart,  
And if my muse to wont course return,  
I'll write, and judge, peruse, commend and burn.   Wagrin. 
A better mind God send thee, or more means,  
Oh wouldst thou but converse with Charles the kind,  
Or follow harvest, where thy Donroy gleans,  
These thoughts would cease: with them thy muse should  
A sweet converse: then this conceit which weens (find  
Thy pen from writing, should be soon resigned.  Gold. 
I rest resolved, if bounty will, I wright,  
If not, why then my muse shall fly the light.   

To Master Samuel Daniel. Eclogue. 4.  

Delivorus.  
Felicius.   Delivorus. 

FElicius, nourish not these sullen veins,  
Live not, as if thou loathedst to impart  
Unto the world thy wisdom and thine art:  
Virtues obscured, yields small, and sorry gains  
But actively employed, true worth retains:   

Now clattering arms sound terror in our coast,  
Like aged Nestor girt thee in thy steel,  
Win fame by valour, let impugners feel,  
That though sweet Mercury delights thee most,  
Thy courage, with thy years, thou hast not lost:   Felicius. 

Eld is ordained to counsel, youth to fight;  
Age to foresee, young courage to enact,  
High courage with true wisdom ever backed,  
Wins perfect fame: youth doth deserve by might,  
But old age, by good counsel, and foresight.   

Delivorus, when as thou dost behold  
Felicius sit apart, be thou assured  
His mind still works: and what thou hast endured  
In bloody brunts, the same though being old  
He doth endure, and more a hundredth fold.   

I travail in my soul, when thou dost sleep  
I for my country combat by forecast,  
And how by day, the danger shall be passed  
By night I study: Thus by care I keep,  
What headstrong youth might lose, & losing weep.   

I live not then obscurely, as I seem,  
But as the master of the ship performs  
Far more than common younkers in great storms,  
So guiding of our states well may I deem,  
I do, and merit more, than most esteem:   Delivorus. 
As if a life devoted unto ease,  
And managing affairs by policy,  
Might be compared for worth, & dignity  
With honourable arms, by land and seas?  Felicius. 
Why not (sweet friend) yield reason if you please?  Delivorus. 

Whom ever did the rising sun behold  
More royallized, and dignified then him,  
Whose glory, (though fell fortune sought to dim)  
His courage raised, his conquests manifold,  
Commanding all, himself still uncontrolled?   

By arms, Realms, Empires, monarchies are won,  
To arms, laws, justice, magistrates submit,  
Arts, sciences, before their triumphs sit,  
And beg their grace, and sing what they have done,  
Amazed to see the race, which they have run.   Felicius. 

Delivorus, war, honour doth deserve,  
Yet counsel in all kingdoms policied  
Is far more worthy, and more dignified:  
For arms, but in extremes do never serve  
To reconcile, and punish such as swerver.   

First have an eye to Grecian governments,  
And even in them, the truth will be explained:  
In Athens, where Themistocles remained,  
Though much he conquered by his regiments,  
Yet Solon, was more praised for his intents:   

Themistocles, by arms; he by good laws:  
One, conquered foes, the other planted friends;  
One got the wealth, the which the other spends,  
Both fame: though not like measure, nor like cause:  
For counsel to itself more honour draws.   

Pausanias, and Lysander by their swords,  
And warlike virtues, made Laocena rich,  
Fame followed them where they their tents did pitch,  
But grave Lycurgus, by his laws and words,  
Did merit more, than these renowned Lords,   

Though these attempted, he prefixed the way,  
Though they commanded, and arranged the bands,  
Lycurgus put the fortune in their hands:  
Though Marius could begin, and make the fray,  
Yet Scaurus policy deserves the bay:   

Let Catulus, with Pompey be compared,  
Or witty Cicero, with Catiline:  
And to prevent with policy divine  
That which the other over rashly dared,  
Deserves such fame as may not be impaired.   

Say military virtue doth require  
A valiant heart, great strength, and constancy:  
The self-like gifts in civil policy  
Are requisite for such as do aspire,  
To gain renown by counsel for their hire:   

In brief, for what is war ordained but peace?  
And perfect peace is end of bloody war:  
And sith the ends, fore-meanes, is prized far;  
Let war, his boast of dignity surcease  
And yield to wisdom, which doth peace increase.   

Peace, doth depend on Reason, war on force,  
The one is human, honest, and upright,  
The other brutish, fostered by despite:  
The one extreme, concluded with remorse,  
The other all injustice doth divorce.   Delivorus. 

Felicius thy reasons are approved  
(If measured by the square of statesman's skill,  
Who on their books hang their opinions still)  
But I, who from my youth the wars have loved,  
From mine opinion may not be removed.   

For by that method which myself have tried  
I find such word-bold warriors as you be  
As fit for war, as apes for minstrelsy:  
For what can you prescribe, or else provide,  
To order those, whom you could never guide?   

Think you Vigetius serves to make you fit  
To give directions to a general?  
No bookmen no, time now hath changed all,  
Both men, and means: war craves a greater wit  
And courage, then when Rome directed it:   

Should we expect, (as erst the Romans' did)  
Instructions to dislodge, encamp, assail,  
Before we did endeavour to prevail,  
The means to conquer would be lost, and hid:  
Basely fights he who wars as others bid.   

All things are changed, the means, the men and arms,  
Our stratagems now differ from the old,  
Expert in book, was never truly bold,  
Demosthenes, whose tongue the soldier charms,  
Fled cowardlike away in hot alarms.   

This said, he ceased, and would no more proceed,  
Felicius left him settled in this thought,  
I, hearing both the reasons they had brought,  
Resolved that both deserve true fame indeed,  
And pray that wit may thrive, & war may speed.    

To F. M.  
Satire. 3.  

IT is as common as unkind a fault  
In youth, (too subject to this world's assault)  
To imitate, admit, and daily choose,  
Those errors, which their lawless parents use.  
For what by vain example youth conceives,  
The same for lawful, daily he receives,  
If damned dice the father doth affect,  
The self-like folly doth his heir infect,  
If lust; to lust the son is too proclive,  
If fraud, by fraud his wanton race will thrive:  
If surfeit, surfeit is esteemed no sin,  
For youth persevers, as he doth begin.  
And where to natures, (forward to retain)  
Lewd objects are annexed and customs vain,  
The wounds grow desperate, & death doth end,  
Before good counsel can the fault amend;  
lucilla's daughter, she that keeps the swan,  
That saw her mother dally with her man;  
Steal privy sports, for sweet meats hazard fame,  
Scarce twelve years old gins to do the same:  
For nature, joined with custom, never fails  
But by herself, and in her helps prevails:  
And why? because what children apprehend  
The same they like, they follow and commend:  
And where the mind is willing and addict,  
Th'examples are more forcible and strict:  
And though some natures, by especial grace  
Correct themselves, and give not folly place,  
Yet lean the most part, to example so,  
That what they like, they hardly can forego:  
Then (gentle friend) from damned deeds abstain,  
From lawless riots, and from pleasures vain,  
If not regarding of thine own degree,  
" Yet in behalf of thy posterity:  
" For we are docible to imitate,  
Depraved pleasures though degenerate.  
Be careful therefore lest thy son admit  
By ear, or eye, things filthy or unfit,  
Exclude the bawd, the parasite, the whore,  
The dicer, drunkard, swearer from thy door,  
For such contemptible consorts as these,  
Leave rankest poison where they sweetly please  
And as thy child resembleth thee in face,  
In foot, in feature, and in outward grace,  
So study thou (thine actions being good)  
He may wax like in manners, as in blood:  
If thou espy within thy curious knot,  
Some tangling twitch, that doth thy flowers rot,  
Or in the picture hanging in thy hall,  
That represents Caesar majestical,  
Thou see some spots that spoil and do disgrace  
The matchless model of thy monarches face,  
Wilt thou not quickly root away the one,  
And wipe the other from the piece anon?  
So in thy son demean thyself likewise,  
If thou perceive a sin, that doth disguise  
And choke the beauties of his toward mind,  
If in this image of thyself thou find,  
Corruption, choking virtue, error grace,  
And will, usurping reasons rightful place:  
Dissuade by fatherly admonishment,  
School, and correct, advertise, and prevent:  
Make him by government, and perfect zeal,  
A happy member of his common weal,  
And not by negligence, and liberty,  
A scouge unto thy private family:  
The eaned lamb doth lose that colour seld,  
The which at first, thengendering ewe beheld:  
The stained cloth, retains his grained die,  
The ivory his first Imagery,  
The bird but scarcely broken from his shell,  
Feeds on that food which first he liked well;  
The tun retaineth long, the taste, and sent,  
Of that pure liquor which at first it hent:  
And what impressions we in youth retain  
In age, our reason hardly will restrain:  
The idle More, the Turk, the Saracen,  
The Chinois, and the wealthy Abissine:  
Observe that custom, and idolatry  
Which was engrafted in their infancy;  
Then in the presence of thy toward heir  
Beware to frisse, currle, and comb thy hair,  
To spend three hours, in gazing in a glass,  
Before thy wife and daughter go to mass:  
Take heed thy gagtoothed hosts in his sight  
Tell not how oft she tires thee every night,  
Beware thy son do never hear thee brag,  
That thou hast paid twelve angels for a nag,  
And pawned it to the rich and broking bawd,  
For whores, and capons, little to thy lawd:  
Take heed the toward had do never hear,  
That thou hast spent a thousand pound a year,  
Take heed thou never swear whilst he is by  
That thou by oaths darest prove an open lie,  
Lest seeing thee make light of loathsome sin,  
To practise like misdeeds he do begin;  
And thou at last to thy excessive grief,  
Behold thyself a beggar, him a thief:  
For by a fatal law it comes to pass  
That lewdness is defamed and ever was.  
And life corrupt by unexpected shame  
And timeless death is buried with defame:  
Enough, if grace be gone, than words be vain:  
I'll tell thee more if so I writ again.    

To Master W. Bolton. Epistle. 2.  

Bolton, amidst thy many other themes  
Thou dost desire me to discourse of dreams:  
Of which, what I could gather, read, or find,  
I here set down to satisfy thy mind:  
Dreams then (in sleep our spirits true retreat)  
Do challenge their predominance, and seat:  
And in their natures, are but fantasies  
Made by the motion of Imageries,  
According to the sleeper's habitude  
Of every sensible similitude.  
So then, all dreams from divers causes grow,  
And from th'interior, or th'exterior flow:  
Thinterior likewise hath a double right,  
The one is mental, claiming by the sprite,  
Where through in sleep (the fantasy and thought  
Encountering) strange and rare effects are wrought;  
Resembling those, which our affections kept,  
And thoughts did travel on before we slept:  
The other cause takes his fruition,  
And being from the body's disposition:  
For by th'interior habitude and state  
The body holds, (corrupt or ordinate)  
Some motion in the fancy is maintained,  
According to the disposition gained:  
For where as chilly humours do abound,  
Men seem in snow, or water, to be drowned:  
This makes the sage Physician to conject  
By dreams, what griefs the inward parts infect;  
Th'exterior cause likewise, we double call,  
The first divine, pure, and spiritual,  
Whereby things hidden, sacred, and concealed,  
By God, or by his Angels, ere revealed:  
The next is merely corporal; whereby  
Not only mind and working fantasy  
Is changed, (according as the sleeper's thought  
Or fancy, by contaging air is wrought)  
But by th'impression of celestial rays,  
Which do conform affection to their ways.  
For so the stayed stargazers do aread,  
That from celestial bodies do proceed,  
The cause, & workings of our dreams in sleep:  
And in this point a mighty coil they keep.  
Note me the hour (saith one) and bring it me,  
I will express th'effect and dream to thee:  
For as when choler swarms in breast or head,  
Men dream of things inflamed, and fiery red,  
And whereas phlegm prevails, abounds and springs.  
We dream of watery, cold, and frosty things:  
So heaven may by his influence bestow  
The knowledge of th'effects which he doth owe,  
And what in strength, and virtue it contains,  
Infuse in man, in whom his work remains:  
But by their leaves; 'tis not material  
The heavens can do only but casual:  
But now me thinks Apollo pulls mine ear  
And claims mine industry an other where:  
Speaking in thee, (because in thee he reigns)  
And bids me busily employ my brains,  
And prove of spirits either good or bad,  
In forms, and certain apparitions clad,  
Can further force, or else infuse by right,  
Unfeigned dreams, to those that sleep by night.  
To which mine answer is affirmative,  
Because the fathers make it positive:  
For dreams both true, & certain, now & then,  
By blessed spirits, are poured in living men  
Either as pertinent to their relief,  
Or to repress their friends impendent grief,  
Such was the dream Albertus Magnus had,  
Who whilst the world in nights-dark-cloake was clad,  
Supposed he saw, (near to a water-mill  
By which a brook, did flow with murmur shrill)  
A pretty lad, hard by the river side,  
That from the bank fell headlong in the tide,  
Whilst wrestling there he lay, and he in dream  
In pity seemed to save him from the stream,  
The morn arose, he walked, and scarce arrayed  
Beheld a woeful mother quite dismayed;  
That piteously perplexed, and 〈◊〉 with teen,  
Complained no less than he in dream had seen.  
The self-like hap to Nicons son befell,  
Who knowing neither purge, not hidden spell,  
To cure his patiented travelled with the spleen,  
Fell fast asleep within a meadow green:  
Wherein he thought, some sprite, or genius good,  
Enjoined him presently to let him blood  
Betwixt the wedding finger and the small,  
Which wakened he performed, and therewithal  
The sick man got his health, he won the same,  
And thus by dream his doubt he over came:  
If then the heavenly bounty by good sprights,  
Direct men's actions to their best delights,  
To bodily contents, to perfect health,  
To safety, to security, and wealth:  
far and more working is his heavenly power,  
In sending holy spirits every hour;  
Who in our mortal, and spiritual weal,  
Are priest sincere instinctions to reveal:  
So in a dream King Solomon the sage,  
(Both wealths, & wisdoms, wonder in his age)  
Had special counsel how to bear a hand  
In governing his people, and his land:  
So even the most corrupt and unretired,  
Have to good ends, been faithfully inspired:  
So Pharaoh, and Nabuchadonsor;  
The caitiff Caiphas, and many more,  
To their confusion have foreknown their fall,  
And miseries God threatened them withal:  
From evil messengers the sons of pride,  
To evil men, true things are told beside,  
Not for the devils tongue they should believe,  
But that in right he labours to deceive,  
Not for desire to manifest misdeed,  
But to himself more faith and trust to breed▪  
So Socrates, the night before he saw  
Diviner Plato, skilled in nature's law,  
After digestions hours were overpast,  
And vapours in the brain digested fast,  
Bethought him in his dream that he beheld  
A milk-white swan, whose pleasant note excelled,  
That from the earth to heaven did singing fly,  
And cheer all other birds with melody:  
Which when he waked, he knew foretold the truth  
Of Plato's worth; for seeing of the youth:  
Here is (quoth he) that swan that sung so sweet,  
Whose eloquence, all Greece shall grace & greet:  
Thus much for dreams, though more remains to say:  
My Muse commands me now make holiday:  
And end abruptly, vowing faithfully,  
To prosecute this subject seviously.    

To a dear friend lately given over to covetousness.  

Satire. 4.  
I Hear of late (but hold it very strange)  
(That such vain news is common in the change)  
How being old, and drawing to the grave,  
Thou waxest greedy, and desir'st to save:  
As if thy life of sorrows had no store,  
But thou in policy shouldst purchase more?  
Alas for thee, that at thy journeys end  
Art grown so near and careful what to spend.  
Look on thyself, age hath thee by the back,  
Thy hairs are white, which erst were frizzled black:  
Thine eyes are sunk, thy cheeks are lean and pale,  
Thy lips are blue, thy breath is stinking stale,  
Thy grinders gone, thy ghastly gout, and murr;  
Do break thy sleeps, and scarcely let thee stir:  
Thy memory is dull, and well nigh dead,  
Thy tongue already falters in thy head:  
Where all these torments make thee loath thyself,  
Why art thou now enamoured with thy pelf?  
Thinkest thou the purchase of a niggards name  
Is not a prejudice unto thy fame?  
Mark me a miserable mysing wretch,  
That lives by others loss, and subtle fetch,  
He is not only plagued with heaviness,  
For that which other happy men possess,  
But takes no taste of that himself partakes,  
And sooner life, than misery forsakes:  
And what in most abundance, he retains  
In seeming little, doth augment his pains:  
His travails, are suspicions backed by fear,  
His thoughts distraught incessant troubles leer,  
He doubts the rain, for fear it raise a flood  
And bear away his houses, and his good,  
He dreads his neighbour's cattle as they pass,  
For fear they stay and feed upon his grass,  
He hides his treasures under lock and key,  
Lest thieves break in, and bear his bags away:  
Only unto himself, for whom he spares,  
He gathers nothing but continual cares:  
His eye disdains his hungry belly meat,  
Himself repines, at that himself doth eat,  
Though rends increase, he lets his body lack,  
And neither spares his belly nor his back:  
What on himself he lays, he holds it lost,  
What on his wife, he deems unthrifty cost,  
What on his heirs, his misery and miss;  
What on his servants, ryotting it is.  
Thus from himself, his covetous desire  
Doth draw himself, and on his heart doth tyre:  
So lives he to the wretched world alone,  
Loathsome to all that long to see him gone:  
If such he be, (as such he is indeed)  
And far more worse, (if wealth more worse may breed)  
For shame from such a sin thy life exempt,  
That makes thee rich in nothing but contempt,  
They say the many packs before thy door,  
Are but the pawns, and wages of the poor,  
They say the buildings which thou dost begin,  
Are rich without, but yield no rest within;  
They say thy dearest friends are sure to pay  
Great forfeitures, and if they miss their day:  
They say the interest of ten a year  
Is held too little to maintain thy cheer,  
And yet thyself, thy wife, thy maid, thy knave,  
Scarce buttered turnips upon days have,  
They say at New-year-tide men give thee cakes,  
And thou the next day sells them for their sakes,  
They say thou sel'st the chipping of thy bred  
For fear thy servants should be over fed,  
They say one horse may bear thy household stuff,  
Where for thy coin three carts are not enough;  
They say thy welted gown, and ruffs of lawn,  
When thou wert warden last was but a pawn:  
They say thy plate is forfeited and lost  
For half the money that at first it cost,  
They say thy wives cast kertle is become  
A pair of breeches to enskonce thy bum.  
Briefly, they say that for the world thou art  
Too wretched, and for God too false in heart.  
All these reports thou knowest as well as I  
Spring from some grounds, things sold by common cr●  
Are quickly sold, men hardly stop the noise  
Of slanders published by common voice:  
If these be true, reform them; if untrue,  
Take them for warnings what thou shouldst eschew:  
What ere they be, now think upon thy grave,  
And leave thy worldly drudging to thy knave,  
And let him carry fire unto thy stills,  
And tend thy brewhouse, watch, & ward thy mills,  
Look to thine apples, lest they rot away,  
Set up thy hop-powles, and thy champions lay.  
And thou thyself safe wrapped in cloth and fur,  
Fall to thy prayers, desire no more to stir,  
Give to the poor, what thou hast got by wrong,  
For be assured thy days cannot be long:  
Fellow this friendly counsel which I give,  
Or else in shame, and hatred thou shalt live,  
Or dead, those passengers that spy thy grave,  
Shall say here lies a broking bribing knave.   

Satire. 5.  
IN every land from Gades to Ganges flood  
Too few they be that think upon their good:  
Too few that by discretion can discern  
What profit rightly doth themselves concern.  
Behold ambitions true begotten son,  
Spent in desire before his hope be won,  
Striving for kingdoms which are sooner lost,  
Then kept, desired, then had, with mighty cost.  
Ending like him that senseless in his harms  
Doth strive to stem a sea with two weak arms,  
Behold a mind pressing beyond his might,  
Catching at stars censured by oversight.  
Like him tha eager scales a mountain steep,  
And headlong falls into the valley deep:  
There lives no man so settled in content  
That hath not daily whereof to repent,  
Nor can reform wit so justly deem,  
But that it leaves true goods, for such as seem;  
Briefly, the greatest gifts whereof we boast  
Are those which do attempt and tyre us most.  
Peace brings in pleasure, pleasure breeds excess,  
Excess procureth want, want works distress:  
Distress contempt, contempt is not repaired  
Till timeless death determine, hope despaired.  
War eggs the victor to desire debate,  
The conquered to submit and serve with hate;  
Leaves nothing sure though he presume to choose,  
But what he keeps with hate and dread to lose:  
How oft hath watching policy devised  
A cunning clause which hath himself surprised?  
How often hath lewd fraud been set afloat?  
Of purpose that his goods might cut his throat?  
Who builds on strength by policy is stripped:  
Who trusts his wit, by wit is soon tripped.  
Example be thou Hepar, who professed  
A home-born infant of our English west  
Hast in that shameful schene of treasons play  
Betrayed thyself to death, who wouldst betray:  
Uolcatius that suborned, devised, and wrought  
To work out Themis, from the place he sought:  
Was laughed in court, and though he were not seen,  
Yet wept his follies to a wooden screen,  
Was never since this wretched world began  
To entertain, receive, and nourish man.  
A judgement by itself that never erred  
Or wit unwronged by that he most preferred  
Travel the world, & traverse every clime,  
And win one hour in every year of time:  
Compass what ere the sea receiveth round,  
And seek to southward men of underground:  
What hast thou got if following Candy's fate,  
That keep'st no certain compass in thy state:  
O nought of ours, our wealth, our wit, enjoyed,  
If not as ours, for us, it be employed,  
Thy fame declining, Tellus, not thy farm,  
Thy zeal presumptuous, Dacus not thine arm:  
Thy bounty Varis, not thy many bribes,  
Thy silence Shanus, not thy many gibes.  
These are those goods whereto you ought to cleave:  
The rest are good in semblance and deceive.  
What then in right for good may we elect?  
Such things as challenge not by lewd respect?  
Seek not in age with Crassus such a place  
As both thy life and fortune may deface:  
Nor fill the sea with sails, the earth with men  
In shameful sort, to be repulsed again.  
Nor leave the northern lands, and fruitful Gaul,  
In royal Rome, thine empire to install:  
For seldom can presumption be enthrowned  
To live esteemed, or die to be bemowned.  
An humble cote entapissed with moss,  
A lowly life that fears no sudden loss:  
A mind that dreads no fall, nor craves no crown,  
But makes his true-content, his best renown.  
These are the choice contents, the goods, the gain  
Which rightly can be ours: the rest are vain.  
If thou then see a troop of guarded knaves  
Wait at Argastos heels like servile slaves:  
Be not aghast, admire not at his state,  
For now the world is bend to serve and hate:  
'tis true: that slave whom Pompey did promoate,  
Was he that first assayed to cut his throat.    

To his Mistress A. L. Epistle. 6.  

IN that same month wherein the spring gins,  
And on that day when Phoebe left the twins  
(Which was on Saturday, the twelft of March)  
Your servant brought a letter sealed with starch,  
Which by my soul (sweet mistress) when I op'te  
And read your motion far from that I hop'te,  
Believe me (had not troubles tired me quite)  
Might be enough, to make me laugh outright:  
You pray me to advise, and tell you what  
Will take away your pursines and fat,  
You pray me without any let, or pause,  
To write of both the remedy, and cause,  
And in a short discourse to let you know  
The Antidote of that mislikes you so.  
Well, since your beauty may, & must command  
Thus briefly will I answer your demand:  
Fatness (connatural to sick, and hole,  
Which nearest under-dwell the Northern pole)  
In those by nature who enjoy the same  
Is passable, not preiudized by blame:  
That other grown by surfeit, and excess,  
That chokes the vital powers with heaviness,  
Is that (fair mistress) which you ought to fly  
And that which Phisiques art may remedy:  
Fatness by nature (not immoderate)  
Kills not the wit, quells not the minds estate:  
But fatness, by intemperance increased,  
(When living man resembleth loath some beast,  
And belly cheer with greedy gluttony  
Is held the fullness of felicity:  
This maketh men addicted to the same,  
Dull in conceit, gross minded, worthy blame,  
Of such do Basile, Galen, Plato, writ,  
That fattest belly hath the weakest spirit:  
For reason, (only made for man's behoof)  
Affords hereof this true, and certain proof:  
Therefore are lawless belly-gods by kind  
Defect in understanding, and in mind,  
Because gross blood by their disordered feed,  
And swift concoction, plenteously doth breed:  
And by this blood, gross spirits from their hearts  
Ascend, and seize upon their upperparts,  
And from these spirits, spirits of the brain  
A dead and loath some dullness do retain,  
Through which it comes, that they wax stark, & slow,  
Because their spirits animal be so.  
That fatness then engendered, and engrossed,  
By riot, surfeit, belly cheer and cost,  
Is hateful: and that fatness nature breeds  
From good complexion, orderly proceeds:  
Which praised, because approved, me thinks I hear  
A saint, sweet like yourself, harkt in mine ear,  
And with a maiden blush entreat me tell  
Why fatness most doth in the belly dwell.  
Whereas the head (the master part of all)  
Is fleshless, slender, pretty, round, and small?  
To this, this answer mistress do I make:  
The belly therefore fatness doth partake,  
Because it keeps the matter of our meat,  
And still contains our fatnes-breeding heat,  
But for the head, it therefore is not charged,  
With fat, or flesh, or by such like enlarged,  
Because the heavenly workman did provide,  
That such a part, which is the bodies guide,  
And is the seat, where soverainlike remains  
That reasonable power the soul contains,  
Should not by flesh, be soiled, or overset,  
For fear the works of reason should be let;  
This problem plainly opened to the eye,  
It followeth thus of fatness orderly,  
It vitiats beauty, makes a barren womb,  
Because the blood which Sperma should become  
Is wholly turned to fat, it hasteneth age,  
And holds our appetites in vassellage:  
It hinders blood, and shorteneth breathing to,  
And maketh all things tedious that we do:  
It causeth sownings, passions of the heart,  
It makes the pulses in their places start.  
Briefly, (if Avicen speak not amiss)  
Grossness the bodies loathsome fetter is,  
The self opinion old Pythagoras  
Maintained: who seeing once a fat man pass,  
Said thus to them that did attend him then,  
A loath some prison dothyond spirit pen:  
This Plato knowing well, and waxing gross,  
Chose out a shady wood, and fruitful close;  
Where walking, he his scholars taught & trained,  
Which all his followers afterward maintained:  
A world it were to reckon up, and wright,  
How all those old Philosophers do fight,  
Contend, debate, decide, dispute, entreat,  
Whether this fatness come from cold or heat:  
But to be short, the Synod and the sect  
Of those who rightly natures works respect:  
Conclude that by a double sort of heat,  
Our fat is made, and moult, and so concreate.  
Excessive heat dissolves, the mean makes hard;  
Heat in excess, as deeper read, award  
Is that same heat, which doth engender fat,  
Heat moderate, is rightly counted that  
Which Galen termeth cold: By this decree  
Two mighty factions thus accorded be:  
Well since these proofs the causes do assure  
Let us debate a little on the cure:  
Much sitting, and long abstinence from care,  
Drinking of oily wines, our fat prepare,  
Eggs, whitemeat, pottage, do increase the same,  
And bring the waxing body out of frame:  
Let therefore fat men grown by gluttony,  
(For to the rest no medicine I apply:)  
Open a vain; or if that seem too sore,  
Use cuppings, and oft rubbings evermore,  
Live in that air, which is both hot, and dry,  
Watch much, and sleeping little, hardly lie:  
Walk much, and toss, and tumble in the sun,  
Delight to ride, to hawk, to hunt, to run,  
Drink little, gargarize, fly grosser food,  
Or if some deem a hare, or partridge good  
Feed modestly thereon, and if he hath  
Some crowns to spend, go often to the bath:  
Not Esculapius, were he now alive  
Can better helps, or remedies contrive,  
Except beholding mighty Graedoes port,  
He cut off both his legs to make him short:  
Whether am I transported in discourse,  
My Muse me thinks hath run too long a course.  
The question is resolved, why fail I then  
To seal this letter up, and leave my pen?  
Faith, nought but this in kindness to desire  
(My Genius of good wit) sure I require,  
To count her fatness no deformity,  
But as it is the guise in Italy,  
To nourish that: for fat, slick, fair, and full,  
Is better liked, then lean, lank, spare, and dull.    

To his dear friend H. L. Epistle. 4.  

THat very day wherein the sun began  
To visit Aries, by the Scot thy man  
I did receive thy letters: and with these  
Thy gifts which in this world no better please,  
Thy letters, I with letters do reward;  
But for the rest, (because the world goes hard)  
Think not amiss, if for thy presents kind  
My presents, be the riches of my mind;  
For they oft read, will yield thee much content,  
Whereas thy gifts will serve me but this lent.  
But Tom sayst thou what presents shall I have?  
Faith Harry counsel, how to spend, and save,  
Which counsel if thou keep, and follow to;  
None better than thyself shall live, or do:  
First for instructions how thou shalt dispend:  
Spend prayers on God, and peace upon thy friend,  
Which doing, God will bless thy crop, & plant,  
And friend will help, if so thou hap to want:  
Spend still on that may yield thee good, & gain,  
Spend on thy house, to tile it from the rain:  
Spend on thy horse, in travel every night,  
For such expense, will make him fresh, and light,  
Spend on thy team, their labour gets thee bred,  
Spend on thy neat, that breed, & erst have bred:  
Spend on thy sheep, & see them wormed and shorn:  
Spend compost on thy land, that brings thee corn,  
Spend on thy wife, and see her seemly clad,  
For such expense in duty must be had:  
Spend on thy son, to get instruction,  
That he may live by art, when wealth is gone.  
Spend on thy servants, paying them their wage,  
And they will serve thee truly in thine age:  
Spend stripes on him, whom words may not retain,  
Yet spend to mend by strokes, but not to maim;  
Thus spent, well spent: now learn again to save,  
Save from the Sycophant, what he would have;  
Save from thy neighbour, that doth press & pray,  
To buy thy goods, and never means to pay:  
Save from th'insatiate husbandman thy beef,  
Save by fast locks, thy money from a thief:  
Save by receiving strangers, and estates,  
Be not at home to all, keep fast thy gates:  
Save by forbearing company, and dice,  
Save by well husbanding, thy grain from mice:  
Save by thy market, and thy sale again,  
Buy cheap, sell dear, thy profit quites thy pain:  
Save in thy diet, spend as thou mayst get,  
And lay up some for age, the rest for debt.  
Briefly, so spend, as thou mayst save to buy,  
So spare, as thou mayst spend, and get thereby.  
Thus in requital of thy kind good will,  
My heart as kind, (though power be weakened still:)  
Presents great thanks, these counsels grave, and true,  
And till my next, occasion bids adieu.    

To Master Michael Drayton. Epistle, 5.  

MIchael, as much good hap unto thy state,  
As Orators have figures to dilate:  
As many crowns, as Alchemists have shifts,  
Briefly, so many goods, as thou hast gifts:  
I hear some upstart Rymer set a gog  
By writing poems on the Lician frog,  
Or Tithon's Grasshopper grows envious,  
And will be famous with Archilochus:  
Alas for them that by scurrility,  
Would purchase fame and immortality:  
But know this friend, true excellence depends,  
On numbers aimed to good, and happy ends:  
What else hath wanton poetry enjoyed  
But this? Alas thy wit was ill employed.  
What reason moved the golden Augustine,  
To name our poetry, vain errors wine?  
Or Hierome, (deeply sighted in these evils)  
To term it nothing, but the food of devils?  
Nought but the misimployment of our gifts,  
Ordained for arts, but spent in shameless shifts.  
Look as the sunbeam in a burning glass  
Doth kindle fire, where ever it doth pass,  
But freely spread upon th'engendering earth,  
Eggs on the spring, and kills the cause of dearth:  
So poetry restrained in errors bounds,  
With poisoned words, & sinful sweetness wounds,  
But clothing virtue, and adorning it,  
Wit shines in virtue, virtue shines in wit:  
True science suited in well couched rhymes,  
Is nourished for fame in after times.  
Thou then sweet friend, grieve not though folly thrive,  
Fame got by it, dies ere it is alive:  
Be thou a prentice to a blessed Muse,  
Which grace with thy good words will still infuse:  
Oh let that holy flame, that heavenly light,  
That led old Abraham's race in dark some night:  
Oh let that star, which shining never ceased  
To guide the Sages of balme-breathing East,  
Conduct thy Muse unto that lofty pitch,  
Which may thy style with praises more enrich.  
They wash a More, they strive to dry the seas,  
And plain proud Atlas that intent to please,  
By filthy words, by railing and detraction,  
Proper to Momus, and his hateful faction:  
For when they think they have deserved most,  
Alas saith wisdom, all this toil is lost:  
But all this while I have forgot my text,  
I must remember now, what follows next:  
I have perused, thy learned nine and three,  
And scanned them in their natures and degrees:  
And to thy choice, Apology apply,  
This sudden tribute of my memory.  
And first for three, which Bartas wisely names  
The first of odds, which multiplied, frames  
The sacred number nine: Three doth include  
The name beloved by beatitude:  
Three doth express the link and union  
That knitteth one to two, and two in one:  
Three doth include his infinite in three,  
And is the step to immortality:  
Three hath his centre of the second one,  
His true beginning, and his end alone:  
The true Pythagorists, (as I have red)  
Do term the triangle, Minerva's head:  
And in their purifying bathing used,  
By three, to sprinkle water once infused:  
These three so famous, are the steps to nine  
Sacred unto the Muses most divine,  
This number in proportions musical  
Is dissonant: and Astrologians call  
The same Sinister for some secret work;  
Or hidden fate, that in the same doth lurk:  
Hesiodus in his Theogonie,  
Under Styx, nine fold stream doth signify,  
The discords, and complexions of man's body:  
Pierias Michael, if thou list to see,  
Will tell thee more, this shall suffice for me.  
Here must I needs abruptly make an end,  
Called to discourse with old Amintas friend,  
When he is gone, and I get time to wright:  
Thou shalt have more, till then sweet friend goodnight.    

In praise of his Mistress dog. Epistle. 6.  

MAdam, my Muse winged by your kind request,  
To praise a dog hath solemnly professed,  
And for reward, desires no further grace,  
Then for a night to grant me Pretties' place:  
Oh you high eyes the worth of my discourse,  
Secure my Muse to end her vowed course:  
Diviner Plato, first (under pretence  
To teach the soldier faith, and diligence)  
Compares him to a dog, that ceaseless keeps  
His master's tent, and chamber, when he sleeps:  
That howls when he is sick, that barks, & bites,  
When as accursed by wrongs, he eager fights:  
The Greeks, and Latins, loved these creatures so,  
That in their public sessions to and fro,  
They let them pass, where men of better sort,  
Were not permitted freely to resort:  
The ancient household Gods for ornament,  
Wore dogskins on their backs: to this intent,  
To signify that as the spaniel bay,  
When as the thief his master's door assays:  
So they, when dangers should the house attempt,  
Propitious, should pursuing plagues prevent.  
Them Cicero admired, them Egypt loved,  
And by their Hirogliphique sign approved.  
The dignity of perfect confidence,  
And courage scorning inconvenience:  
The Bactrians, and the Caspians, by their dombes,  
In life made them their mates: in death their tombs.  
Th' Egyptians, in their sacred letters place,  
A dog distraunged of his head, and face,  
Fore-tokning by the same obedience due,  
To loving masters, by their servants true:  
Nor can that feigned folly win regard,  
Wherein the former poets did award:  
Life-taming Aconite to Cerberus:  
Nor can the story of Heraclitus,  
Be held for true, whereby in spaniels scorn,  
'tis published, that he by them was torn.  
But of their faith, what stories cannot boast?  
Lysimachus, when as his life was lost;  
And funeral prepared, and hearse arrayed,  
And fair addressed, & friends with grief dismayed;  
Began to burn his corpse with many tears,  
His faithful dog that served him many years,  
In self same fire, that burned his kingly corpse,  
Consumed to dust, freely without enforce:  
Zantippus sailing from th' Athenian strand,  
Was followed by his faithful hound to land:  
And Philip's son (as Theopompe doth wright)  
In faithful Pertha took so great delight,  
That being dead, who gave him so much game,  
He built a town in honour of his name:  
The Ptamphuonians on the afric coast  
Do reverence the faithful spaniel most,  
And setting light by other living things,  
Midst them, elect and choose their crowned Kings.  
The stout venetians being in disgrace,  
With Clement Pope of Rome a certain space,  
By no submission, could remission gain,  
Till their Ambassadors tied in a chain  
Crept doglike under table, where he sat,  
And by this means their public pardon got:  
Nor is it womanish to aid, or help,  
To comb, to currle, to feed a pretty whelp,  
Since all the kings of Persia, where they eat,  
Play with their dogs, & kindly give them meat:  
Thus for your dog, my doggerel rhyme hath runnne  
no common course, wherein if I have done  
Aught pleasant to your ears, thank both your eyes,  
Which are the Load-stars of my poesies.    

The Anatomy of Alchemy. Epistle. 7.  

THou dost desire, (and hast deserved far more,)  
To gather my opinion in my Rhymes,  
In what regard I hold that hidden lore,  
Cleped Alchemy these latter times:  
To satisfy this expectation,  
Sweet friend conceive much matter, in few lines,  
This fruit of foolish innovation  
Is first condemned by deepest-red divines,  
Not as an art, but as the seal of shift,  
The persecution of nature's power,  
Divine in show, in proof, a subtle drift,  
To cousin slight-beleevers every hour:  
For if with jealous eyes we justly pry  
Into the scope, and issue of the same  
Nature, (the mistress of Philosophy)  
Is lost herein, and wanteth power, and name:  
The artists, and the practisers hereof  
Resemble Cacus creeping from his den,  
The common subjects of each public scof,  
The refuse race, of labour-tyred men.  
Their purpose is to drag out by the ears  
A quint-essence to fix and fashion gold.  
To clothe decrepit age with youthly years,  
To quicken plants by nature fruitless old,  
But all these promised mountains prove a mouse,  
These silly idiots ply the fire so fast;  
That suddenly they blow up man and house,  
And both their wealths, & wits, & fortunes waste:  
Yet these quark-saluers for a colour sake  
Pretend some physical experiments,  
And mighty cures with boldness undertake,  
But all their science is but compliments:  
They by their words enrich believing sots,  
Whereas in deed they empty all their chists,  
And where they promise gold, by glutting pots,  
They beg for groats, and part with empty fists:  
And as along the shores of Cicely,  
The Sirens charm by their enchanting notes  
The passengers to seek their jeopardy,  
So these by bootless hopes, do cut men's throats:  
So that this study, (as some writers deem)  
Is but a pleasing madness at the best,  
Drawn on by dreams, & thoughts of things which seem,  
Till richly left, be poorly dispossessed:  
The favourites of this too fond conceit,  
At last through loss of substance, and of time,  
Robbed, and bereft of rent, and old receipt,  
Are like a crazed clock, that cannot chime:  
Old, clotheless, meatles, smelling brimstone still,  
Besmeer'd with coaldust, from their furnace brought,  
Plagued with the palsy, (lechers common ill)  
By tempering of quicksilver quickly caught:  
Their riches are the droppings of their nose,  
Where else beside, the slaves are brought so low;  
That for three farthings they will beg, and gloze,  
And sell their souls, & teach what ere they know.  
In brief, when other subtle shifts do fail,  
They fall to coining, & from thence by course  
Through hempen windows learn to shake their tail,  
And love to die so, lest they live far worse.  
But soft sir swift (cries one) and puffs with ire,  
And calls me prating knave, that speak so large  
Of such a sacred thing, which (but the fire)  
Is compact quickly with a little charge:  
Yea, when the Grecian Calends come (quoth I)  
For why? Philosophy near knew this are,  
But some vain upstarts, (sons of subtlety,  
As Giberis, and witless Salesart,  
Bacam, and Hermes father of this fraud,  
Began the same in terms, and words obscure,  
(To studious of deceit and foolish laud,)  
Hoping by toys to make their craft endure:  
But let us mark their mysteries and spells  
Their vain Aenigmata and Problems dark.  
First ask they where the flying Eagle dwells,  
Next of the dancing fools, craft coining clerk,  
Then of the Lion green, and flying heart.  
Next of the Dragon, swallowing his tail,  
Then of the swelling toad, they prattle art,  
Next of more black, then black, they chose to rail,  
Then of the crows head, tell they weighty things,  
And strait of Hermes seal, they sighing speak,  
Some of their Lutum sapientiae sings,  
Thus on these toys, their bitter jests they break.  
Alas, alas, how vanity hath power  
To draw men's minds from virtue, under hope  
Of fading treasures? Danaas golden shower  
Doth ravish wits, and leads them from their scope:  
Yet unto Artists will I sing a saw,  
Perhaps may smell of art, though I have none,  
Wherein by reason's light, and nature's law,  
I'll dream of being, which they build upon,  
There is a thing in substance full complete,  
Not wholly earthly, nor inflamed too much,  
Not simply watery, though it water eat,  
Not sharpest, nor yet dullest in the touch,  
A quality light felt, and apt in curing,  
And somewhat soft, at least wise not too hard,  
Not bitter, but in taste some sweet procuring:  
Sweet smelling, much delighting man's regard.  
It seeds the ear, it amplifies the thought,  
Except to those that know it, it is nought,  
Briefly, sweet friend, I think of Alchemy,  
As erst Thucydides the learned clerk,  
Defynd a woman full of honesty:  
(In plain discourse, but not in riddles dark:)  
That woman (said the sage) is best of all,  
In whose dispraise, or praise, less speech is had,  
That Alchemy say I is best of all,  
Which few men's reasons can approve for bad:  
Thus much of Alchemy, and thus an end,  
Though thou commend not, friendly I commend.   
FINIS.