wits New dial: OR, A Schollers prise.  
Imprinted at London by W. W. for John brown.  
1604.   

 blazon or coat of arms   

TO THE RIGHT worshipful MY VERY GOOD Brother in Law Tho. Pelham, of Laughton in the county of Sussex Esquire, Iustice of the Peace, and one of his majesties Deputie-Leiutennants there: And to my dear Sister in Law mary Pelham his wife.  
YOu haue bound me so infinitely unto you( dear Brother and Sister) that I cannot( for shane) but make some means to pay part of the debt: That which I owe to your exceeding kindness towards me is very great: yet behold( presuming you will bear with my good will, at least with my ability) I lay down no more but this, which is very little: Such portion of wit as it is, I freely bestow vpon you. This infant of my brain was begot and delivered under your own roof; it is therefore fittest there to be nursed up: and for that purpose I send it to you both. My loving Sister hath been the mother of seven Children, and therefore knows the better how to handle this: I pray be neither of you cruel to it, for your good word, or good look, makes it prosper; a frown kills it. I give you many thankes for my entertainment at your house at Hawleland, where( at your cost) I spent almost a year, and at mine idle hours, drew this Picture of poesy. If the cullours be ill laid on, bear with them, for that I am but newly bound to the trade: yet not bound neither; for if you like not my workmanship, I will for ever give it over. Thus hoping you will receive this poor Gift with as free a hand as I sand it, I commend you to God. Hawleland this. 18. of October. 1604.  
Your most affectionate Brother in Law, Anthony shirley.   

wits new dial: OR, A Schollers prise.  

OF GOD.  

GOD the idea of all good proceedings,  
Is that aeternall-Dread Omnipotence,  
Who breathed heaven, Earth and Sea,  
and all their moouers:  
Who being made of None,  
gave all things sense.   

2  
Out of his wisedoms depth, he hath not granted  
To Man, the prescience of things to come:  
For then his prosperous state would beget Pride,  
And his adversity become his doom.   

3  
As it is merely an impossible task,  
With one and the same eye( just at one time)  
To behold heaven and Earth; so difficult,  
To embrace GOD, and the worlds golden slime.   

4  
As GOD is all of piety and pity,  
Of soft Compassion, and astonishing Grace:  
So wee are all of sin, and wilful Blood,  
That are of Adams Fruit-forbidden Race.   

5  
If swelled Ambition so puff up thy Spirit,  
That like those Giants thou wouldst ●li●e to heaven▪  
GOD will fly from thee, and pitch down thy Pride:  
But( being humble) with thy breast he's even.    

OF CHRIST.  

1  
CHRIST, that eternal Bishop of our souls,  
Who by prophetic Spirits was promised:  
By his dear Crimson-sweat vpon the cross,  
Our everlasting bliss hath purchased.   

2  
Christ's most triumphant Resurrection,  
Is( to the Dead) life; to the Saincts, high Glory;  
To Sinners, mercy: to all, happiness;  
saving to Death and Hell: they're onely sorry.   

3  
If the Sick-man, dream that the visible sun  
Is hidden or obscurde, it figures Death:  
So if by corrupt doctrine that sun CHRIST,  
Bee darkened, then it stiffles the souls breath.   

4  
As Christ ascended gloriously to heaven,  
up to his Fathers everlasting seat:  
So shall th'Elect ascend to Christ in State,  
And 'mongst the Court of Saincts be chosen great.   

5  
Christ is the life of Doctrine, who hath power  
To make Stones brea●he, and beleeue more then Iewes;  
Whose Fayths were far more flinty then a Tower  
Heawen out of rock, which moist in time may bruise.   

6  
His all amazing Miracles on earth,  
cleansing foul Lepers; dispossessing devils:  
Giuing them Eyes that never saw their birth:  
Christ that can heal all sins, did cure all evils.   

7  
His bitter Death, mingled with tears and gull,  
The violent Passion of each suffering vein,  
sweeting out Blood and Water; which did fall  
To wash our souls( and like a precious rain)   

8  
Makes our best partes spring up as high as heaven,  
Vpon Fayths milk-white three ever to flourish,  
Like fruits of blessedness, whose Roote was given  
From the blood-guiltie cross, which deere drops nourish.   

9  
Last his most wondrous-blest Ascension,  
The immortal Figure of our glorious Ryzing,  
struggling with Graues( like an eclipsed sun  
In war with darkness) to our new Baptizing.   

10  
When hoary sepulchres, and old stooping tombs,  
Shall start at the last sound, and shake in sunder▪  
The Dead arize out of their Marble wombs,  
Burst with the horror of all-Frighting-thunder.    

OF THE HOLY GHOST.  

1  
THou Holy-Bright and Comfortable Ghost,  
Not daunting our weak Flesh, but with salvation  
Gladding our ransomde souls, which once were lost  
'mongst floods of sin; Redeemd with trickling Passion.   

2  
Bee nearer to my Heart, then the life strings,  
Whereby it neatly hangs by Art above.  
sweep ore my brains with thy white prosperous Wings  
And on my Pen sit like a virgin Done,   

3  
Thou Godfather of souls, that giv'st us Names,  
At the pure Font in heaven, when we aspire,  
To be all rebaptized in Glad-flames:  
Thou our eternal Portion and Desire.   

4  
The Holy Ghost is our celestial Guide,  
To Gods Elect continual comfort bringing:  
That through their souls abundant joys may flow,  
Still with the choir of blissful Angels singing.   

5  
His white and comfortable Spirit of truth  
Doth ever grant to such his help and Grace,  
That haue soft penitent breasts to rue their sins,  
And well repent in virtuous time and space.   

5  
From his full-flowing pity always springs  
The fountain of true heavenly joys above:  
he is the whole worlds blessed Comforter,  
The onely God of Peace, of truth, and love,   

7  
Come Holy Ghost into our labouring Hearts,  
And purge our souls from foul infections sin,  
That thy good Spirit in place therefore may dwell,  
And daily let celestial Graces in.    

OF ANGELS.  

1  
ANgels rightly to define,  
They spring from Heauens sacred line:  
They are the Messengers divine,  
Our souls with bliss they all combine.   

2  
Of Angels are nine Orders,  
Nine ministers of Grace:  
Aeternities rich Borders,  
Which shine in every place.   

3  
Angels, Archangels, virtues powers,  
Principalities and Cherubins:  
With which these three are ever matched  
Dominations, Thrones, and Seraphins.   

4  
Angels are Tutors to the Sainctes,  
Heauens Herauldes, Gardiants of each soul:  
They receive up our true complaints,  
And all our virtues they enroule.   

5  
They haue the charge men to conduct,  
Grace to preserve believing spirits,  
And wisdom all hartes to instruct,  
Building up souls through righteous Merits.   

6  
heaven is the Angels habitation,  
Their eyes are fixed vpon Gods majesty,  
They were the first that had the blessed Creation,  
Their voices tune celestial harmony.    

OE HEAVEN.  

1  
heaven is that Holy land,  
To which the blessed pilgrims travell:  
Where milk-white cities stand,  
And Rubies strewde as thick as gravel.   

2  
Seelinges of Diamondes, walls of Amber:  
Portals of Currall, sapphire Flooers:  
Such glories shine in Heauens star-chamber,  
Gates of Gold, and pearly Bowers.   

3  
heaven is majesties true seat,  
It is the angels dwelling,  
It is the faithfuls place of rest:  
Tis glorious beyond telling.   

4  
heaven is the Iudges purple throne,  
The fullness of delight,  
The souls eternal mansion,  
Where joys are still in sight.   

5  
As Hell is black and horrid,  
stuffed with the fumes and stink of devils,  
So heaven has a bright fore-head,  
Where all things shine, save onely evils,   

6  
Nor ear, nor eye, nor any mortal voice,  
Hath heard, hath seen, or can express Heauens joys.  
And to conclude there is such depth in height,  
The more I writ, the more I haue to writ.    

OF wisdom.  

1  
THis is a virtue general,  
All virtues bow at wisedoms call:  
It learns to rise by others fall,  
For he that's truly Wise: is all.   

2  
He that conquers appetite,  
Is sure to win, how ere he fight:  
For tis the greatest victory that ere shone.  
With wisdom to beate down affection.   

3  
Who without wisdom enjoys Gold,  
Will prove a beggar ere he behalf old:  
For tis a curse imposed on gulls,  
To waste their coin on Chea●e● 〈◇〉 T●ulles.   

4  
wisdom is that glorious olive,  
That springeth from a Souldiers hart,  
Bloomes on his tongue, checking his wrath,  
And beareth fruit in every part.   

5  
wisdom was by Nature got,  
And by Experience nourished,  
Brought forth by Learning( being her lot)  
And by the milk of Reading fed.   

6  
To be secret to thyself,  
Is chief ground in wisedoms school,  
For that great States-man headlong falls,  
That trustes a Wise man, or his fool.    

OF TRVETH.  

1  
truth is the true revealer,  
The eternal crown of Bliffe:  
No false and bribd Concealer  
Of Actions done▪ amiss.   

2  
Time and truth embraces,  
They never hid their faces:  
truth and Time do bring to light  
murders done at dead of night.   

3  
truth is a Flower that never dieth,  
A resolute soldier that ne're flieth:  
A perfect judge that truly trieth,  
And Rich mens golden Fists th.   

4  
Tru●th scales the Battlements of heaven,  
Ill●mineth the shadowed Earth:  
discovers secrets, kills disdain,  
And governs every mortal birth.   

5  
truth feareth nothing more then Corners,  
Shee knows her soul cannot be blamde:  
No Treasons dwell about her breast,  
Tho naked, shee is ne're asham'de.   

6  
truth is an honest cause,  
And spurnes corrupted laws▪  
Shee makes no toilsome weary journeys  
up and down to see attorneys.    

OF PRAYER.  

1  
PRAYER( as divines define it)  
Is talk with GOD; and Intercession  
To his all pitying excellence,  
For each intemperate foul transgression.   

2  
Prayer is the Incense of a sorrowing soul▪  
It is the Oblation of a penitent Blood:  
The Holy Ghost which is our daily bread▪  
Wee beg in Prayer, our true food.   

3  
Prayer is the swiftest and the silver wing  
On which our souls do fly,  
even to the Court of heauens eternal King:  
Prayer brings us to Gods majesty.   

4  
Prayer doth kindle fervent zeal,  
foul sins, Plague-sores, Prayer doth heal:  
'gainst infernal Spirits it warreth,  
And Hells insurrection barreth.   

5  
Prayer engendereth Confidence,  
And Confidence engendereth Peace:  
It makes a tranquil Conscience,  
For Prayer bids all Troubles cease.   

6  
When Prayer ascends,  
Then heaven downe-bendes:  
What makes amendes,  
But Godly ends?    

OF THE SOVLE.  

1  
THe soul is an invisible power,  
Yet more solid then a Tower:  
Essence immortal, near resembling  
Her Creator; onely trembling.   

2  
The Greatest thing of all,  
In little room contained,  
Is the soul within a Man,  
By heaven and virtue gained.   

3  
An undefiled soul, is heaven;  
Her understanding, is the sun:  
Her faith the moon, her virtues stars:  
And in this course her Glories run.   

4  
Each soul, is or the Spouse of Christ,  
Or the adulteress of the devill:  
Through sanctify shee towers aloft:  
But sinks to Hell through deadly evil▪   

5  
All souls that are, spring from immortal line,  
But just mens are immortal and divine:  
Th'others di● and damme: but after death,  
Theirs change for better and far purer breath.   

6  
By what name canst thou call a soul  
( Than God) in a mans body dwelling?  
It is a holy wondrous C●arme,  
All vicious thoughts and actions quelling.    

OF CONCSIENCE.  

1  
COnscience is to the Wicked an Accuser▪  
A judge, a Hangman, and a Rope:  
But to the Godly, a celestial chooser,  
An aid, a comfort, and a Hope.   

2  
Hell is hung with guilty Consciences,  
It is the onely paint of black offences▪  
And this firm line in brazen leaves enroule,  
The Conscience is the Hell, that dams the soul.   

3  
The Conscience of many are seard up  
With a hot Iron, void from feeling sin:  
Yet at the hour of death, their rent and started,  
When thousand horrors the soul circles in.   

4  
Onely those men haue wounds incurable,  
Whose Consciences are wounded;  
And are not touched with a Repentant spirit.  
But their sins deeply grounded.   

5  
A wicked Conscience dogges her Maisters heels,  
And all Hells torments sensibly it feels:  
And all the ougly-damned furies  
Is a sudden Conscienc●-Iuries.   

6  
Woe to those that boil their souls  
In golden Cauldrons: that wear palms,  
Yellow with Bribes, win devils goals,  
And sooner will give stripes, then alms.    

OF LOVE.  

1  
LOVE is a hony-Poyson,  
That spreadeth through each vein:  
It disinherites Reason,  
And wounds the purer brain.   

2  
love is an herb that( in the dials sown)  
Doth all the members mortify:  
A Plague that being through Melancholy grown,  
Doth kill the Hart. and dim the Eye.   

3  
love is Desires unreasonable excess,  
Which in a minute springs:  
But not so soon departs, unless  
With loss of greater things.   

4  
The Counterfeit of love was drawn  
Vpon the left side with a feather,  
Tickling Youth: and on the right  
A Scorpion pricked his veins together.   

5  
All Contraries are bread in love,  
It is a bitter sweet; could heat:  
A pleasant pain, these, Louers prove,  
Who starve most, seeming most to eat.   

6  
love is bread by Desire,  
Tis nursed up with Fire:  
Tis weand by unkindness,  
And sees best in blindness.    

OF HOPE.  

1  
HOPE is salvations niece,  
Tis Heauens best Maister-peece:  
The eternal Ground of heavenly Grace,  
And sure remove to a brighter Place.   

2  
The God of fools is Hope,  
The Merchants conservation:  
The Souldiers pay, the usurers Rope:  
The Ambitious mans Damnation.   

3  
Hope of life is vanity,  
Hope in death is treasury:  
Hope in Christ is victory:  
Such Hope ends all misery.   

4  
Hope is a passion,  
But of all the sweetest:  
Not made for fashion,  
But for good souls meetest.   

5  
Against all Hope to Hope,  
That's excellence in dead:  
A mighty Resolution,  
To smile, although he bleed.   

6  
As in a little place is laid  
Great Treasures preservation:  
So in the storehouse of small Hope,  
A boundless expectation.    

OF charity.  

1  
charity is th' indissoluble band  
Twixt God and us, whereby we are inflamed  
With the dear love of him and his command:  
And( for that) Christians we are rightly name.   

2  
charity is in adverse state  
Patient; in prosperous temperate:  
In Passions strong, in good works ever quick,  
Whose alms are full: whose bounty's never sick.   

3  
In midst of injuries secure,  
For much Wrong charity can endure:  
At others sorrows sorrowing,  
Lending more, then borrowing.   

4  
Who dwells ●n charity, doth dwell in heaven,  
And giuing much, to him is much more given:  
But the most filthy effects of bribery,  
poison the fritefull works of charity.   

5  
The Charitable pitying spirit,  
Shall both in earth and heaven inherit:  
he is the beggars prayer, the Souldiers Blood,  
The Prisoners life, and the worlds general good.   

6  
As a body without soul  
enjoys no life, or being:  
So virtues without charity▪  
Haue not their true agreeing.    

OF KNOWLEDGE.  

1  
KNowledge is that Intellect  
We haue of our Creator,  
And of his works that dear respect,  
above our base Nature.   

2  
It is the Storehouse of true Wit,  
The entrance of salvation:  
Wee differ from all beasts by it,  
It is our Confirmation.   

3  
These covetous Desires from Knowledge flow,  
The more we know, the more we wish to know:  
But this the chiefest Knowledge call,  
To Know thyself, then knowst thou all.   

4  
Iron in war  
Is preferred far  
Before bright Gold: so in mans health,  
Knowledge exceeds the bounds of Wealth.   

5  
As men in nothing differ more from Gods  
Then when they are leaden-conseyted fools:  
ce'n so in nothing they draw nearer them,  
Then when they are built up in learned schools.   

6  
As out of Flowers Bees suck Hony,  
As out of Clyants Lawyers Money:  
So out of Science Knowledge should be sucked,  
And out of Reading, virtue should be plucked.    

OF goodness.  

1  
goodness is that which in itself concludes,  
A dignity, that savoureth all of heaven:  
Of Gods true virtue, and miraculous work,  
To whom a power substantially is given.   

2  
Riches may rot, coin moulder;  
prosperity alter course,  
goodness will never look oulder:  
For how can Good be worse?   

3  
goodness is threefold, to three things  
It hath Relation: first the goods of mind,  
The goods of Body, and the goods of Fortune:  
The first goes strait, the two last limpe behind.   

4  
But this I wish the world to cote  
As an especial pleasing Note,  
The goodness from an Ignorant man flowing,  
Is like faire herbs vpon a Dunghill growing.   

5  
A Good-mans wish is substance, faith, and famed▪  
Glory and Grace, concording with the same:  
The Great-men are not always found the best▪  
But he that's Good, is always worthiest.   

6  
he that doth Good, is better then the Good  
which he doth do: and he that worketh evil,  
Is ten times worse then his base poisonous blood;  
But tis Decreed, some slaves shall match the devill.    

OF HVMILITIE.  

1  
THe Humble-Vertue b'oue all others,  
Is the nearest kin to bliss:  
The blessed Saincts are her own Brothers,  
Making men and Angels kiss▪   

2  
he that without a Lowly Spirit  
Other virtues seeks to find,  
His labour can not win him merit,  
He bears but Dust against the wind.   

3  
Wouldst thou know what man is happy?  
Hence true happiness doth flow,  
That man whose Birth is nobly great,  
And whose Spirit's meek and Low.   

4  
Tis a virtue of small price,  
In adverse Fortune to be Lowly:  
But who in prosperous state is Humble▪  
he possesseth meekness wholly.   

5  
It makes Men look like Gods,  
And represent their Maker:  
The precious soul of happiness,  
To soft breasts doth betake her.   

6  
Humilitis of mind,  
stirs up Affections heat:  
For he that's truly kind,  
Must needs be truly great,    

OF PATIENCE.  

1  
PAtience and humility  
Are Twins together born:  
The first susteynes all injury,  
The last no state doth scorn.   

2  
The conqueror wins Castles, towns  
And cities, with her power:  
But Patience, which nere quakes at frowns▪  
Ore'coms the conqueror.   

3  
Patience is the Beggars wealth,  
Patience is the Sickmans health:  
The Prisoners walk,  
The Dum mans talk.   

4  
Patience makes the bondslave think  
His Iron truss all beaten Gold:  
And that one day he shall rise,  
The he be for ever sold.   

5  
The sweetest salve for misery,  
Is a gentle breast:  
The onely wealth to poverty,  
Is Content and rest.   

6  
The stock of Patient mindes  
Cannot be poor:  
What it desires, it finds,  
What Emperour more?    

OF COMFORT.  

1  
COmfort is the calm of Troubles,  
Making Wooes to seem but Bubbles:  
The soul of quiet,  
The Hartes chief diet.   

2  
Comfore in this makes our Hopes strong,  
That violent griefs do nere last long:  
Tempests roar but for a season,  
Time and Tru●h discover Treason.   

3  
Comfort is next friend to Pleasure,  
T'is our onely inward treasure▪  
The stoutest enemy 'gainst Care,  
And Resolutions valiant heir.   

4  
In midst of all thy Cares,  
That hunt away dispayres:  
Hard Marble with soft drops is wounded,  
So thy griefs in time are bounded.   

5  
Wooes may be mollifyed, strait states may slack,  
And heavy Burdens but e'en touch the back:  
And let this thy comfort bee,  
That greater men haue griefs like thee.   

6  
Let not the loss of Children move thee,  
Be not aeffaeminate in thine eye:  
For tho thou loust them, and they love thee,  
Thou didst beget them but to die.    

OF OBEDIENCE.  

1  
unto Obedience virtue tendeth,  
Shee all f●tt Actions comprehendeth:  
pays to every one their due;  
Obedience is Religions glue.   

2  
That above all other Climates,  
Is a happy commonweal:  
Where Subiectes do obey their Primates,  
And Magistrates with mercy deal.   

3  
Obedience is Deuotions Badge,  
Tis Contemplations seal:  
The onely true physician  
Rebellions sores to heal.   

4  
he that knows how to govern well,  
knows how to be obayde:  
But he that gives licentious means,  
His state is soon decayed.   

5  
This is a note infallible,  
A certain precious observations  
Who disobeys his Sire, his Children  
Will use his Age in such a fashion.   

6  
Those Maisters always prove the best,  
That haue obeyed well each behest  
When they were seruants, onely this is common,  
None better serves, and rules worse then a woman.    

OF choice.  

1  
choice is the noblest part of mind,  
If it be joined with Reason:  
For then it best knows how to find,  
And chooseth all in season.   

2  
To choose a Wife, bee this your book;  
An honest eye, a virtuous look:  
A modest brow, a silent tongue,  
A rare Wife this, if she be young.   

3  
If thy Eye choose, the pleasure's short:  
If thy Will, the end is woe▪  
If Reason choose, that bears a port,  
Be ruled by me, and choose one so.   

4  
beauty dieth,  
Riches flieth:  
friends their friendships may disseuer;  
Choose a Wise soul, sheele fail thee never.   

5  
Choose thy Friend not by his Oaths,  
But by his simplo breast:  
For he that boasts, his faith proves false,  
The Calmest men are best.   

6  
he that an Apple chooseth by the skin,  
And Women by no other,  
May haue a rotten bit in one,  
And a French Core in tother.    

OF religion.  

1  
religion is the seal of heaven,  
And the white robe of bliss:  
The handmaid of salvation,  
Aeternities blessed kiss.   

2  
Tis Law within us,  
Doth greatly win us:  
And with faire means doth never rest,  
until she make us amply blessed.   

3  
religion is Heauens touchstone,  
It banisheth all terrors,  
And with a righteous try all,  
Discerneth truth from Errors.   

4  
It is the martyrs Chronicle,  
Of all things that are acted well:  
Sooner the World shall melt( which mischief craves)  
Then Righteous deeds be muffled up in Graues.   

5  
religion still divining,  
above all virtues shining,  
Is that Via Lactea,  
That leads to the bright lamp of Day.   

6  
Religion is that dove,  
Made all of simplo love,  
Which on our souls sits moving,  
All blessed deeds approving.    

OF CONSTANCY.  

1  
firm Constancy is the mindes strength,  
immovable and fair,  
Not puffed up with prosperous Gale,  
Nor moude with adverse air.   

2  
This virtue in a Woman were most rare,  
Whose thoughts being governed by the moon,  
seems in the morning coy and chased;  
But prostituted thrice ere noon.   

3  
O twere her sexes jewel,  
Her pride, her heaven, her soul,  
For then so many lustful bulks,  
Should not their breasts control.   

4  
If wives would put on Constancy,  
bawds would starve, and panders die:  
sons and Heires would keep their acres,  
And Brewers sons not out-drinke Bakers.   

5  
A constant spirit,  
Doth long inherit,  
His bliss is ever,  
His hope dyes never.   

6  
Were Virgins Constant, and their own,  
They were like holy lands unknown,  
save to their Husbands: but such Constant Women  
Tis hard to find: others more thick then Yeomen.    

OF chastity.  

1  
chastity is the souls beauty,  
The purity of life:  
In these two she frames her duty,  
A Virgin or chast Wife.   

2  
Her Desires are all vnflesht,  
In love, shee loues most purely:  
Shee not dissembles her affects,  
Like Puritans demurely.   

3  
Her body's not unclean,  
She makes not Gulls look lean,  
Like an vnoffic'de dean,  
That has nor brain, nor mean.   

4  
chastity and humility  
Must needs be each the others foe:  
For if they were not contrary,  
Then Chastuie must needs lye low.   

5  
It is the stamp of lively Grace  
Vpon the mind, not on the face:  
Deuotions crown,  
A maids renown.   

6  
The first degree to chastity,  
Is spotless pure virginity:  
The second faithful matrimony,  
But chiefest mute affinity.    

OF wit.  

1  
wit is the first part of the soul,  
Wherein the Mind's contained:  
Most needful for Direction  
Of virtuous deeds vnstayned▪   

2  
There are three things  
From whence wit spinges:  
The first is Answering, next invention,  
The last is best, quick Apprehension.   

3  
Nothing more smooth then glass,  
Nothing more brickle:  
Nothing more fine then wit,  
Nothing more fickle.   

4  
Wine is wits chie●e whetting-stone,  
But if't be often set thereon,  
Twill quickly grind away the steel,  
And make your head as wise as your heel.   

5  
As 'gainst the stream the Sea-crab swims  
With her straggling shelly lims:  
So hasty wit and desperate Will,  
strive against wisdoms current still.   

6  
wit in a Woman is like oil  
Put in a burning flamme,  
It either kindles vehemently,  
Or puts the blaze to shane.    

OF LEARNING.  

1  
LEarning is the knowledge,  
Of Science and of Artes,  
And the celestial college,  
For the diviner partes,   

2  
Shee's virtues sacred Mother,  
niece unto good perfection,  
High Iudgement is her brother,  
Which makes the best Election.   

3  
Learning is old Ages comfort,  
The Temperance of Youth,  
Standing for wealth in poverty,  
The ornament of Truth.   

4  
Bee amongst young folkes chased and sober,  
That they may learn of thee, O precious Iem,  
And amongst old folkes diligent,  
That thou mayest learn more Art from them.   

5  
Learning is the sap of life,  
Learning is Religions jewel,  
It has the power to end all strife,  
And work mild blood in bosoms cruel.   

6  
Learning the Souldiers armor is,  
The Schollers happiness and bliss,  
None hates it but those common harmers,  
Catchpoles, usurers, fools and Farmers.    

OF virtue.  

1  
virtue is lifes best proportion,  
In all poyntes agreeable to reason,  
Tis the eternity in man,  
The Salt that keeps the soul in season.   

2  
Vertue goes not by the birth,  
Nor by the yeares discretion,  
For there are old white-bearded fools,  
And wise of young profession.   

3  
There are two sorts of virtuous partes,  
As writers do define,  
The one is of the worldlings known,  
The other is divine.   

4  
True Vertue is immortal,  
Possessing endless wealth,  
The onely perfect counselor,  
And Minister of health.   

5  
virtue and Knowledge are the steps,  
Whereby we climb to heaven,  
Which takes away all humane lets,  
And makes our paths seem even.   

6  
Vertue is the queen of labours,  
Opinion mistress of all fools,  
Vanity the pride of nature,  
Contention overthrow of schools.    

OF kings.  

1  
kings are the supreme Gouernours  
And Rulers over States:  
Placed by the Almighties hand,  
And luckines of Fates.   

2  
kings do seldom live exempt  
Of Flatterers to seduce them:  
Ambition to deprave their bloodes,  
And Appetites to abuse them.   

3  
A good King ruleth as he ought,  
A Tyrant as he will:  
The first his peoples wealth hath sought,  
The other all doth spill.   

4  
The universal fruitful school,  
Where happiness doth spring.  
Is the Person, House, and Court,  
Of a most peaceful King.   

5  
firm Subiectes are unto their King.  
As wind is to a flamme:  
For the more strength the wind doth fling,  
The greater is the same.   

6  
The greater that a Prince is pla●st  
In dignity b'oue other,  
The more he ought t'excell in Grace,  
His life should haue no Brother.    

OF gladness.  

1  
gladness is called that Delight,  
Which tickles our sweet Appetite:  
But not abiding,  
Quickly sliding.   

2  
No sooner doth it come, but passes,  
leaving the Sences, traunc'de like Asses:  
For learn this in wisedoms school,  
Laughter is but gladness fool.   

3  
Our pleasures are inducers to our woe,  
Oft hath a tragic entrance, happy end:  
gladness with grief continually doth flow,  
Great Mirths vpon great Miserles attend.   

4  
Immoderate Desires, Delights, and Truls,  
Haue made, do make, and will make many Gul●▪  
And( amongst modest virtues) pleasure  
Is like a thief amid great treasure.   

5  
Exceeding laughter in a virtuous face,  
shows like a Harlot in an honest place:  
It bears the like apparance, form, and hue,  
As if a bawd should sit in a Church Pew.   

6  
Disordinate Laughter bates the breath,  
And violent Pleasures beget death:  
And truly to define fond Laughter,  
I● is Follies eldest Daughter.    

OF liberty.  

1  
DEere liberty is that free happiness,  
Which brings the soul to her contented Rest,  
After the weary pilgrimage of flesh,  
When the divine part struggles to be blessed.   

2  
That's the true liberty; the earthly one,  
Though liberty, tis Bondage still:  
For what's the World, but a greater Prison,  
And wee the bondslaves to our will.   

3  
he is onely the true Free-man,  
Whose prenticeship is out with sin:  
That serves no looseness, no desire:  
To set up shop let him begin.   

4  
me thinks tis better wear a broad  
Hempen Garter, being no debtor,  
Then in a common loathsome jail  
mock thy lancke calf with golden Fetter.   

5  
liberty in the mind is bounty,  
In the Tongue mere Folly:  
It breeds excess of senseless words,  
As bondage, Melancholy.   

6  
Tis better miserable to die,  
being in perfect liberty,  
Then to live a prodigal slave,  
And make a Prison hole thy grave.    

OF memory.  

1  
THe Heartes own privy Key,  
I will call good memory:  
It keeps all close, and opens all,  
That security cannot slip or fall.   

2  
Tis Mother to the Muses,  
Turns thoughts to their best uses:  
Tis wisedoms light,  
And the blinds sight.   

3  
The memory of man,  
Is like a curious Net,  
The small things it lets slip,  
But greater things doth get.   

4  
The mind's a smooth fair Table,  
On which doth memory writ  
The occurrents of mans dealings,  
With streaks of black or white.   

5  
blessed memory tempers all States,  
It is the souls white wonder:  
It delights Age with long-past Fates,  
keeps riotous Youth much under.   

6  
memory is an angel,  
And memory is a devill▪  
The Register of happiness,  
And Chronicle of evil.    

OF PEACE.  

1  
PEace is the kingdoms Quiet,  
Tis Tumults onely grave:  
It buries all Seditions,  
And leads war like a slave.   

2  
Ease▪ quietness, security,  
These are her Handmaydes three:  
Their Ornaments made of the Spring,  
Lac'st all with unity.   

3  
Peace endeth war,  
Honor's the ioy of Peace:  
And the onely scar  
On Concords breast, is Ease.   

4  
Peace begets plenty, plenty Sloth;  
Sloth drunkenness and riot:  
And those two Vices beget oath:  
Thus Wrath springs out of Quiet.   

5  
From Concord all things flow,  
By Concord all things grow:  
Yet Lust is Concords lazy Ingle,  
And all things waste, when those two mingle.   

6  
How all things under sun  
do in their Circles run!  
Then with these words I aptly cease,  
Peace begets war, war begets Peace.    

OF war.  

1  
war is a dreadful Monster, and is born,  
With two strange heads: that head which frights a city  
Is civil: cities yet by it are torn:  
The wandring head is ghastly too: scorns pity.   

2  
That civil fiend of war, Serpent-like creeps  
Into a kingdoms hart, and sucks the blood:  
That rough out-landish divell, when ere he sleeps,  
Kills most: turns Seas into a crimson flood.   

3  
war thats made even, stands  
Vpon two pillars: It has two faire hands,  
To hold it up first, then to fight:  
The one Religion, to'thers Kingly-right.   

4  
With Snayle-like slowness, war we should beg●n,  
But when the Sword is drawn( that Death steps in)  
Let Vengeance then fly vpon Swallow-winges,  
For lingering battles shake the Thrones of kings,   

5  
war is Gods Whip, wherewith he beats  
unruly Nations; Warres are but his threats:  
But when his three Rods walk, kingdoms take heed,  
he draws blood then, then is he vexed in deed.   

6  
The Children war begets, haue bloody looks,  
And these are they; Rapes, Murders, Violence:  
Their hands are bars of Iron, their fingers hooks,  
They Strike down Law, and tread down Innocence.   

7  
Loose not the blood of men to win that hold,  
At which an ass may enter trapped in Gold:  
Because a Souldiers glory shines as bright,  
In politic conquest, as in bloody fight.    

OF CRVELTIE.  

1  
THe cruel man is cursed from heaven,  
And on his brow doth bear  
A mark, because where mercy dwells,  
No cruelty comes there.   

2  
Where laws are broken, there the good  
feel wrong, unless the bad loose blood,  
For to spare all, is: cruelty alike,  
As to spare none: kings must both hold and strike.   

3  
To pardon many for th'offence of one,  
Tis godly pity, rare Compassion:  
But for ones fall, numbers to spill,  
That part's a tirant's, Butchers so do kill.   

4  
Sorrow is lifes sworn enemy,  
he that keeps Sorrow cumpanie,  
Offers his own heart cruelty,  
And kills his own self certainly.   

5  
It's safer for a cruel Prince to floor  
His land with Gold, and leave his palace poor,  
Than t'haue his Courtiers onely shine,  
Whilst all his other Subiectes pine.   

6  
The man can nere be bad, whose breast  
wears pities goodly jewel:  
The woman nere be chast, whose eyes  
Take glory to be cruel.   

7  
I near saw cruel soldier yet, but fell,  
Much in Heauens danger: bloody hearts are like  
recoiling sword which at ston walls do strike,  
And kill the wonder: cruelty reigns in Hell.    

OF fellowship.  

1  
TRue fellowship is a golden chain, that ties  
Two souls in one; the links that fasten it,  
Are likeness both of body, mind, and yeares,  
And so conioynd, it never can unknit.   

2  
friends( after weary absence) meeting,  
Are like the sad Earth and the young Spring greeting:  
The sun the Spring, the Spring the Earth does cheer:  
So partend love, is( when it meets) most deere.   

3  
The love, which man unto a woman bears,  
Fades as shee fades; dyes as shee grows in yeares:  
But love of men to men( like gold) shines bright,  
When tis most old: such love is infinite.   

4  
To bee his friend, whose board is crowned with Plate,  
Whose bags with Gold, whose voice does sway a State,  
Is but a painted friend: onely he's good,  
That manfully 'gainst Fortunes storms hath stood.   

5  
Try a sworn Friend, as workmen try their Gold,  
esteem him precious, if the I est he hold:  
But if he alter culler( feeling heat)  
Let rust vpon his borrowed brightness eat.   

6  
The Glow-woorme shines in darkness like to Fire,  
But to a frozen hand no heat she lends:  
So some men their protesting friends admire,  
But when storms fall, they shrink, their friendship ends.   

7  
friends( as musicans use to tune their strings)  
Must not be broken in pieces if they jar,  
But gently handled; for the Concord springs  
From Discord, Discord yet doth music mar.    

OF CVRTEZIE.  

1  
THe soul hath virtues drawn like lines unto it,  
Amongst which number courtesy is one:  
When Rage grows strong, this virtue does undo it,  
What wrongs so ere are done, she writes down none.   

2  
As Trees by fruits are known,  
As Gold by th'touch is tried,  
As bells by sound: so noble breasts,  
Cannot this jewel hid.   

3  
That Field is nobly won,  
That's without blood: and he  
Conquers foes bravely, that can tame  
Their heartes by courtesy.   

4  
courtesy like a silken cloud,  
Hides faults, and covers dangers:  
It makes old friends to stand more firm,  
It draws new love from Strangers.   

5  
As Lute-stringes by a wooden pin,  
Are straind and stretched so high,  
Till they sound sweetly; so the heart,  
Is tunde by courtesy.   

6  
When courtesy and mildness meet,  
( Being badges of a soul that's white)  
They make a harmony most sweet;  
The guyltie man finds mercy, Innocence right.   

7  
As tis the nature of the suins bright beams,  
To throw his golden fires through all the world:  
So from a King Compassion should be hurled,  
To light on all, and spread in several streams.    

OF nobility.  

1  
NObilitie's a glittering honor,  
Which cometh from an ancient live:  
It is Posterities rich Banner,  
It makes men even in earth divine.   

2  
nobility must be mayntaind  
By that it first did rize:  
With war, the Acts of Fortitude,  
And valiant enterprise.   

3  
nobility should be liberal,  
And courteous to the good:  
endued with virtuous qualities,  
And of the rarer blood.   

4  
To come of Noble Parentage,  
And bear no Noble story,  
Is rather Defamation,  
Then dignity or Glory.   

5  
The truest of nobility,  
Consists not of Possessions,  
Of lands revenues, coin, or Cloths:  
But of the best Professions.   

6  
How ever men rise in degree,  
Let them be lowly minded:  
For their humility may raise them,  
Although their 'haps be blinded.    

OF policy.  

1  
policy is a sure stead  
To Valour, in the Warres;  
It bringeth battles to good end,  
That else would cause more jars.   

2  
Where kingdoms are well governed,  
There followeth good success:  
But policy not regarded,  
There's all unhappiness.   

3  
The meanest Sparrow hath his Neb,  
The Lions whelp his Claw:  
The weakest thorn his prickle hath,  
The poorest man his Law.   

4  
policy is the heart of State,  
The life of every realm:  
Tis pieces robe of excellence,  
And the wise Souldiers helm.   

5  
he that Conquers much, does much;  
But he that keeps, does more:  
For policy is such a power,  
Whom Foes do ce'n adore,   

6  
That country may above all other,  
Be counted happy, rich, and blessed,  
Where every one enjoys his labour,  
And by no Ruinous means oppressed.    

OF COVRAGE.  

1  
COurage is a fiery Humour,  
Kindling the Ambitious mind  
With forwardness in bold attempts:  
Which scorns to place itself behind.   

2  
Courage begun with constancy,  
Doth seld or never fail,  
To achieve attempts most manfully,  
If Weapons do not quail.   

3  
Courage will rather choose to die,  
Then live in captives thrall:  
And from his enemy will not fly,  
Nor yield no whit at all.   

4  
Courage is a coat of arms,  
cowardice badge of fools:  
Courage scapes all hurtful harms,  
When cowardice sneakes in schools.   

5  
Courage is the first blossom  
Springing from a Noble spirit:  
Resolution is her guider,  
Winning all by Valorous merit.   

6  
Men of haughty blood and name,  
Rather seek long-lasting famed,  
Then in foolish base-borne strife,  
To preserve short-lasting life,    

OF famed.  

1  
famed is but an echo,  
An Ide fashionde Rumour,  
Which runneth far from ear to ear,  
bread of santasticke humour.   

2  
famed is friend unto the good,  
And enemy to the bad:  
For shee doth brute their acts abroad,  
Wherein their fames are clad.   

3  
Time is Fames most enemy,  
Who doth procure her death,  
And weareth out her memory,  
And stops her spreading breath.   

4  
A slaunder's sometimes sent abroad,  
It being falsely raised:  
But after time doth truth afford,  
The parti's thereby praised.   

5  
famed that's got by honesty,  
Is much to be esteemed:  
But that which comes by infamy,  
Is not to be redeemde.   

6  
famed ryses like a Bubble,  
It brings both ioy and trouble:  
The readiest path to a good name,  
Is a good life, thence springs no shane.    

OFFICE, or DVETIE.  

1  
OFfice( or duty) rightly to define,  
Is first a knowledge of mans self: and then,  
A Contemplation of the power divine:  
Next, love to help ourselves and other men.   

2  
To know ourselves, is to know God: dispute  
No further then: virtue herself doth aim  
To hit that mark: for he that's destitute,  
Of that selfe-knowledge, gives his soul a maim.   

3  
Office grows strong by zeal, zeal fortifies.  
Opinion and our holy thoughts so well,  
That tho the World and Hell, in arms do rise,  
Opinion yet, is found invincible.   

4  
If good and worthy Officers you'll choose,  
Let them be be old in yeeres, and grave in looks:  
Cunning in laws; but not in laws abuse,  
Because their actions are the peoples books.   

5  
Let none bear sway, that buys that Sway with Gold,  
They for Authority that dearly pay,  
retailing it, must haue it dearer sold:  
Thus moneyed fools carry the World away.   

6  
They which sell Offices, sell even the laws,  
Sell Iustice, Subiectes, and the Common wealth:  
every such buyer, Curses on him draws:  
every such Seller's gains is worse than stealth.   

7  
The Drum, the Trumpet, and the Canons roaring,  
The cries of old and yong-men drowned in blood:  
The widows wailing, and the wives deploring,  
Should near be heard, were Officers but good.    

OF labour.  

1  
LATOR is the Mindesfood, the bodies strengthener,  
Of Youth the lyfe-blood, and of Age the lengthner:  
Of Art, the Mistris▪ over love the master:  
virtues increaser, and of 'vice the waster.   

2  
labour's a burden, yet as men do sing,  
In digging Mynes( because they hope for treasure)  
So tis at last no toil, but rest doth bring:  
For labour turns by practise, to a pleasure.   

3  
As 'mongst the Elements, th'ambitious Fire  
Does highest clyme: so labour does aspire  
above the reach of thought: it begets wonder,  
Makes valleys hills, and Mountaines to lye under.   

4  
As the Suns brightness makes the night appear  
More ugly then it would; the lazy spirit  
So gloomy looks, when th'actiue mind shines clear:  
One deserves stroke, tother a crown does merit.   

5  
God is a workman, and to show that man,  
Must not live idle, God himself began  
To play the labourer first: it follows then,  
That they who truly labour, are Gods men.   

6  
The sharpest prickles guard the sweetest Rose,  
And the best gains, on the best Labour grows:  
For standing pools are thick like troubled dreams,  
When running waters flow with cheerful streams.   

7  
No Art of famed is wrought, but labour's by:  
No Conquerors wreathe, no kingdoms crown is got,  
No Land is governed, but by Industry:  
The World itself were not, were labour not.    

OF SERVICE.  

1  
he that can truly serve,  
he knows Obedience truly:  
But others heel near govern well,  
That is himself unruly.   

2  
To serve, is to be bond;  
Not serving, wee go free:  
But bondage, to a man that's wise,  
tastes sweet as liberty.   

3  
The fruit that service yields,  
Is love; humility:  
Besides such duty as thou pay'st,  
willbe paid back to thee.   

4  
four jewels should each Seruant wear,  
The first is willingness to bear:  
The second truth: third careful fear:  
The last is silence: all these four are dear.   

5  
he that will serve must learn to carry  
A single tongue, but doubly tide▪  
At the first string hangs Secrecy,  
At second silence, least thy words run wide.   

6  
Obedience is Deuotions badge,  
The seal of Contemplation:  
he that obeys, and rules himself,  
Does more than rule a Nation.   

7  
The duty Seruants pay  
Their Maisters, is due debt;  
Which being denyde, they wrap their souls  
In a more dangerous net.    

OF LIBERALITY.  

1  
he 's liberal that doth succour, not that spends,  
To spare sometimes is liberality:  
But he that gives to all men( foes and friends)  
That bounty, turns to prodigality.   

2  
he that may give and will not, has a hand  
Made all of led: who( wanting) would bestow,  
His hand is silver: he, whose Purse doth stand  
Full, and yet free, a golden hand doth owe.   

3  
When to bestow, where to bestow,  
And vpon whom, rightly to know,  
And what to give: where all these go,  
True bounty in that man doth flow.   

4  
bounty is born with spread and open hands,  
Free heart, pure tongue: Shee makes her gold-heaps even,  
By equal parting them: In earth shee stands  
On beggars feet, yet do her arms touch heaven.   

5  
Gold is but Earth, silver is but the seed  
The sun begets vpon a barren ground:  
Pence are but silver drops, yet how these breed?  
To give this base Earth, wee in heaven are crowned.   

6  
This as a Law in Bounties Court should stand,  
he that receives, should always hold his hand  
Aloft; of thankes to put himself in mind:  
But he that gives should presently seem blind.   

7  
Nor Gold, nor silver, though they're tempting heaps  
do load our backs, so currant ought to go,  
Nor held so precions as the mind that gives:  
Small streams are Oceans, where they freely flow.    

OF justice.  

1  
justice is an equal Gift  
To each, of Law and Right:  
Without a privilege or shift,  
Or overcome by might.   

2  
Iustice is fair virtues badge,  
The staff of love and Peace:  
Which yields to every one his due,  
As all things do increase.   

3  
It is in the Common weal,  
As physic to the sick,  
Which of corruption doth them heal,  
And touch them to the quick.   

4  
Iustice doth condemn that judge,  
That free's a guilty treason:  
And who to any bears a grudge,  
To vex him without reason.   

5  
Hatred, Care▪ and covetousness,  
Canker Iudges Consciences,  
Makes a true cause be forgotten,  
And a judge Conscience rotten.   

6  
Iustice is a perfect Knowledge  
Of good from that is ill:  
Distributing to each rewards,  
And so adjudgeth still.    

OF laws.  

1  
laws are like the Spiders webs,  
Which catch those flies are smallest,  
And let the great break through the wave,  
Small theeues are hanged, to save the tallest.   

2  
The effect of Law begins his course,  
especial in this case,  
To render every one his due,  
And right in every place.   

3  
Where custom for a Law is held,  
being good, it may endure;  
But being bad, tho ne're so old,  
An Error twill be sure.   

4  
The heart and soul of Common weals,  
Are good laws and Orders:  
These two being truly plac'st and set,  
Are a realms costly Borders.   

5  
The more are taverns, the more are Drinkers;  
The more Phisitians, more diseases:  
The more account Iustice is of,  
The more suits it appeazes.   

6  
The Law was made but for this use,  
To bridle those that work abuse:  
And reck no Awe,  
Of God nor Lawe.    

OF OATH.  

1  
A Common Swearers Oath,  
Is not to be regarded:  
For he will surely break his Troth,  
Of whom God is not spared.   

2  
he that takes an Oath,  
Pawneth his soul thereon:  
And he that breaks his faith,  
Begets Damnation.   

3  
oaths do not credite men,  
But men their Oaths:  
Those are unhappy then,  
That wound their Tr●ths.   

4  
From Oa●hs and perjury,  
Issues forth Treason:  
That most pe●nitious plague  
Of realms and Reason.   

5  
The Oaths of wicked men  
Are writ in Water,  
For though they deeply swim,  
No fruit comes after.   

6  
faith gives honour to an Oath,  
But Oath once broken, dishonours Troth:  
Oaths in fury spoken,  
Are with calm tears broken.    

OF RICHES.  

1  
RIches are faire Fortunes goods,  
Good, if they be well used,  
The gifts of heaven powrde vpon Earth▪  
But Hell's, if once abused.   

2  
The Rich are always vexed  
With study to get more;  
And greedily are troubled  
With care, to loose their store.   

3  
In this life our g●eatest Riches,  
Is Reason and our soul▪  
Whereby we embrace righteousness,  
And sinful veins control.   

4  
he with Content is always Rich,  
That need not beg not borrow:  
But the covetous are not such,  
For they live still in sorrow.   

5  
Riches rightly used,  
Breed delight and pleasure:  
But otherwise abused,  
They are the damned treasure,   

6  
For coin to want a master,  
It were an unheard wonder:  
But Maisters to want Money,  
They're seldom found asunder.    

OF poverty.  

1  
POuertie's a tribulation,  
And want of needful things:  
Which belongs most to our estates,  
And most of Miseries brings.   

2  
The poor much better live in health,  
Then commonly the Rich,  
And in more safety, wanting wealth,  
Then those of higher pitch.   

3  
Pouertie's pleasant to the Wise▪  
They take it in good part:  
Riches are troublesone to fools,  
Bre●ding their future smart.   

4  
The humble thoughts that smoke from a poor Cottage,  
Are oft as sweet a Sacrifice to heaven,  
As the perfumes in courts of kings,  
Without true zeal, and reverend duty given.   

5  
he that dyes and leaves his son  
poor and Wise, leaves him enough:  
But he that leaves a fool and Rich,  
leaves a foul dying snuff.   

6  
poor men are like to little Shrubs,  
That by their lownes scape each blast▪  
When Cedars tall are shaken,  
And bore down whole at last.    

OF mean.  

1  
MEane's the best part of any Action,  
containing full effect  
Of Prudence touching government,  
And the souls best respect.   

2  
The mean state with aequalitie,  
Are always counted best:  
The safest superiority,  
Is life in quiet rest.   

3  
As Fire is never without heat,  
So extremes haue their crosses:  
But to the mean it is not great,  
That they can loose by losses.   

4  
As storms where Flowers,  
So Pride withers Bowers,  
Shouders down Towers,  
Makes ruinous hours.   

5  
Mountaines having too much heat  
Of the piercing sun, are burned:  
valleys are barren, with too little;  
But fields that even are, are adorned.   

6  
The mean roof of a swain,  
Doth stand more happily,  
Then the palace of a Prince,  
All hung with flattery.    

OF COVETOVSNES.  

1  
THe Chariot of foul covetousness,  
Is mounted on four wheels of sins;  
Hate, cowardice, forgetfulness of death,  
Contempt of God: which all begins.   

2  
drawn by two Horses of the devill,  
Greedie-to-catch, and Hold-fast name:  
The Coatch-man dryuing it, Desire;  
With Vices all enflamed.   

3  
covetousness is recompenest  
Most commonly with a son,  
That spendeth all his fathers coin,  
And in few hours out run.   

4  
The C●uetous are like Rats and Mice,  
That live in Mines of Gold;  
But not the richer for their 'vice,  
But onely to behold.   

5  
Gold is compared unto a fire,  
Whereof a litle's good;  
But being too much, it doth require,  
Great help to quench the Wood.   

6  
covetousness is a rank 'vice,  
Withholding from another,  
That which of right he ought to haue,  
Although he be his brother.    

OF deceit.  

1  
deceit is cause of foul Ambition,  
T'is enemy to Right:  
And seeks by al means to ore'throw  
A meek and simplo wright.   

3  
deceits are traps set by the witty,  
To catch the simplo in:  
As when a lie hath show of truth,  
Which he sets for his lin.   

4  
The lightest heads, and sharpest wits,  
Are aptest to deceive:  
Which by their sly and subtle shifts,  
Their cunning Cobwebs wave.   

5  
Craft is most commonly repayde  
With subtlety and deceit,  
For the cunningest many times,  
Are caught with their own bait,   

5  
The Serpent hidden in the grass,  
Doth often stiag the foot:  
So under shows of honesty,  
deceitful men will dote,   

6  
The speeches of deceitful men,  
Are like to painted Pots,  
That carry faire inscriptions,  
When within poison knots.    

OF SLOTH.  

1  
SLoth is the sink which still receiveth  
The Channels of foul 'vice:  
And with that poisonous rotten air,  
Infecteth sound advice.   

2  
study doth aeternize souls,  
By faire perpetual famed:  
Whereas the slothful ignorant spirit,  
Is dull, cotrupt, and lame.   

3  
Sloth is an evil,  
Kin to the devill:  
Of all head sins,  
This Hell most wins.   

4  
The Bees loathe Drones,  
Art lazy Bones:  
The Idle Spirit,  
Gapes for no Merit.   

5  
Take away idleness,  
Cupid hath no might:  
His Bow lies broken,  
His Torch hath no light,   

2  
prosperity engendereth Sloth,  
And Sloth engendereth Hell:  
For that's the onely mansion,  
Where slothful souls do dwell.    

OF TREASON.  

1  
TReason is that damned 'vice,  
Hated of God and man:  
Wherewith all periurde persons  
Betray what souls they can.   

2  
Traytors are those mealy moths,  
Which eat the Clothes where they are bread,  
Vipers that gnaw the Bowels out,  
Wherein they laid their head.   

3  
These four a traitor make,  
A light Head, and ambitious mind,  
Conscience corrupt, and ill advice:  
Who find these, Traytors quickly find.   

4  
Traytors about Thrones of Princes,  
Are like wolves about folds of sheep:  
For in that court the State and peers,  
From Treason scarce can safely sleep.   

5  
There is a note  
Set down by Fate,  
Some Treason love,  
But Traytors hate.   

6  
O foul Treason,  
Foe to Reason:  
The Court Canker,  
And Hels anchor.    

OF BANISHMENT.  

1  
BAnishment is joys divorce,  
When by Violence and force  
Wee from our delights are put,  
And our pleasures bard and shut.   

2  
For sin, was man to the earth thrust,  
And became unhappy dust:  
But from the earth to heaven sent,  
That may be called sweet Banishment.   

3  
Banishment is Heauens curse,  
Miseries guide, and sorrows nurse:  
To all that are  
Fed by despair.   

4  
The Water's nea're without some bubble,  
Nor Banished men without some trouble:  
B●autie and Youth once Banished,  
Are ne're repealed, they're always dead.   

5  
There is truly Banishment,  
Where virtuous deeds are never lent:  
The greatest Banishment to sad men,  
Is to live 'mongst fools and Mad-men.    

OF RAGE.  

1  
RAGE is a minutes madness; tis a flamme  
Kindled with no fire, yet( than fire) worse burning:  
Kills friendship, poisons sense, strikes Reason lame:  
Tis born in mischief, and it dyes in mourning,   

2  
Rage is by Time appeasd,  
If Reason bear the stroke:  
If not, like Powder it burstes forth,  
And wildly flies like smoke.   

3  
That which in Rage is rashly done,  
before it comes to end,  
Begets dishonourable shane,  
Though Honour it intend.   

4  
The staggring Drunkard, whose hot brain  
Doth boil in Wines, is not so bad,  
Nor half so like a beast,( beast tho he bee)  
As he that runs( through Anger) mad.   

5  
When fools and Anger meet together,  
They'll make a dangerous weapon of a feather:  
But when a Wiseman is with Wrath ore-gon,  
Like Lightning, now tis fire, and now tis none.   

6  
When Power and Anger meets,  
Tis like a giants arm,  
given to a mad-man; thunders stroke,  
Cannot do half such harm.   

7  
green Wood is heating long, but set on fire,  
It is more long in quenching than the dry:  
So he that seldom is inflamde with Ire,  
burns, when the hourly Anger soon doe● die.    

OF fear.  

1  
fear has two wings, a black one, and a White;  
The White flies high, and shuns Dishonour more  
Than death or grief: the black wing hangs downright  
And by base cowards are his feathers wore.   

2  
he that fears God is strong,  
Who fears him not is weak:  
armed with that fear we may attempt,  
Through troops of Horse to break.   

3  
he that will fear God truly,  
he must not fear him fearfully:  
But he must fear him duly,  
And he must love him faithfully.   

4  
fear, to a tyrants Conscience is a whip,  
It drives him forward, yet it makes him stay:  
For he that seeks not to be loud, but feared,  
Is even a slave to those that him obey.   

5  
The master that his Seruant fears,  
A heavier yoke of bondage bears,  
Than does his Seruant; but his eye,  
never tastes sleep, that fears to die.   

6  
fear stands at both the portals of our ears,  
And puts back all persuasions to our good:  
he's therefore wretched that grows old with fears,  
When through his veins run streams of youthful blood.    

OF HATE, or envy.  

1  
ENuie's a beggar, yet shee shoots at kings,  
Shee's born in Hell, yet still shee stars on heaven,  
Shee spits out gull, and speaks with Adder-stings,  
Shee's out of square most, when she sees all even.   

2  
deep danger lies in smoothest looks,  
baits poisoned hang at silver hooks:  
Treasons are writ in gilded books,  
And Hate goes hide in rhyming looks.   

3  
envy is still at Honors back,  
Yet envy still seeks Honors wrack:  
Shee's virtues fellow, poverties slave,  
Yet is shee digging virtues grave.   

4  
The envious man feeds on the daintiest meats,  
For his own blood he drinks, his own heart eats:  
Yet surfeits never, nor is sick, unless,  
he spies another swim in happiness.   

5  
envy does bury men alive,  
And pulls the dead from graues:  
Whose bones she gnaws; if bones shee miss,  
Their tombs shee then depraues.   

6  
envy of Pride is eldest daughter,  
Shee's Murders mother, Treasons nurse:  
Shee's glories canker, goodness slaughter,  
Hells chief blessing, Heauens chief curse.   

7  
Of Vices, Pride goes neatest,  
Yet Pride( of 'vice) is greatest:  
Of Vices, Wrath is boldest:  
Of Vices, Enuie's oldest.    

OF OFFENCE.  

1  
OFfence is wrong by speech or act,  
Whereby our life or credit's cracked;  
Done to disfigure the bright face  
Of virtues which our actions grace.   

2  
A virtuous mind takes more offence  
At a friends spiteful word,  
Than if his bosom should receive  
wounds from an enemies sword.   

3  
The perfect way to live at ease  
And die in good report,  
Is every man by love to please,  
And 'mongst the good resort.   

4  
Ill tongues do blast a good mans name,  
That, soon abroad is blown:  
Yet Wisemen will not trust the same,  
Till the true ground be known.   

5  
All false reports are wilful lies:  
But he that when a Fault is done,  
denies the same, commits it twice,  
And does in double error run.   

6  
Mans body like an Instrument is strung  
With several strings; and each string plays his part:  
If any one string jar, it is the Tongue;  
For that being stretched too high, does drown the Heart.   

7  
To make our eyes, our hands, and feet,  
subject to Law, were much unmeet:  
Those members serve to profitable uses,  
Onely the Tongue's a villain, loues abuses.    

OF SLANDER.  

1  
ON Enuie● three, Slander( as fruit) does grow,  
And the same venomous luice, that envy spreads,  
Slander draws up, and then shee lets it flow,  
Till through mens ears the poisoned rancknes sheads.   

2  
Detraction, Hate, and malice,  
Are Waighting-maydes to Slander:  
And to perform her damned laws,  
To Princes courts they wander.   

3  
Flattery and lies are Slanders slaves,  
And with swift diligence  
Run here and there, yet in the end,  
Find slavish recompense.   

4  
As rats and Mice do gnaw mens food,  
So Slander weights to suck their blood:  
Yet till they kill us, Slanderers wee nurse,  
And tread on Vipers; those are ten times worse.   

5  
They that the living dare not wound,  
Will bite the dead, not spare their bones:  
And when to feed their spite none's found,  
Like Dogs they snarl and catch at stones.   

6  
Three sorts of Murder are there.  
Killing by Sword, by Hate, by Slander:  
The last is bloodiest, that( at once) kills three,  
himself, his hearer, and his enemy.   

7  
Who loues the tongues of Slanderers,  
deserves himself to lose his ears:  
But he whose tongue throws lies about,  
deserves to haue his tongue pulled out.    

OF flattery.  

1  
A Flatterer such attire doth make him,  
And puts on such a cunning shape,  
That from a friend it's hard to take him:  
For Flattery is but freindships Ape.   

2  
Like summer swallows Flatterers creep,  
Close to your Eaues, whilst heat they find:  
But when within lean Want doth sleep,  
They're fled, leave onely dirt behind.   

3  
But where sun shines, no vermin breeds,  
But where there's Pray no Vulture feeds:  
But where there's Flesh, no flies will swarm,  
No Parasi●e lurks there, but where tis warm,   

4  
To haue ravens eat one, tis no grief,  
Tis no such death to meet a thief;  
Theeues take but coin, ravens but for dead flesh strive,  
But Flatterers eat whole men, yea and alive.   

5  
Flattery like a golden Pill,  
shows a smooth face, but a rough heart:  
As trencher-Flyes, their bellies fill,  
And then they fly: the Flatterer plays that part.   

6  
The changeable chameleon turns  
Into all cullours but to white:  
So on all Flowers save honesty,  
The Flatterer can light.   

7  
Fire( as the Rust doth Iron) doth eat,  
And destroys that which giu●s it meate:  
So Riches, on which Flatterers feeds,  
Are swallowed by the worm it breeds.    

OF bravery.  

1  
bravery is the seed of Pride: the glass  
That sets out fools: It is a Scale that weighs  
The Wise-man with a light-braind golden ass:  
It is the Harlot bait, the unthrifts blaze.   

2  
By bravery many that are rich,  
Like ebbing tides, are quickly poor:  
he that to day coytes Gold away,  
To morrow begs from door to door.   

3  
As weeds are not the wholesomer  
For the faire flower they bear,  
No more must gulls be held for Wise,  
Because Gay Clothes they wear.   

4  
Who spends his coin in bravery.  
And gets that coin by knavery,  
Makes his short life a slavery:  
And quickly dyes in beggary.   

5  
Three things cost dearly, yet are quickly spent;  
A Woman faire, and yet incontinent:  
A Garment rich, with cuts fantastical:  
And lastly Wealth, which to a fool does fall.   

6  
Who wastes his silver, to maintain the Fashion,  
And wears in every lym a several Nation:  
reads these three Lessons in the Wood-cockes school,  
he's his own foe, Mercers friend, tailors fool.   

7  
Woe to that beauty thats put off,  
And sleeps not with the face:  
And shane attend that bravery,  
That does the back disgrace.    

OF BOASTING.  

1  
BOasting is parasite to Pride,  
And braggart-like does set her forth,  
And like a Mountibancke does ride,  
Hung all with toys, yet nothing worth.   

2  
Great barkers are no byters,  
Great frowners are no fighters:  
Hot wooers are could speeders,  
sharp Boasters are slow breeders.   

3  
Good Wits with blushing are put by,  
Yet blushing is the sign of Grace:  
When he steps forward, and climbs high,  
That can thrust forth the brazen face.   

4  
he that does brag of his nobility,  
Yet baseness loues and incivility,  
Does himself grace to say he's nobly born,  
But wrongs his Ancestors, makes them a scorn.   

5  
Let no man Boast of Wealth, of lands, of Honour,  
Of Birth, of Beauty, or of Princes favour;  
These die like cowards: onely virtues banner,  
stays last in field: her flower keeps still the savour.   

6  
Beasting is even the scum of Thought,  
The Valiant do abhor it:  
'mongst Souldiers tis the cowards badge,  
And none but fools care for it.   

7  
Great threatenings and great brags are like big winds,  
They bluster like the thunder; but are quiet  
Sooner then lightning, dyes: the base mindes  
feed on vain glorious smoke, it is their diet.    

OF SCOFFING.  

1  
scoffs are wits arrows, and are onely shot▪  
At rovers: tis the scum of quick invention;  
Tis artificial Wrong: tis judgements blot,  
Tis Conceit too much salted, fools Contention.   

2  
To scoff, and set out Fooling rarely,  
Makes the face of wit look fairly:  
And for his pains the Cap may crown him,  
But the Scarlet never gown him.   

3  
Scoffe●s and Adders differ thus,  
Both equally are venomous;  
save those that are by Adders stung,  
do curse the tail; in Scoffers, curse the tongue.   

4  
wolves hun● not wolves; nor dare one jester  
( But so f●r off as London is from Chester)  
Me●●e in the s●●●d● his equal if they do  
Wa●e heads, one wins the coxcomb, if not two.   

5  
Its better to be born a fool,  
Then to consume seven yeeres in school,  
Like Learnings apprentice, to get wit,  
And( got) not well to husband it.   

6  
sharp Bridles tame unruly Asses,  
Short Legs can trip down light-heeld Lasses:  
And the grave check of Wisemen cools,  
The blazing impudence of Scoffing fools.   

7  
To whip 'vice freely without ostentation,  
shows reading wit and observation:  
But they that dress up lests, for great mens tables,  
Are mercenary fools; give them the babbles.    

OF infamy.  

1  
black infamy is the livery of 'vice,  
It is a die in grain; a seal graven twice:  
A stinking snuff, a Spot, that being half gon,  
Children again with fingers clap it on.   

2  
A galling Spur is infamy,  
Making men gallp to their Graues:  
In life, it makes them basely stoop,  
In life, it makes them basely stoop,  
And after death, it makes them slaves.   

3  
O how vnblest, or wicked is that man!  
( Me thinks his eyes should eu'n disdain to sleep)  
Whose death( tho bloody) makes no ch●kes look wan:  
And to behold him live, even beggars weep.   

4  
They that do clyme by private sin,  
Must fall by open shane:  
The poor mans scar a Hat canhide,  
Not Hills the great mans maim.   

5  
It sticks a blemish on a kingdoms brow,  
To thrust him to base drudgery, that's fit  
To rule: when he that's good but for a Plow,  
Or drive a Cart, in Iustice chair does Sit.   

6  
he that hath once born sail,  
In tempest of soul shane,  
May after make a sport to see,  
The shipwreck of his name.   

7  
How wretched is the man whose face is seard  
With infamy: good men do not beleeue him;  
Bad, not obey him: he's of no man feared  
If great in power: If wanting, none relieve him.    

OF INGRATITVDE.  

1  
INgratitude has one hand, no eyes not tongue:  
Tis a dull Instrument, with Gold-wire strung,  
That never sounds: a Lake that down does drink  
Whole crystal streams, and casts them up like ink.   

2  
always to crave, is shameful,  
never to give is blamefull,  
To take, yet be Ingratefull,  
Oh tis a 'vice most hateful   

3  
Better to haue no wit at all,  
Then haue so much, to understand  
What tis to take a gift with one,  
And hid it with the tother hand.   

4  
he sows his corn on tops of Towers,  
he spends his Wealth in Caues,  
That on a man unthankful powers  
Good turns: Ingratefull mouths are Graues.   

5  
An hour( Times lackey) soon is spent,  
Minutes haue shorter lives,  
Good turns the shortest: they're soon old,  
A benefit wor'st thrives.   

6  
They that receive, yet pay not back  
What's due to him that gives,  
Resemble water-vessels board,  
That hold no more then Siues.   

7  
The hand that is held out to take,  
Should presently a quittance make,  
Or Memorandum; that when tis full grown,  
The gift may yield more fruit then seed was sown.    

OF DANCING.  

1  
THe Heauens do tread quick measures, to the spheres,  
The Planets Dance, observing time and numbers;  
Trees trip before the wind: thus Dancing wears  
His badge from heaven: yet Pleasures die like Slumbers.   

2  
Dancing and Time are twins, at one hour born,  
Time is the eldest, being of perfect motion  
The perfect Measure: Dancing doth Time adorn,  
And shee to move in Measure hath the notion.   

3  
Dancing may well be called the Child  
Of music, and of love:  
For as the feet keep motion, so  
The wanton Blood doth move.   

4  
The Graces Dance an endless round,  
With hand in hand, and looking back,  
To show proportion should be found,  
Eene in our pleasures, which proportion lack.   

5  
When Dolphins Dance, and Mermaydes sing,  
The Seaman fears a storm or death:  
So Harlots do most danger bring,  
In sugared words, and sweetest breath.   

6  
The Dancer and the Madman were at strife,  
Wherein they differed, and this made them friends,  
The Madman is a Madman all his life;  
The tother's mad too, till his Dancing ends.   

7  
They whose blood itch for Dancing, show  
More brains vpon their heels doth grow,  
Then in their heads: In Dancing schools,  
With reason, Wisemen play the fools.    

OF 'vice.  

1  
'vice is sins page., mishap'te and blind,  
It is the sickness of the mind:  
It's lame, yet valiant; for it hath been known,  
By one Vice many virtues were or'ethrowne.   

2  
Craft wears the hood of policy,  
rashness the sword of valour:  
falsehood the mask of honesty,  
lewdness the face of Pleasure.   

3  
Though Vice some times like virtue goes,  
And is for virtue taken:  
Yet when her Vizard is pulled off,  
Shee's hated and forsaken.   

4  
Where 'vice doth sway the Mighty,  
Inferiors there plot villainy:  
Where Elders are past gravity,  
There Young men are past Honesty.   

5  
strait Trees haue crooked roots, faire faces spots:  
strait men haue minds awry, smoothest wood knots,  
Yet some times the complexion that's most foul,  
Has beautiful condition's in the soul.   

6  
Pride now is cleanliness: the prodigal  
Is now the liberal; nice Superstition  
Goes for religion: rashness true valour call,  
Thus Vice wears virtues clothes; O vile Tradition!   

7  
Wayward i'th, Cradle, Childhood full of lying:  
Youth proud, inconstant, riotous, lusts slave:  
Age gapes for Gold, even when it is a dying:  
Thus from our birth, Vice haunts us to our grave.    

OF PRIDE.  

1  
PRide's the Kings evil, beggars Leprozy:  
Ambitions Ladder, spawn of Herezy:  
Tis the divels block, at which he stumbling, fell  
From the high battlements of heaven to Hell.   

2  
When Pride has even of Statres made her a crown,  
And that she brags her golden thread is spun:  
just in this height of State tumbles she down,  
Her web of glory in her shane is don.   

3  
Pride follows Courtiers, shee's the ladies page.:  
In Youth Pride holds their glass, paints them in Ag●●  
When shee flies high, this Curse sits on her wings,  
proud men are ne're good Councelors to kings.   

4  
Men that haue States but handfuls high,  
Yet thoughts that all are Starry,  
live discontent, and desperate die:  
Thus Pride her shape doth vary.   

5  
envy and Blood led to the throne of Pride,  
Enui's the highest step, there shee leaps up first:  
Where if her foot slip, and she fals beside,  
Shee clymes by Murder; yet that Stayre's the worst.   

6  
Strange is Prides diet, for feeds on Gold,  
Her standing Cups are skulls, with hot Blood swimming,  
And those she quaffs: shee by mens heads takes hold  
To rise, and has her own shaven off: strange trimming!   

7  
Great Fires in little rooms, are like proud Blood  
In beggars bosoms: for in stead of heating,  
There's burning: and so dangerous is that Flood,  
Swelling so high, there's drowning stead of wetting.    

OF PRODIGALITY, or, RIOT.  

1  
RIOT is Pleasures fool, to make him merry,  
It dyes a beggar, and is born a wonder:  
It digs up Pence, and bags of Gold does bury:  
swells big a while, but falls again like thunder.   

2  
No tyrant shows such cruelty,  
As Youth in prodigality:  
For tyrants spare themselves; but they,  
By Riot, make themselves away.   

3  
At these six signs the prodigal dwell,  
They nothing buy, but all things sell:  
They nothing get, yet still are spending:  
They borrow not, yet still are lending.   

4  
Who gives his Purse away, is prodigal:  
Who saves two, and gives one, is liberal:  
But he that neither Purse nor Penny gives,  
A Niggards hand he bears; It's Sin he lives.   

5  
He that does love to farewell, yet does not love to spare well  
Whose back loues gay appareling, whose tongue is ever quarreling,  
Sets up cookes shops,& taylors stalls, yet lies  
under the last of these before he dies.   

6  
Loose Eyes, loose Wines, loose Purses,  
Lay vpon man three Curses:  
Loose Eyes breed lust, loose Purses make men scorned;  
But by a Wife that's loose, the head is hornd.   

7  
taverns, Company, Whores, and Pleasures,  
Are four beasts, that eat up treasures:  
And when these four are coacht together,  
Stop where they will, the prodigal rides thither.    

OF THE WORLD.  

1  
THis World's Gods Church-yard; tis the Mart wherein  
Man doth sell man: It is the cave of sin●  
It is a Ship tost vpon troubled waves,  
A galley, wherein kings themselves are slaves.   

2  
This World is an Exchange, on which do meet,  
Mixtures of Nations, where they treat vpon  
The holy League of Gold: of usuries fleet:  
And when the Burse-bell rings, then are they gon.   

3  
This World is but a Minutes pleasure,  
It lasts but as an unthrifts treasure:  
It pays back triple what we borrow,  
For hours of Ioy, are yeeres of Sorrow.   

4  
This World is like a sail, where men are chaynd,  
With cares calamities; from whence is gaynd  
No freedom, till they pay the fees, their breath,  
So that to live here, is a living death.   

5  
This Worlds pleasures are like bubbles  
In the water, raised by troubles:  
And as suddenly they're made,  
So more suddenly they fade.   

6  
To love this World too dearly,  
Is to love sin too merely:  
So that unless the World be hated,  
Wee love not him, that it created.   

7  
Who into the Worlds false hands  
Would put his life; when he that stands  
To day infauour, doth to morrow fall  
From height of bliss, to endless thrall.    

OF our COVNTREY.  

1  
our Couttrly is this Cradle general,  
Our Childrens Grandam; Mother of us all:  
Shee is the Nurse that feeds us: to fight for her  
Our duty is, tis treason to abhor her.   

2  
Man is not born to serve himself,  
For his own sake he dwells not here:  
But for his country, Parents, friends,  
His kindred, and his Children deere,   

3  
To some their country is their shane,  
To haue their country known:  
Shames to their country others are,  
By vile deeds of their own.   

4  
There is no Land so narrow, none so poor,  
No country has such base-birth laid vpon her,  
But it can show some fields, or less or more,  
Where every Noble mind may catch bright honor.   

5  
How happy is that kingdoms state,  
Where( as a tyrant) Men the Law do fear:  
Yet to do wrongs( by laws protection) hate,  
But loues, of children to their country bear.   

6  
As there's no music without Harmony,  
Nor perfect love where there's no Sympathy:  
So can no Land bring forth civility,  
unless it flourish in tranquillity.   

7  
The love we bear our country, is not piety;  
The love we bear our Parents, is not charity;  
Tis duty both: the Law from God was given,  
he that hurts either then, offends 'gainst heaven.    

OF physic.  

1  
physic is Gods Apc, and does strive  
To make up men: the dead alive:  
It is no meate to live by; yet most good  
when no meate else is savoury to the blood.   

2  
The Sickman doth not seek to haue  
An eloquent physician, nor a grave,  
But skilful: Doctors that ne're hold their peace,  
Infect the Patient with a new Disease.   

3  
The sound should not the Sick-man scorn,  
Wee're sick so soon as wee be born,  
And need much physic: happy then,  
physicians are, being Gods 'mongst men.   

4  
he that hath full Golden Coffers,  
And the pangs of sickness suffers:  
Yet will rather starve and die,  
Then buy sweet health, sick let him lye.   

5  
When the Disease hath desperately run  
And killed a man, that gaspes for life, not health;  
Then to cry out for the physician,  
Is to entreat him to consume our wealth.   

6  
physicians of all men, haue happiest fortunes,  
If they do well, the sun itself importunes,  
loud famed to spread it: ill if they commit,  
The very Earth gives Graues to bury it.   

7  
They that haue Wealth, yet think it doth not thrive,  
Till physic deal with it: are like those grooms,  
That from a city ●o the burghers drive,  
And( like good fools) plant Strangers in their rooms.    

OF pain.  

1  
pain is Deaths taster, tis the sauce of Pleasure,  
The test of Patience; tis the Surgeons treasure:  
The Sicke-mans bedfellow, the Sound-mans slave,  
The dog that bites Age, till it take the grave.   

2  
When adversities high tide  
drown all our Hopes, and Fortunes banks do hide,  
Then love is at low ebb, and none  
But true friends tarry, till the storm be gone.   

3  
Though Death be grim, yet when he's face to face,  
True Courage fears him not: but when to die  
Wee're sure, yet know not how, that leaves us bace,  
No misery is like to unknown misery.   

4  
Life and wretchedness are twins,  
When one is born, the tothers breath begins:  
They lye together in one bed,  
Together live, and are together dead.   

5  
The pain of death is sin: the pain  
Of a Conscience cruelly slain,  
Is likewise sin: the pain of Hell  
Is to be dambd, that's ever durable.   

6  
The torment of the Eye is Lust,  
The torment of the Fongue, ill words:  
Both with Repentance reckon must,  
else do they fall on double sword.   

7  
Though Sorrow taste like gull, sickness like Death,  
And Death like Hell; yet nothing relisheth  
So sour, but if with heaven wee meet,  
All's Candyed o'er, and turns to sugared sweet.    

OF tears.  

1  
EYes are the Stillatory house of tears,  
tears, griefs Balme-water: weeping gently wears  
The Marble in us: tis the Mildew staining  
Our checks; if't be for sin, tis holly raining.   

2  
The Sorrow that's hie-borne, bears such a sway,  
Wee must not beat it back, but give it way,  
For tis a furious beast, and sooner dyes  
By delayed sleights, then by extremities.   

3  
Minutes are turned to hours, and hours to dayes,  
When they're at sorrows spending,  
Though woe be hard, tis quickly orde,  
But not so quickly ending.   

4  
tears in Strumpets eyes are like  
Drops which through the sunbeams strike;  
They haue more cunning to beguile,  
Then weeping of the Crocodile.   

5  
To mourn sometimes heals mourning,  
For grief like great fires burning,  
Kept down, show fiercer flaming:  
Sorrow can brook no taming.   

6  
Eyes in three waters stand in fear of drowning:  
First, old mens tears, when Ioy their hearts sits crowning.  
Next, that which flows after the wretched fashion.  
Third, Womens drops,  shed from dissimulation.   

7  
Sea-Iuy when it waxeth old,  
The roote of it takes deepest hold;  
And when calamity looks gray,  
Impossible to waked away.    

OF DAY.  

1  
DAyes are Gods Minutes: tis a yeares long hour.  
Day is the queen of Eyes; Sights paramoure.  
It is Heauens glass: tis the suins silver dial,  
By which himself works, and of time makes trial.   

2  
Day is Ambitious, for the morrow morning,  
Takes this dayes honor from him, and adorning▪  
Then doth a next strip him: at last there comes  
The black Day, that takes reckoning of all sums.   

3  
he that to Day puts off the mending  
Of his ragde soul, and still is spending  
All hours in 'vice, which he can borrow,  
Let him catch times lock, for tis gon to morrow.   

4  
Of all arithmetic, the numbers  
Of our Dayes, us most incumbers:  
Wee tell our sheep, our Kine, our Gold:  
But thinking ne're to die, Dayes are untold.   

5  
The sun is the Dayes golden Eye,  
The Eye of heaven's our soul:  
If that be clear, then like the sun,  
Wee see each thing thats foul.   

6  
In egypt doth the Day begin,  
Then when the sun about his task bath been.  
In Persia, when the sun doth rise:  
And thus as one is born, another dyes.   

7  
he whose thoughts are sunk to hell,  
Loues with ugly night to dwell:  
But he whose eyes from 'vice are clear,  
loyes when he sees the light appear.    

OF NIGHT.  

1  
NIght is the labourers Pillow, tis the Bed  
Of living death: It is sins civil Pander,  
Suited in black: when darkness wings are spread,  
Treasons, Lust, Murders, doth with still Night wander.   

2  
How slow the horses of the Night do ride,  
For whom th'oppressed wait? for Night( to those)  
Makes promise of some rest; yet when shee's spied,  
They wish her gon, then she as slowly goes.   

3  
What a good judge is Night, how full of pity;  
For though herself be dumb, O yet she hears  
The Prisoners Story, and the Louers Dittie●  
And their afflictons she in time out-weares.   

4  
fear and suspicion are Nights kirkmen,  
They weight vpon her, and walk round the street,  
Till sin and shee, in darkness cave do meet,  
Where Light at last peeps in, they vanish then.   

5  
look not bog, nor swell with scorning,  
For the breath thou drawest this morning,  
May ere Night, from thee be turning,  
And thou left could, past laughing, and past mourning.   

6  
dark Nights and deadly Resolutions,  
Are nimble Cookes that do prepare  
godless and bloody Resolutions,  
For Nights the traitors armours are.   

7  
Though thine eyes never should behold the sun,  
Though the moons rusty Chariot should o'rerunne  
The World with Night, do not thou darkness fear,  
So long as in thee thou hast virtues clear.    

OF MVSICKE.  

1  
MUsicke is Angels language; tis a jewel,  
stolen from the spheres; tis the ears Parasite:  
Tis Loues food, tis dull Melancholies fuel:  
Tis dead to itself, yet doth all else delight.   

2  
Art thou greiu'd, and wouldst be merry?  
Lay thy head on politics knee,  
In thine ear sheele tell a Storry,  
That being heard, shall comfort thee,   

3  
What disproportion is it, and how vile,  
To hear a man sing well,  
Yet to live ill: alack the while,  
Tis like a foul crack in a silver Bell.   

4  
council vpon a fool bestowed,  
Is lost, as is the sound  
Of music in a deaf mans ear:  
gifts handled ill, are drowned.   

5  
When thundering stroke being rudely given,  
sweet harmony do render,  
A scolding Wise, shall pleasing bee,  
If not, the divell must mend her.   

6  
Trumpets and drums musicians are,  
unto the Dancing-schooles of war:  
The Lute's the Louers consort: then,  
Call Eloquence the Simphony of men.   

7  
When kings and Subiects live in quiet,  
When love prepares the city diet,  
When Housholds sleep with empty ears,  
Oh what Melody earth then hears!    

OF LIFE.  

1  
LIFE is no more breath, then a little pin  
Can with a prick let forth; it is a bubble:  
It is a play that sadly doth begin,  
Continues tragical, concludes in trouble.   

2  
Life is a pilgrimage, that every step,  
treads on a Coffin, and doth meet  
sickness, grief, Want: by whom tis forc'de to leap  
First into Bed, then to a Winding-sheete.   

3  
It's better not to live, then not to know  
How to live well: to live well, is a white  
Most hard to hit: to dreill, is not so,  
That's easy: many hit that mark by night.   

4  
If a good man desire to live,  
Tis that he would be still doing well:  
If a bad man, the world would give  
For Life; he fears not Death, but Hell.   

5  
Life is like Lightning, but a flash, tis gone;  
The longest age, is but a blast: yet see;  
he whom yeares load, prays yet he may live one:  
To live( not to live well) wee careful bee.   

6  
he that lives ill, and so doth fall,  
unworthy is of burial:  
But tombs of brass, should rear their famed,  
That dying, l●ft no dying name.   

7  
Breath that mainteynes Life, ends it:  
Life works for Breath, yet spends it:  
Death borrows Life, yet lends none:  
Death cracks all Life, but mends none,    

OF DEATH.  

1  
DEATH is Gods Haruester: Corruptions Cater:  
Of all tongues into one, he's the translator:  
Cures all Diseases; helps the poor to lands:  
Fights, travels; yet hath neither feet nor hands.   

2  
sickness, grief, want, old age, are armed, and swear,  
To ore'run Life; Death leads this rabble: his Drommes  
Are made of skulls: but how, or when, or where,  
heel pitch his field, none knows; tis sure he comes.   

3  
For faire, for foul, young, old, profane, and holly,  
beggars or kings, to fly from Death, tis folly:  
Who flies him, doth fly after him: and he flies  
Those that follow him: tis long ere misery dyes.   

4  
Death and sleep haue both one mother,  
sleep makes Death a younger brother:  
So like they are, you scarce know him, from him,  
save of the two, Death somewhat is more grim.   

5  
heaven hath given man a World: gives Wealth.  
heaven gives him beauty, wisdom, Health.  
heaven( above all these jewels) gives him Breath:  
But the best thing, that heaven gives man, is Death.   

6  
he that dyes in ill condition,  
draws a good life in suspicion:  
But he that takes his fare-well rightly.  
Puts men in hopo, he lived before not slightly.   

7  
When Officers are sent vpon Deaths errand,  
And warn you fore him, fly not for thei're warrant,  
unless your Conscience make this proclamation,  
That after Death, you haue deseru'de damnation.    

OF MAN.  

1  
MAN is Gods Maister-peice, the stamp of heaven,  
( Currant to pass with Angels) he's that King  
To whom the whole World for a Court is given:  
he hath all, yet alas! himself is nothing.   

2  
The birth of Man was full of wonder,  
Mans fall more dreadful was then thunder:  
His Spilling none but divels desirde it,  
His saving, Angels e'en admirde it.   

3  
Man is the freshest flower, the goodliest three:  
Man is the Sifted earth, the purity  
Of life elixirated; he's all beauty,  
All strength, all bliss; and yet all misery.   

4  
Man keeps the World in fear, beasts wild and grim,  
fawn at his feet: he curbes in Seas, drowns lands:  
Spurnes Cities down, builds kingdoms with his hands,  
he conquers all, yet little grief beats him.   

5  
Two Horses draw the waggon of the soul,  
( Our body) called Opinion and Desire:  
Opinion being well reynd, doth 'vice control,  
But when the tother's backed, we are wild as fire.   

6  
To that first stuff of which each creature's made,  
It must return, Man being but clods of earth  
( laid well together) into earth must fade,  
The soul will up to heaven, there was her birth.   

7  
Measure a Man from head to foot,  
His arms strait out, give just that measure:  
Whence draw a Circuler line about,  
he's a round tower, where the heart lies( lifes treasure.)    

OF WOMAN.  

1  
A Woman is Gods Pencell, which he takes  
To draw a Man by; Shee's the mould of life:  
Shee is an angel; Shee's earths heaven, shee makes  
New worlds in Men; yet sets those worlds at strife.   

2  
Trust not still a Womans eyes,  
Shee most dissembles when she cries:  
tears as readily she powers,  
As april doth when he raynes Flowers.   

3  
What goodly Angels Women wear,  
If Golden Angels could not buy them?  
fools! their beauties were too dear,  
But that too many come too nigh them.   

4  
A face that's faire and in show holly,  
Yet when eyes wink, doth look at folly:  
O tis a worm that suttly fr●ts;  
Shee weaves most fine, but dangerous nets.   

5  
None then a Woman more doth hunt for Honor,  
Yet when high State is thrown vpon her,  
None ke●pe it worse, for their desires are strong  
To get good things, but not to hold them long.   

6  
Faire Womens eyes are lures for fools,  
Their words are books, too hard for schools:  
Their kisses nets, a Wise-man spies them,  
Yet the Wisest hardly flies them.   

7  
A Woman black, or brown, or woven  
Of homely stuff, which none will wear:  
If she be chast, shee's comelier far,  
Then she thats wanton, and sold dear.    

OF marriage.  

1  
marriage is Gods Indenture which he draws  
Twixt Man and Woman: tis lifes Obligation;  
It is Loues pillar: tis the chain of laws;  
Tis the good evil, the bitter delectation.   

2  
Wedlockes hell, is when the husband throws  
His srownes, his brawls, his curses, and his blows,  
On his wives head: yet spends the amorous charms  
Of smiles and kisses in a Strumpets arms.   

3  
Women are such dangerous rocks,  
And cast away so many,  
That Young men yet should come near none,  
No● old men go to any.   

4  
Husbands two dayes of pleasure haue,  
The first, is when the wife doth bride it:  
The second, when she weds her grave:  
Thats the glad day, though men do strive to hid it.   

5  
Wee wish for marriage, and for Age,  
accounting both a treasure:  
But when they're ours, they make us rage,  
And yet repent at leisure.   

6  
give not thy Wife the Line, for if to day,  
Thou lendst her leave vpon thy foot to tread,  
( unless thou hat'st thy life) thrust her away,  
To morrow else sheele trample on thy head.   

7  
This Axiom oft hath past in school,  
Nor does the rule yet vary.  
Tis safer with a quiet fool,  
Then witty Scold to mary.    

OF CHILDREN.  

1  
CHildren are marriage seeds, and when they're born,  
They're like new waxed lights made to burn clearly  
After their Parentes lives to snuffs are worn:  
Children are ware cheap sold, but bought most dearly.   

2  
The loss of dignity, the loss of Gold,  
The loss of friends; or all these three to hold,  
With ioy or sorrow, touch not so the blood,  
As Children do, let them be bad or good.   

3  
Does thy son riot? Digs his youth thy grave?  
beats he thy sides? lays he thine eyes in Brine?  
steals he? swears? kills he? Is he hot lusts slave?  
Thou near didst whip these: then these faults are thine.   

4  
Children that are always sleeping,  
never weeping, ever eating:  
Children that are always playing,  
never praying, never beating:  
Children that are always lying,  
and for crying, leave the schools:  
Children that be such, turn Asses,  
and their Parents turn to fools.   

5  
If thy son be let to run,  
And ne're be brought to taming:  
heel prove a Colt, thyself a dolt,  
His wildnes is thy shaming.   

6  
When Snow lies on thy Fathers head,  
think but what he for thee hath done:  
And( though thou wish the grave his bed)  
Twill make thee prove a thankful son.   

7  
Art rich? and are thy Parents poor?  
Hast fed'em? cloathd'em? dried their tears?  
And set them safely on deaths shore?  
Oh happy man! thou hast seen golden yeares.    

OF YOVTH.  

1  
YOuth is Loues heir; it is Lifes honor,  
Tis Beauties mistris, yet shee weights vpon her:  
It is a flower fresh blown: us the best clothing  
That kings can wear; tis any thing, tis nothing.   

2  
weak honesty, lack; what an Army threats thee!  
Gold, liberty, delicious meats, apparel,  
All these strike at thee: but( of all) Youth beats thee,  
When none dare touch thee, Youth maintains the quarrel.   

3  
Good God! how much a gray head and a green  
( being both of one stuff) differ in the moulding:  
The green head bows to beauty, Shee's his queen:  
The gray, is ever virtues face beholding.   

4  
None but Changeable suits do fit  
Inconstant Youth; he loues light brains, light wit,  
Light looks, light eyes, light love, light hearts, light purses,  
Yet at last all these lights, bear heavy curses.   

5  
Youth like the Pine-trees flower,  
grows and dyes in an hour:  
For Cullour tis excelling,  
But tis a weed in smelling.   

6  
Then Youth there's nothing fairer,  
Then beauty nothing rarer:  
Yet nothing's sooner staler,  
Brittle glass is not frayler.   

7  
The father that builds houses, and heaps treasure,  
sleeps not for telling bags; yet hath no leisure  
To build his sons mind well; Sets a great Frame  
On rotten posts; one blast o'returnes the same.    

OF OLD AGE.  

1  
OLd Age is the last Hill, that Life climbs over,  
And then it rests: It's wisedoms robe new-worne:  
Tis worms meate half enough; tis the white cover  
Of Youth and Beauties book, whose leaves are torn.   

2  
sickness and Age, a pair of Crooches are,  
On which Life walks, and meets that Officer  
That arrests all; into whose layle being got,  
kings lie on executions, till they rot.   

3  
An Old-man every morning should lay by  
A Coffin and a sheet: for steel being wasted,  
There's no more edge: at Sun-set day doth die:  
And when gray hairs come first, Death next is tasted.   

4  
Study in Youth to live well,  
practise in Age to die well:  
he that's so happy well to die,  
he suffers Death most willingly.   

5  
Though love( when Age is come) hath spent his blazing,  
The Cinders yet, being not fully dead,  
At Beauties three, an Old-man may be gazing,  
By Youth it must be climbd, and gathered.   

6  
In a mans life there doth appear  
The four strange faces of the year;  
Child-hood the Spring, Youth summer shows,  
Like autumn Manhood, Age like Win●er goes.   

7  
If Youth were wise, and Age were strong:  
If without Women, wee could make Men,  
This World( where weeds haue grown too long)  
Would turn to paradise again.    

OF drunkenness.  

1  
drunkenness is the bawd to Lust; a Fire that kindles Rage,  
It makes yong-men like old-men dote,& a stark fool of age  
Tis beauties blaster, strengths decayer, memories vndoer:  
entices men to kiss her lips, yet kill them coming to her.   

2  
Wine is a crafty Wrestler, and will cast  
The big-boue-guard of Kings; the sturdy clown,  
And nimble-footed tailor he trips down:  
None stand against him if he once get fast.   

3  
A Dronkard is a Child, and scarce can speak,  
Yet has he many tongues: what secret lies,  
Within the sober man, out all doth break  
To swim in bowls, else up in fumes it flies.   

4  
Wine turns a man into a beast,  
It makes the Strong-man weak,  
The wise a fool, the foolish mad:  
Lawyer dumb, dumb to speak.   

5  
The Vine three Grapes doth bear,  
The first doth sweetly taste,  
The second, somewhat sharp; but gull  
And Poyson's in the last.   

6  
More men are drowned in Wine, then Water:  
Wine makes of Men a greater slaughter  
Then can the Sword: against the Sword by might  
Life may be sau'de; from Wine there is no flight.   

7  
Wine is the Earths heart-blood,  
Who  shed it then,  
( And such are Dronkards,)  
Those are bloody men.    

OF DIVELS.  

1  
divels are the Lords of hel; Gods slaves,& mens deceivers  
Brokers of sin, of bliss envious bereauers:  
Fishers they are, and( so they fill their net,  
That none break forth) they care not whom they get.   

2  
The Fisher-man of heaven doth angle  
With a small Line, and few he takes:  
Hels Fisher-man meets them in shoals,  
And still his wide Nets, wider makes.   

3  
The reason why there hangs more weight  
Vpon the divels golden bait,  
Than vpon Gods, is, the divels hook is smooth,  
And the bait sweet to tempt the lickerish tooth.   

4  
Satan hath several Snares, for several creatures,  
The usurer is caught in nets of Gold,  
Youth in the soft embracements of faire Features,  
With Dignities he lymes th'ambitious old.   

5  
At that great Sessions, where all souls shall stand,  
quit or condemd, the divell shall audience haue,  
And give in evidence, because his hand  
Was readier to catch souls, then ours to save.   

6  
Great marks are sooner hit, then lesser Whites;  
Great Worldlings, are the Butts at which Hell aims:  
And vpon those the divels Arrow lights  
Sooner, then on the meek: they are no Games.   

7  
The divell against us brings three Accusations,  
Which like three Clubs do beate us down: the first,  
Are our evil words: next, evil Imaginations:  
And last, our evil works; the last is worst.    

OF HELL.  

1  
HELL is Heauens jail, whither she sends black souls,  
It is the land of darkness, and of fear:  
Of horror and despair,( whose throat stil howls)  
Angels of light keep heaven, light Angels there.   

2  
So full of glory and so full of bliss  
Is Heauens Star-chamber: that more horror t'is  
To look at loyes and loose them, then to yell  
With ghastly shrieks, in everlasting Hell.   

3  
As in a kingdom( where th'infection  
Of war, of bloody Insurrection,  
Hath like a I lague rained long,) Rapes, Murder,  
All's out of tune; so there's in Hell no order.   

4  
What Misery is in Hell, torment hath end  
Without end: death hath no death, pain breeds pain,  
For end hath new beginnings: life doth lend  
Death double life, woes there do spring again.   

5  
Hell is a Maze, most hard to tread,  
To enter easy, and without a thread;  
But got in, tis a perilous doubt,  
If ere there be a passage out.   

6  
Tis sure there is a Hell, yet where, none knows:  
Yet every where it is,( holy Writ shows)  
Where heaven is not: though now it private been,  
One day twill burst ope, be both felt and seen.   

7  
Hell is that black field whither must be brought,  
Armies of souls, with whom foul sin hath fought,  
And conquered: Death the victors crown will wear,  
His standard is aduanc'de already there.    
FINIS.