And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel, And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school: and then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow: then a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth: and then the justice In fair round belly, with good capon lined, With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern in SUN-DIAL. THE shadow on the dial's face, This shadow, which, in every clime, Can yet the lease of my true love control, Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom. The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured, And the sad augurs mock their own presage; Incertainties now crown themselves assured, And peace proclaims olives of endless age. Now with the drops of this most balmy time My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes, Since spite of him, I'll live in this poor rhyme, While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes. And thou in this shalt find thy monument, When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent. SHAKSPEARE. GOOD OMENS. NOT mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, DESTINY. THE Destiny, Minister General, So strong it is, that though the world had sworn I see how plentie surfeits oft, And hasty climbers soonest fall; I see that such as sit aloft Mishap doth threaten most of all. These get with toil, and keep with fear; Such cares my mind could never bear. No princely pomp nor wealthy store, No shape to win a lover's eye- Some have too much, yet still they crave; I little have, yet seek no more. They are but poor, though much they have; And I am rich with little store. They poor, I rich; they beg, I give; They lack, I lend; they pine, I live. I laugh not at another's loss, I grudge not at another's gaine; No worldly wave my mind can toss; I brook that is another's bane. I feare no foe, nor fawn on friend; I loathe not life, nor dread mine end. I joy not in no earthly blisse; I weigh not Croesus' wealth a straw; For care, I care not what it is; I fear not fortune's fatal law; I wish but what I have at will; I kisse not where I wish to kill; I feign not love where most I hate; 1 break no sleep to win my will; I wait not at the mighty's gate. The court nor cart I like nor loathe; Extremes are counted worst of all; The golden mean betwixt them both Doth surest sit, and fears no fall; This is my choyce; for why, I find No wealth is like a quiet mind. My wealth is health and perfect ease; My conscience clear my chief defence; I never seek by bribes to please, Nor by desert to give offence. Thus do I live, thus will I die; Would all did so as well as I! WILLIAM BYRD. AN HONEST MAN'S FORTUNE. You that can look through Heaven, and tell the stars, Observe their kind conjunctions, and their wars; Find out new lights, and give them where you please, To these men honors, pleasures, to those ease; You that are God's surveyors, and can show How far, and when, and why the wind doth blow; Know all the charges of the dreadful thunder, And when it will shoot over, or fall under: Tell me, by all your art I conjure ye, Yes, and by truth, what shall be come of me? |