If Virtue yet no void unthankful time, Where Christ is taught, we led to Virtue's train. 4 AN EPITAPH ON CLERE, SURREY'S FAITHFUL NORFOLK Sprung thee, Lambeth holds thee dead; (Ay me! whilst life did last that league was tender); Thine Earl, half dead, gave in thy hand his will; Which cause did thee this pining death procure," Ere summers four times seven thou couldst fulfil. Ah! Clere, if love had booted, care, or cost, Heaven had not won, nor earth so timely lost. 54 1 'Blast:' proclaim by trumpet.- 'Lively :' living. —3 Freat:' fret.Cinders' ashes. Clere: Thomas, a cousin of Anne Boleyn, and faithful follower of Surrey. He died in 1545 of a hurt received at Montreuil in Surrey's defence. Shelton: ' supposed to have been a daughter of Sir John Shelton, of Shelton, in Norfolk. Clere never married her.- Chase :' didst choose. Kelso:' Surrey's connexion with the burning of Kelso is unknown. It occurred in 1542, under Norfolk.-Procure' he received the wound of which he died, when protecting the wounded earl at the gate of Montreuil. OF SARDANAPALUS'S DISHONOURABLE LIFE AND MISERABLE DEATH. TH' Assyrian king, in peace, with foul desire Feeble of spirit, impatient of pain, When he had lost his honour, and his right, (Proud, time of wealth, in storms appall'd with dread), Murther'd himself to show some manful deed. 10 HOW NO AGE IS CONTENT WITH HIS OWN ESTATE, AND HOW THE AGE OF CHILDREN IS THE HAPPIEST IF THEY HAD SKILL TO UNDERSTAND IT. LAID in my quiet bed in study as I were, I saw within my troubled head a heap of thoughts appear; I saw the little boy, in thought how oft that he Did wish of God to 'scape the rod, a tall young man to be; The young man eke that feels his bones with pains oppress'd, 7 How he would be a rich old man, to live and lie at rest; The rich old man that sees his end draw on so sore, How he would be a boy again, to live so much the more. Whereat full oft I smiled, to see how all these three, From boy to man, from man to boy, would chop and change degree; And musing thus I think, the case is very strange, That man from wealth,1 to live in woe, doth ever seek to change. Thus thoughtful as I lay, I saw my wither'd skin, How it doth show my dented chews,2 the flesh was worn so thin; And eke my toothless chaps, the gates of my right way, That opes and shuts as I do speak, do thus unto me say: 'Thy white and hoarish hairs, the messengers of age, That show, like lines of true belief, that this life doth assuage, 20 Bid thee lay hand, and feel them hanging on thy chin; The which do write two ages past, the third now coming in. Hang up therefore the bit of thy young wanton time: And thou that therein beaten art, the happiest life define.' Whereat I sigh'd, and said: 'Farewell! my wonted joy; Truss up thy pack, and trudge from me to every little boy, And tell them thus from me, their time most happy is, If, to their time, they reason had to know the truth of this.' Wealth' well-being.-Chews:' jaws. BONUM EST MIHI QUOD HUMILIASTI ME.1 THE storms are past: the clouds are overblown; And patience graff'd in a determin'd breast; And in the heart, where heaps of griefs were grown, The sweet revenge hath planted mirth and rest. No company so pleasant as mine own. Thraldom at large hath made this prison free. The cureless wound that bleedeth day and night; To think, alas! such hap should granted be Unto a wretch, that hath no heart to fight, To spill that blood, that hath so oft been shed, For Britain's sake, alas! and now is dead! 10 EXHORTATION TO LEARN BY OTHERS' 4 MY RATCLIF, when thy rechless youth offends, Receive the scourge by others' chastisement; For such calling, when it works none amends, Then plagues are sent without advertisement. Yet Solomon said, the wrongèd shall recure : But Wyatt said true, 'The scar doth aye endure.' 5 In English, 'It is good for me that thou hast afflicted me.'-' Pardie:' par Dieu. Ratclif:' Sir Humphery, one of the gentlemen pensioners.— Rechless:' reckless. The scar doth aye endure : ' these words occur in a short piece of Wyatt's, headed, 'Wyatt, being in prison, to Brian.' THE FANCY OF A WEARIER LOVER. THE fancy, which that I have servèd long, And bade me fly the cause of my misease. And to myself I said, 'Alas! those days And with that thought I met my guide, that plain, 10 Out of the way wherein I wander'd wrong, Brought me amidst the hills in base Bullayne : 2 Where I am now, as restless to remain Against my will, full pleased with my pain. A SATIRE AGAINST THE CITIZENS OF LONDON.3 เ LONDON! hast thou accused me Of breach of laws, the root of strife? So fervent hot, thy dissolute life, Fancy' love.- Bullayne:' Boulogne. It appears, from an entry in the Privy Council book, that Surrey, along with two youthful companions, had to appear before the Council for breaking with stone-bows of certain windows.' They were confined for a month in the Tower; and as the complaint had been made at the instance of the city authorities, Surrey avenged himself by this satire. He tells the citizens that he gave them an alarm at midnight to frighten them amidst their sins. |