XLII.

YOUTH AND AGE.

RABBED age and youth cannot live together:

CR

Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather;

Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare. Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short;

Youth is nimble, age is lame;

Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold;
Youth is wild, and age is tame.

Age, I do abhor thee; youth, I do adore thee;
O! my love, my love is young.

Age, I do defy thee: O! sweet shepherd, hie thee,
For methinks thou stayest too long.

XLIII.

SIR HENRY WOTTON, 1568-1639.

THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE.

H

OW happy is he born and taught,

That serveth not another's will;

Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!

Whose passions not his masters are ;
Whose soul is still prepared for death,
Untied unto the world by care

Of public fame, or private breath;

Who envies none that chance doth raise,
Nor vice; who never understood
How deepest wounds are given by praise;
Nor rules of state, but rules of good;

Who hath his life from rumours freed;
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;

Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
Nor ruin make oppressors great :

F

Who God doth late and early pray

More of his grace than gifts to lend ; And entertains the harmless day

With a religious book or friend.

This man is freed from servile bands Of hope to rise, or fear to fall; Lord of himself, though not of lands;

And having nothing, yet hath all.

XLIV.

THOMAS DEKKER, 1570?-1638?

A

SONG.

RT thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers:

O sweet content!

Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexed?

O punishment.

Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vexed?
To add to golden numbers, golden numbers.

O sweet content, O sweet content.

Work apace, apace, apace, apace,
Honest labour bears a lovely face,

Then hey nonny, nonny: hey nonny, nonny.

Canst drink the waters of the crisped spring,
O sweet content!

Swim'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears,
O punishment.

Then he that patiently want's burden bears,
No burden bears, but is a king, a king.

O sweet content, O sweet content.

Work apace, apace, apace, apace,
Honest labour bears a lovely face,

Then hey nonny, nonny: hey nonny, nonny.

XLV.

JOHN WEBSTek. ?

CORNELIA'S SONG.

ALL for the robin-red-breast and the wren,

CA

Since o'er shady groves they hover,

And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.
Call unto his funeral dole

The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole,

To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm,

And, when gay tombs are robbed, sustain no harm;
But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men,
For with his nails he'll dig them up again.

Let holy church receive him duly,

Since he paid the church tithes truly.