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!

SONG, 1588.

From the same.

WHAT pleasure have great princes More dainty to their choice, Than herdmen wild, who careless In quiet life rejoice:

And Fortune's fate not fearing,

Sing sweet in summer morning.

Their dealings plain and rightful

Are void of all deceit;

They never know how spiteful

It is to feel and wait

On favourite presumptuous,

Whose pride is vain and sumptuous.

All day their flocks each tendeth;

All night they take their rest,

More quiet than who sendeth

His ship into the East,

Where gold and pearl are plenty,

But getting very dainty.

For lawyers and their pleading

They' esteem it not a straw;
They think that honest meaning

Is of itself a law,

Where Conscience judgeth plainly,

They spend no money vainly.

O happy who thus liveth,

Not caring much for gold,
With clothing which sufficeth

To keep him from the cold:
Though poor and plain his diet,
it is and quiet.

Yet merry

SONNET, 1595.

By George Chapman, the Translator of Homer.

MUSES, that sing Love's sensual emperie,
And lovers kindling your enraged fires
At Cupid's bonfires burning in the eye,
Blown with the empty breath of vain desires;

You, that prefer the painted cabinet
Before the wealthy jewels it doth store ye,
That all your joys in dying figures set,

And stain the living substance of your glory; Abjure those joys, abhor their memory;

And let my love the honour'd subject be
Of Love, and Honour's complete history!

Your eyes were never yet let in to see
The majesty and riches of the mind,

That dwell in darkness; for your God is blind.

MEDITATION WHEN WE GO TO BED.

By William Hunnis.

From his "Handful of Honisuckles,” 1585.

O LORD my God, I wandered have

As one that runs astray,

And have in thought, in word, and deed,
In idleness and play,

Offended sore thy Majesty,

In heaping sin to sin,

And yet thy mercy hath me spar'd;

So gracious hast thou been!

O Lord, my faults I now confess,

And sorry am therefore;

But not so much as fain I would:

O Lord, what wilt thou more?

It is thy grace must bring that spirit,
For which I humbly pray,

And that this night thou me defend,
As thou hast done this day.

And grant, when these mine eyes and tongue
Shall fail through Nature's might,

That then the powers of my poor soul
May praise thee day and night.

MEDITATION.

By the same.

From his "Poor Widow's Mite," 1585.

THOU, God, that rul'st and reign'st in light,

That flesh cannot attain;

Thou God that know'st, the thoughts of men

Are altogether vain;

Thou God, whom neither tongue of man,

Nor angel can express;

Thou God it is, that I do seek;

Thou pity my distress!

Thy seat, O God, is every where;

Thy power all powers transcend;

Thy wisdom cannot measur'd be,
For that it hath no end!

Thou art the power and wisdom too,
And sole felicity:

But I a lump of sinful flesh;

Nurse of iniquity.

Thou art by Nature merciful,

And Mercy is thy name;

And I by Nature miserable,

The thrall of sin and shame:

Then let thy Nature, O good God!

Now work his force in me;

And cleanse the nature of my sin,

And heal my misery:

One depth, good Lord, another craves;
My depth of sinful crime

Requires thy depth of mercy great,

For saving health in time.

Sweet Christ, grant that thy depth of grace

May swallow up my sin;

That I thereby may whiter be,

Than even snow hath been.