The Scourge of Folly Consisting of satyricall Epigrams, And others in honour of many noble Persons and worthy friends, together, with a pleasant (though discordant) Descant upon most English Proverbs and others [by John Davies] |
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Of Mirth.
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 | The Scourge of Folly |  |
Of Mirth.
Mirth in a meane doth please; meane mirth displeases(I meane that meane that yeelds a Rellish double)
Meane in the soundest sence, Sence nere diseases:
But mirth, too meane, sound Sence doth nought but trouble.
Novv, hovv to hit the right moode of this meane
(That soundeth svveetely to the soundest Sence
And to auoid the other vvhich doth leane
On base conceit borne vp vvith Impudence)
Iudgement must scanne, and (scanning) censure it?
Ah, vvould she might, and Folly cease to scan
Then men might passe the Pikes vvith compleat Wit
Of Enuy, that still girds the vvitty man.
Of Iests, there are innumerable kindes,
Some sharpe, some blunt, some close, some vvondrous broade
Simple, compound, svveete, bitter, like their mindes
From vvhome they come, or in vvhome make aboade.
Nor all Iests like not all: though some like some:
What some desire, some other most detest:
Why then, of all, this is the totall Summe;
When Iests agree with Persons, Time and Place,
Then Iests and Mirth haue euer greatest grace:
But I, desirous to delight each minde,
Haue made an hotch-potch heere, of eury kinde.
| The Scourge of Folly | |