Epigram. 14.
[Pitty ô pitty, death had power]
------ Mediocribus esse Poetis
Non homines, non dij, non concessere columnæ.
Horat. arte
Pitty ô pitty, death had power
Ouer Chaucer, Lidgate, Gower:
They that equal'd all the Sages
Of these, their owne, of former Ages,
And did their learned Lights aduance
In times of darkest ignorance,
When palpable impurity
Kept knowledge in obscurity,
And all went Hood-winkt in this Ile,
They could see and shine the while:
Nor Greece nor Rome could reckon
Solebāt Græci, & Rom: omnes alias gentes Barbaras nuncupari.
vs,
As then, among the Barbarous:
Since these three knew to turne perdy
The Scru-pin of Phylosophy
As well as they; and left behind
As rich memorials of the mind:
By which they liue, though they are dead,
As all may see that will but read;
And on good workes will spend good howres,
In Chancers, Lidgates, and in Gowers.
