 | "Songes and Sonettes written by the ryght honorable
Lorde Henry Haward late Earle of Surrey, and other" |  |
Of all the heauenly gifts
Of frendship.
Of all the heauenly gifts, that mortall men commend,What trusty treasure in the world can cou[n]teruail a frend?
Our helth is soon decayd: goodes, casuall, light, and vain:
Broke haue we seen the force of powr, and honour suffer stain.
In bodies lust, man doth resemble but base brute:
True vertue gets, and keeps a frend, good guide of our pursute:
Whose harty zeal with ours accords, in euery case:
No terme of time, no space of place, no storme can it deface.
When fickle fortune fayls, this knot endureth still:
Thy kin out of their kinde may swarue, when fre[n]ds owe thee good wil.
What sweeter solace shall befall, than one to finde,
Vpon whose brest thou mayst repose the secrets of thy minde?
Hee wayleth at thy wo, his tears with thine be shed:
With thee dothe hee all ioyes enioye: so leef a life is led.
Behold thy frend, and of thy self the pattern see:
One soull, a wonder shall it seem, in bodies twain to bee.
In absence, present, riche in want, in sickenesse sownd,
Yea, after death aliue, mayst thou by thy sure frend be found.
Ech house, ech towne, ech realm by stedfast loue dothe stand:
Where fowl debate breeds bitter bale, in eche diuided land.
O frendship, flowr of flowrs: O liuely sprite of life,
O sacred bond of blisfull peace, the stalworth staunch of strife:
Scipio with Lelius didst thou conioyn in care,
At home, in warrs, for weal and wo, with egall faith to fare.
Gesippus eke with Tite, Damon with Pythias,
And with Menetus sonne Achill, by thee combined was.
Euryalus, and Nisus gaue Virgil cause to sing:
Of Pylades doo many rymes, and of Orestes ring.
O2r
Down Theseus went to hell, Pirith, his frend to finde:
O [that] the wiues, in these our dayes, were to their mates so kinde.
Cicero, the frendly man, to Atticus, his frend,
Of frendship wrote: such couples lo dothe lott but seeldom lend.
Recount thy race, now ronne: how few shalt thou there see,
Of whome to saye: This same is hee, that neuer fayled mee.
So rare a iewel then must nedes be holden dere:
And as thou wilt esteem thyself, so take thy chosen fere.
The tyrant, in dispayre, no lack of gold bewayls:
But, Out I am vndoon (sayth hee) for all my frendship fayls.
Wherfore sins nothing is more kindely for our kinde:
Next wisdome, thus that teacheth vs, loue we the frendful minde.
| "Songes and Sonettes written by the ryght honorable
Lorde Henry Haward late Earle of Surrey, and other" | |