Wittes Pilgrimage (by Poeticall Essaies): Through a VVorld of amorous Sonnets, Soule-passions, and other Passages, Diuine, Philosophicall, Morall, Poeticall, and Politicall. By Iohn Davies |
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Enuy is blind and can do nothing but dispraise Vertue.
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 | Wittes Pilgrimage |  |
Enuy is blind and can do nothing but dispraise Vertue.
The best conceit that euer Braine did breede(Though better borne then bred, or first conceau'd,
May in good birth, yet haue such euil speed,
That scarse the spirit of life may be perceaud:
For, Emulation hath no patience
(No more then Ignorance) to stand vpon
The narrow search of strict Intelligence
But dooms it dead, sith it liues so alone.
That liues alone that singularly liues
VVhich is the life of Singularity:
To liue that life stil Emulation striues
Enuy seemes pois'ned with anothers praise,
Which as those praises swell, swells more, and more;
Who, worne to nought, hir selfe (yet) only waighes,
And weighes no others woorths, vnlesse too poore.
But that shee seeketh to enrich alone,
Not of Deuotion, but of damd desire
To make the greater woorth the lesser knowne:
For shee doth most ecclipse what is most cleir.
Whie toile we then? or lose our golden Sleepes
To gāine (with golden Time) more glorious praise?
Sith basest Enuy, highest Honor keepes,
By whose dispight hir glorie oft decayes.
It is because the longer after Death
Our Fames do flee, the longer breathe they shall:
For, Enuies winde doth vanish with our breath;
And when our harts breake, broken is hir Gall:
Then this doth comfort all that merit fame
Vertue liues when Enuy dies with shame.
| Wittes Pilgrimage | |