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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 | The Scourge of Folly |  |
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Epig. 293. To old Iohn Heywood the Epigrammatist, wheresoeuer.
Olde
Heywood, haue vvith thee, in
His od vaine,
That yet vvith Booke-sellers, as nevv, doth remaine.
Nevv Poets sing riming; but thy Rymes aduance
Themselues in light Measures for, thus they doe dance.
Ile gather some Prouerbes thou gatherdst before.
To descant vpon them, as thou didst of yore:
But yet not as thou didst, for novv that vvere sin;
But as my Muse prompteth; and thus I begin.
That yet vvith Booke-sellers, as nevv, doth remaine.
Nevv Poets sing riming; but thy Rymes aduance
Themselues in light Measures for, thus they doe dance.
Ile gather some Prouerbes thou gatherdst before.
To descant vpon them, as thou didst of yore:
But yet not as thou didst, for novv that vvere sin;
But as my Muse prompteth; and thus I begin.
The good or the ill of all a mans life
Is the good, or ill choice, of his good or ill wife.
Prouerbiall Rime thy reason I loue;
Yet may not thy reason vvith reason approue:
Sith there is more good and ill in this life,
Then there is in choyce of good or ill vvife.
For, Soueraigne GOOD is heere to be found,
And the like EVILL: for both heere abound:
The first being life, the last being death,
Excells both the other aboue and beneath.
But of this life onely, acknovvledge I must,
It is most vndoubted vvhat thou hast discust:
And, as my Rimes iumpe, in scanning thy sence;
So iumpe I vvith thee in Iudgements expence,
Is the good, or ill choice, of his good or ill wife.
Prouerbiall Rime thy reason I loue;
Yet may not thy reason vvith reason approue:
Sith there is more good and ill in this life,
Then there is in choyce of good or ill vvife.
For, Soueraigne GOOD is heere to be found,
And the like EVILL: for both heere abound:
The first being life, the last being death,
Excells both the other aboue and beneath.
But of this life onely, acknovvledge I must,
It is most vndoubted vvhat thou hast discust:
And, as my Rimes iumpe, in scanning thy sence;
So iumpe I vvith thee in Iudgements expence,
| The Scourge of Folly | |