Characters and Essayes :: :: University of Virginia Library

The Character and Patterne is expresse,
Of worldly Miserie, and VVretchednesse.
The Gold and Money that these Misers haue,
Their Master is, and they their Silvers Slaue.
What they doe call, and for their owne doe claime,
They haue it not for it bot holdeth Them.
They haue no Grace Divine, nor God, bot it,
VVhich robs their Reason, and bereaues their VVit.
The more they come by, more and more they craue;
And wish their Gardivyots were their Graue.
For where their Heart and Treasure is, there would
They ly, and bee engraveld with their Gold.
Their Greed it is, f'vnsatiate, and such,
Gaine what they lyke, they cannot get too much.
Their ev'r vnbounded Pleasure in their Pence,
Makes them but Soule, but Sight, but Shame, but Sence.
Their Feare, is VVant, and for to get, their Care:
Their Dyet is, plaine Fasting, or poore Fare.
Their Studie, Sparing; and their loathsome lyfe,
Still with it selfe is at Debate and Stryfe.
Their Habit, and their Cloathing, oft declares,
They were the Hang-mans, or of rouped VVares.
Their Teeth of Interest destroyes and eates,
And is a Canker vnto all Estates.
They swill, they sucke, and like Loach-Leeches Bloods,
And drinke their Debters Substance, and their Goods.
They loathed liue, and vnlamented die:
Drudges to Drosse, and Mappes of Miserie.