The Works in Verse and Prose of Nicholas Breton For the First Time Collected and Edited: With Memorial-Introduction, Notes and Illustrations, Glossarial Index, Facsimilies, &c. By the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart. In Two Volumes |
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 | The Works in Verse and Prose of Nicholas Breton |  |
Fantasma.
In fortune as I lay, my fortune was to findeSuch fancies as my carefull thought, had brought into my minde,
And when each one was gone to rest, full soft in bed to lie,
I would haue slept, but then the watch did follow still mine eye:
And sodainly I saw a sea of sorrowes prest,
Whose wicked waues of sharpe repulse brought me vnquiet rest.
I saw this world, and how it went, each state in his degree,
And that from wealth graunted is both life and libertie:
I saw how enuie it did raigne, and bare the greatest price,
Yet greater poyson is not found within the Cockatrice:
I also saw how that disdaine, oft times to forge my woe,
Gaue me the cup of bitter sweete, to pledge my mortall foe:
I also saw how that deceit, to rest no place could finde,
But still constraind an endles paine, to follow natures kinde.
I also saw most strange, how Nature did forsake
the blood that in her womb was wrought, as doth the loathed snake,
I saw how fancie would remaine, no longer then her lust,
And as the winde how she doth change, and is not for to trust:
I saw how stedfastnes did flie, with winges of often change,
A bird, but truely seldome seene, her nature is so strange:
I saw how pleasant Time did passe, as Flowers in the Mead,
To day that riseth red as Rose, tomorrow lyeth dead.
I saw my time how it did run, as sand out of the Glasse,
Euen as each hower appoynted is, from tide to tide to passe:
I saw the yeares that I had spent, and losse of all my gaine,
And how the sport of youthfull playes, my folly did retaine:
I saw how that the little Ant in Summer still doth runne
To seeke her foode, whereby to liue in winter for to come:
I saw eke vertue, how she sate the threed of life to spinne,
Which sheweth the end of euery thing before it doeth begin.
And when al these I saw, with many moe perdie,
In me my thoughts each one had wrought a perfect propertie:
And then I sayd vnto my selfe, a Lesson this shalbe,
For other that shal after come, for to beware by me.
Thus all the night I did deuise which way I might constraine,
To forme a plot that wit might worke the branches in my braine.
Finis.
| The Works in Verse and Prose of Nicholas Breton | |