University of Virginia Library

Diogenes lost labour.

Philosopher, thy labour is in vaine,
Put out thy candle, get thee home againe,
If companie of honest men thou lacke,
They are so scarce, thou must alone go backe.
But if thou please to take some knaues along,
Giue but a beck, & store wil flock and throng.
He that did vomit out his house and land,
Euen with a winke, will ready come to hand.
And he of whom thou didst ten shillings craue
As thinking nere againe his aimes to haue,
Because he was a prodigall in waste,
And to vndoe him-selfe made wondrous haste.
If thou hast roome to stooe him in thy Tunne,
He will be readie both to goe and runne.
Or those same drunken Fidlers, thou didst finde
A tuning wood, when they themselues were blinde,
Whome thou didst with thy staffe belabour well:
They'le sing about the Tub where thou dost dwell.
All those that were presented to thy sight,
When thou sought'st honest men by Candle-light,
Make a step backe, they in the Cittie bee,
With many hundreds which thou didst not see.
Houses of rascalles; shops euen full of knaues,
Tauerne and Ale-house fild with drunken slaues.
Your Ordinaries and your common-Innes
Are whole-sale ware-houses of common sinnes.
Into a bawdie house thou didst not looke,
Nor any notice of their caperings tooke.
Bawdes with their Puncks, and Panders with their straps
Whores with their feathers in their veluet caps,
Those Sallamanders that doth bathe in fier,
And make a trade of burning lusts desire.
That doe salute them whome they entertaine,
With A poxe take you till we meete againe.
Nor those whose dayly, Nouices entice,
To lend them mony vpon cheating Dice.
And in the bowling-allyes tooke with betting,
By three, and foure to one, most basely getting.
All these vnseene appeare not to thy face,
With mayn a Cut-purse in the Market place,
That searches pockets being siluer linde,
If Counterfets about men he can finde.
And hath Commission for it so to deale
Under the hang-mans warrant, hand and seale.
Innumerable such I could repeate,
That vse the craft of Coney-catch and cheate.
The Cities vermin, worse then Rats and Mice,
But leaue the Actors, to rewarde of vice:
He that reprooues it, showes a detestation,
He that corrects it, workes a reformation.
Who doe more wrongs and iniuries abide,
Then honest men that are best qualified?
They that doe offer least abuse to anye,
Must be prepared for induring many.
But heer's the comfort that the vertuous finde:
Their hell is first, their Heauen is behinde.