The Minor Poems of John Lydgate edited from all available mss. with an attempt to establish The Lydgate Canon: By Henry Noble MacCracken |
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 | The Minor Poems of John Lydgate |  |
The Dysposicion of þe World.
[by Lydgatt: Stow.]
T]he monþes vary, eueryche haþ his sygne
And harde hit ys all wedyrs for to know,
The tyme somewhyle ys gracious & benygne,
And vppon hilles and valeys þat ben low
The iiij. wyndes contrariosly do blow
In every storme man ys here abydyng,
Som to release, & som to overthrow,
How shuld man þan be stedfast of lyuyng?
36
The worldly answer, fortune transmutable,Trust of lordshyp a feynt sekernes,
Euery seson varyeth, frendshyp ys vnstable,
Now myrthe, now sorow, now hele, now sekenes,
Now ebbe of pouert, now flodys of ryches,
All stont in chaunge, now losse, now wynnyng,
Tempest in see & wyndes sturdynes
Makeþ men vnstable & ferefull of lyuyng.
37
Tytan somwhyle fresshly doþe appere,Then commeþ a storme & doþ hys lyght deface,
The soile of somer with floures glad of chere
Wynters rasure doþe all awey rase;
All erþely þynges sodenly do passe
Whyche may haue here no seker abydyng,
Eke all astates false fortune doth manase,
How shuld a man þan be stedfast of lyuyng?
734
38
Beholde & see þe transmutacion,Howe þe seson of grene lusty age,
Force of Iuuentus, strong, hardy as a lyoun,
Tyme of manhode, wysdom, sad of corage,
And howe Decrepitus turnyth to dotage,
Cast all in a balance, & foryete noþyng,
And thow shalt fynd þis lyfe a pylgremage,
In whyche þer ys no stedfast abydyng.
39
Then lyft vp thyne ey vnto [þe] heuyn,And pray þy Lord, whyche ys eternall,
That syt so ferr aboue þe sterres seuyn,
In hys p[a]lace most imperyall,
To graunt þe grace, here in þys lyfe mortall,
Contricion, shryft, & howsyll at þy departyng,
And, er þou passe hens, remyssion finall
Towarde þe lyfe, where ioy ys euerlastyng.
Explicit.
Amen.
| The Minor Poems of John Lydgate | |