One and Thyrtye Epigrammes :: :: University of Virginia Library

of much wyckednes,
As Ecclesasticus
doeth playnely wytnes
Idle persons therfore
can not be all cleare,
As by the storie of Sodome
it doeth well appeare
But that we may come nere
to our owne age
The Idlenes of abbays
made them outrage
Yet let vs come neare
euen to the tyme present
And se what myschyfe
Idle persons do inuent
What cōspiracies haue bē wroght
wythin this lyttle whyle,
By Idle men that dyd

the commons begyle,
And what haue Idle men
alwaye practised
To breake the peace of prynces
that they myght be hyered
I wyll not saye what
the Idlenes of priestes hath done,
Nor yet the Idlenes
of seruauntis in London,
Let euerie man search
his owne houshold well
And whether the thynge
be true that I tell,
Yea what abuse dyd euer.
emonge the people rayne
But the same dyd fyrst sprynge
out of an Idle brayn.
Idlenes therfore
maye ryghte well be named
The gate of all mischiefe
that euer was framed
Ye masters and fathers therfore
that feare God omnipotent
Kepe youre families

leaste ye be shente
For if thorowe their idlenes
they fall into outrage
Your iudgemente shall be strayght
for they are cōmitted to your charg
Kepe them therfore styll occupied,
in doynge youre busines
Or els in readynge or hearynge
some bokes of Godlines
And woulde god the maiestrates
woulde se men set a worke
And that within thys realme
none were suffered to lurke
This realme hath thre cōmodities
woule tynne and leade
Which brīg wrought wtin ye realme
eche man might get his bread