University of Virginia Library

Et fugit velut umbra. IOB.

My Lord

That shadow your faire body made
So full of sport it still the mimick playde
Ev'n as you mov'd and look'd but yesterday
So huge in stature; Night hath stolne away.
And this is th' emblem of our life: To please
And flatter which, we sayle ore broken seas
Vnfaithfull in their rockes and tides; we dare
All the sicke humors of a forraine ayre.
And mine so deepe in earth, as we would trie
To unlocke hell, should gold there hoarded lie.
But when we have built up an ædefice
T' outwrastle Time, we have but built on ice:
For firme however all our structures be,
Polisht with smoothest Indian Ivory,
Rais'd high on marble, our unthankfull heire
Will scarce retaine in memory, that we were:
Tracke through the ayre the footesteps of the wind,
And search the print of ships sayl'd by; then finde
Where all the glories of those Monarchs be
Who bore such sway in the worlds infancie.
Time hath devour'd them all: and scarce can fame
Give an account, that ere they had a name.
How can he then who doth the world controle
And strikes a terror now in either Pole,
Th' insulting Turke secure himselfe that he
Shall not be lost to dull Posterity?
And though the Superstition of those Times
Which deified Kings to warrant their owne crimes
Translated Cæsar to a starre; yet they,
Who every Region of the skie Survay;
In their Cœlestiall travaile, that bright coast
Could nere discover which containes his ghost.
And after death to make that awe survive
Which subjects owe their Princes yet alive,
Though they build pallaces of brasse and jet
And keepe them living in a counterfet;
The curious looker on soone passes by
And findes the tombe a sickenesse to his eye.
Neither when once the soule is gone doth all
The solemne triumph of the funerall
Adde to her glory or her paine release:
Then all the pride of warre, and wealth of peace
For which we toild, from us abstracted be
And onely serve to swell the history.
These are sad thoughts (my Lord) and such as fright
The easie soule made tender with delight,
Who thinkes that he hath forfetted that houre
Which addes not to his pleasure or his powre.
But by the friendship which your Lordship daignes
Your Servant, I have found your judgement raignes
Above all passion in you: and that sence
Could never yet demolish that strong fence
Which Vertue guards you with: By which you are
Triumphant in the best, the inward warre.