And bitter sends she now, to make me taste the better The pleasant sweet, when that it comes, to make it seem the sweeter.

And so determine I to serve until my breath;

54

Yea, rather die a thousand times, than once to false my faith.

And if my feeble corpse, through weight of woful smart, Do fail, or faint, my will it is that still she keep my

heart;

And when this carcass here to earth shall be refared,
I do bequeath my wearied ghost to serve her afterward.

THE MEANS TO ATTAIN HAPPY LIFE.1

1 MARTIAL, the things that do attain

The happy life, be these, I find :
The riches left, not got with pain;
The fruitful ground, the quiet mind:

2 The equal friend; no grudge, no strife;
No charge of rule nor governance;
Without disease, the healthful life;
The household of continuance :

3 The mean diet, no delicate fare;

True wisdom join'd with simpleness;
The night discharged of all care,

Where wine the wit may not oppress:

4 The faithful wife, without debate ;

Such sleeps as may beguile the night;
Contented with thine own estate;

Ne wish for Death, ne fear his might.

'A translation from Martial, one of the earliest in the language.

PRAISE OF MEAN AND CONSTANT ESTATE.

(AFTER HORACE.)

1 OF thy life, Thomas,1 this compass well mark :
Not aye with full sails the high seas to beat ;
Ne by coward dread, in shunning storms dark,
On shallow shores thy keel in peril freat.2

2 Whoso gladly halseth 3 the golden mean,

Void of dangers advisedly hath his home;
Not with loathsome muck as a den unclean,
Nor palace like, whereat disdain may glome.4

3 The lofty pine the great wind often rives;
With violenter sway fallen turrets steep;
Lightnings assault the high mountains and clives.5
A heart well stay'd, in overthwartes deep,

4 Hopeth amends; in sweet, doth fear the sour. God that sendeth, withdraweth winter sharp. Now ill, not aye thus: once Phœbus to low'r,

With bow unbent, shall cease, and frame to harp

5 His voice. In strait estate appear thou stout;
And so wisely, when lucky gale of wind
All thy puft sails shall fill, look well about;

Take in a reef: haste is waste, proof doth find.

36

1 Thomas: Sir Thomas Wyatt.-2 Freat:' fret or grate. Halseth :' embraceth.Glome:' look at scornfully.-5 Clives:' cliffs.— ' Overthwartes' crosses, adversities.

PRAISE OF CERTAIN PSALMS OF DAVID.

TRANSLATED BY SIR THOMAS [WYATT] THE ELDER.

THE great Macedon, that out of Persia chased
Darius, of whose huge power all Asia rung,
In the rich ark1 Dan Homer's rhymes he placed,
Who feigned gests 2 of heathen princes sung.
What holy grave, what worthy sepulture,

To Wyatt's Psalms 3 should Christians then purchase?
Where he doth paint the lively faith, and pure,
The steadfast hope, the sweet return to grace,
Of just David, by perfect penitence :

Where rulers may see in a mirror clear, The bitter fruit of false concupiscence;

How Jewry bought Uriah's death full dear.

In princes' hearts God's scourge imprinted deep,
Ought them awake out of their sinful sleep.

10

OF THE DEATH OF SIR THOMAS WYATT.

DIVERS thy death do diversely bemoan :

Some that in presence of thy livelihed 4 b
Lurked, whose breasts envy with hate had swoll'n, «
Yield Cæsar's tears upon Pompeius' head.
Some, that watch'd with the murd'rer's knife,
With eager thirst to drink thy guiltless blood, d.
Whose practice brake by happy end of life,

With envious tears to hear thy fame so good.

A

''Ark:' 'coffer, chest. Gests:' exploits.- Wyatt's Psalms :' the seven penitential psalms, 'drawen into Englyshe meter by Sir Thomas Wyatt, Knyght.' 'Livelihed:' the state of life; 'presence of thy livelihed,' presence of thee living.

S

But I, that knew what harbour'd in that head,
What virtues rare were temper'd in that breast,
Honour the place that such a jewel bred,

And kiss the ground whereas the corpse doth rest, With vapour'd eyes, from whence such streams availe,2 As Pyramus did on Thisbe's breast bewail.

OF THE SAME.

1 WYATT resteth here, that quick could never rest;
Whose heavenly gifts increased by disdain,
And virtue sank the deeper in his breast;
Such profit he by envy could obtain.

2 A head, where wisdom mysteries did frame;

Whose hammers beat still in that lively brain,
As on a stithe,3 where that some work of fame
Was daily wrought, to turn to Britain's gain.

3 A visage stern and mild, where both did grow
Vice to contemn, in virtue to rejoice :
Amid great storms, whom grace assured so,
To live upright, and smile at fortune's choice.

4 A hand that taught what may be said in rhyme;
That reft Chaucer the glory of his wit:
A mark, the which (unperfected for time)
Some may approach, but never none shall hit.

5 A tongue that served in foreign realms his king;
Whose courteous talk to virtue did inflame

Each noble heart; a worthy guide to bring
Our English youth by travail unto fame.

'Whereas: where. Availe:' fall down.-3Stithe :' forge, or anvil.

6 An eye, whose judgment none affect 1 could blind,
Friends to allure, and foes to reconcile;
Whose piercing look did represent a mind
With virtue fraught, reposed,2 void of guile.

7 A heart, where dread was never so impress'd To hide the thought that might the truth advance; In neither fortune loft,3 nor yet repress'd,

To swell in wealth, or yield unto mischance.

8 A valiant corpse, where force and beauty met: Happy, alas! too happy, but for foes,

Lived, and ran the race that Nature set;

Of manhood's shape, where she the mould did lose.

9 But to the heavens that simple soul is fled,

Which left, with such as covet Christ to know,
Witness of faith, that never shall be dead;
Sent for our health, but not received so.

Thus for our guilt this jewel have we lost;
The earth his bones, the heavens possess his ghost.

OF THE SAME.

IN the rude age, when knowledge was not rife,
If Jove in Crete, and other were that taught

Arts, to convert to profit of our life,

Wend 5 after death to have their temples sought:

เ Affect' affection, passion.-2 Reposed:' calmly fixed.-3 'Loft: ' haughty. Corpse :' person. Wend:' did ween, or think.

46

56