NOBLE NUMBERS

NOBLE NUMBERS

• 1

HIS CONFESSION

LOOK how our foul days do exceed our fair: And as our bad more than our good works

are,

Ev'n so those lines, penn'd by my wanton

wit,

Treble the number of these good I 've writ. Things precious are least numerous: men

are prone

To do ten bad for one good action.

2

HIS PRAYER FOR ABSOLUTION

FOR those my unbaptized rhymes,
Writ in my wild unhallow'd times;
For every sentence, clause, and word
That's not inlaid with thee, my Lord.
Forgive me, God, and blot each line
Out of my book, that is not thine.
But if, 'mongst all, thou find'st here one
Worthy thy benediction,

That one of all the rest shall be

The glory of my work and me.

3

GRACE FOR A CHILD

HERE a little child I stand
Heaving up my either hand;
Cold as paddocks though they be,
Here I lift them up to thee,
For a benison to fall

On our meat and on us all. Amen.

4

TO HIS CONSCIENCE

CAN I not sin, but thou wilt be
My private prothonotary?
Can I not woo thee, to pass by
A short and sweet iniquity?
I'll cast a mist and cloud upon
My delicate transgression,
So utter dark, as that no eye
Shall see the hugg'd impiety.

Gifts blind the wise, and bribes do
please

And wind all other witnesses;
And wilt not thou with gold be tied,
To lay thy pen and ink aside,
That in the mirk and tongueless night,
Wanton I may, and thou not write?