| |
| WHO 1 woulde not trauaile all his life | |
| Such science for to knoe, | |
| As able is to rid from strife | |
| This carcasse bare, and woe? | |
| |
| The state itselfe is nothing sure, | 5 |
| Full soone doth vade away: | |
| No earthly thing doth long endure, | |
| But once it doth decay. | |
| |
| Why then is man so loth to goe, | |
| This fickle life to leaue? | 10 |
| Sith he so well the state doth know, | |
| He doth himselfe deceaue. | |
| |
| The pompeous state and worldly welth | |
| Doth many mindes so blinde, | |
| That when they should accomptes repay, | 15 |
| Most farthest are behinde. | |
| |
| The birde, that in the cage doth sing | |
| Sometimes both shrill and cleere, | |
| In ayrie skye with better note, | |
| As doth full well appeere; | 20 |
| |
| Because his kinde is there to be | |
| If he the cage may scape: | |
| Most ioyfull then beginnes his laye; | |
| No more for feare doth quake. | |
| |
| But man’s regard is nothing so, | 25 |
| The cage of sinne to flie: | |
| The greater plague doth oft ensue | |
| When that the poore doth crie. | |
| |
| For many goods so well doth loue, | |
| They care not how they get; | 30 |
| So they may haue to serue their mindes | |
| Their whole desire is set. | |
