| |
| AND first, that no man else may censure me | |
| For vaunting what belongeth not to me, | |
| Heare what I have not, for I’le not deny | |
| To make confession of my poverty. | |
| I have not of myselfe the powre or grace | 5 |
| To be, or not to be; one minute-space | |
| I have not strength another word to write, | |
| Or tell you what I purpose to indite; | |
| Or thinke out halfe a thought, before my death, | |
| But by the leave of him that gave me breath. | 10 |
| I have no native goodnes in my soul, | |
| But I was over all corrupt and foul: | |
| And till another cleans’d me I had nought | |
| That was not stain’d within me: not a thought. | |
| I have no propper merrit; neither will, | 15 |
| Or to resolve, or act, but what is ill; | |
| I have no meanes of safety, or content, | |
| In ought which mine owne wisdom can invent. | |
| Nor have I reason to be desperate tho, | |
| Because for this a remedy I know. | 20 |
| I have no portion in the world like this, | |
| That I may breathe that ayre which common is, | |
| Nor have I seen within this spacious round | |
| What I have worth my joy or sorrow found, | |
| Except it hath for these that follow binn, | 25 |
| The love of my Redeemer, and my sinn. | |
| I none of those great priviledges have | |
| Which makes the minions of the time so brave; | |
| I have no sumpteous pallaces, or bowers | |
| That overtop my neighbours with their tow’rs; | 30 |
| I have no large demeanes or princely rents, | |
| Like those heroes, nor their discontents; | |
| I have no glories from mine auncesters, | |
| For want of reall worth to bragg of theirs; | |
| Nor have I baseness in my pedigree: | 35 |
| For it is noble, though obscure it be. | |
| I have no golde those honours to obtaine, | |
| Which men might heretofore by vertue gaine; | |
| Nor have I witt, if wealth were given me, | |
| To thinke bought place, or title, honour’d me. | 40 |
| I (yet) have no beliefs that they are wise | |
| Who for base ends can basely temporise: | |
| Or that it will at length be ill for me, | |
| That I liv’d poore to keepe my spirit free. | |
| I have no causes in our pleading courts, | 45 |
| Nor start I at our Chancery reports; | |
| No fearfull bill hath yet affrighted me, | |
| No motion, order, judgement, or decree. | |
| Nor have I forced beene to tedious journeys | |
| Betwixt my counsellors and my attorneys. | 50 |
| I have no neede of these long-gowned warriers, | |
| Who play at Westminster, unarm’d, at barriers: | |
| For gamster for those Common-pleas am I | |
| Whose sport is marred by the Chancery. * * * * * | |
| I have no complements, but what may show | 55 |
| That I doe manners and good breeding know; | |
| For much I hate the forced apish tricks | |
| Of these our home-disdaining politicks: | |
| Who to the forraine guises are affected, | |
| That English honesty is quite rejected; | 60 |
| And in the stead thereof, they furnisht home | |
| With shadowes of humanity doe come. | |
| Oh! how judicious, in their owne esteeme, | |
| And how compleatly travelled they seem, | |
| If, in the place of reall kindnesses, | 65 |
| (Which nature could have taught them to expresse,) | |
| They can, with gestures, lookes, and language sweet, | |
| Fawne like a curtezan on all they meete; | |
| And vie in humble and kind speeches, when | |
| They doe most proudly and most falsely meane. | 70 |
| On this too many falsely set their face, | |
| Of courtship and of wisdome; but ’tis base. | |
| For servile unto me it doth appeare | |
| When we descend to soothe and flatter, where | |
| We want affection: yea, I hate it more | 75 |
| Than to be borne a slave, or to be poore. | |
| I have no pleasure or delight in ought | |
| That by dissembling must to passe be brought; | |
| If I dislike, I’ll sooner tell them so, | |
| Then hide my face beneath a friendly show; | 80 |
| For he who to be just hath an intent, | |
| Needs nor dissemble nor a lie invent. | |
| I rather wish to faile with honestie, | |
| Then to prevaile in ought by treacherie. | |
| And with this minde I’ll safer sleep, then all | 85 |
| Our Macavillian polititians shall. | |
| I have no minde to flatter; though I might | |
| Be made some lord’s companion, or a knight; | |
| Nor shall my verse for me on begging goe, | |
| Though I might starve unlesse it did doe so. * * * * * * | 90 |
| I cannot (for my life) my pen compell, | |
| Upon the praise of any man to dwell: | |
| Unlesse I know (or thinke at least) his worth | |
| To be the same which I have blazed forth. | |
| Had I some honest suit, the gaine of which | 95 |
| Would make me noble, eminent, and rich, | |
| And that to compasse it no meanes there were, | |
| Unlesse I basely flatter’d some great peere; | |
| Would with that suite my ruine I might get, | |
| If on those terms I would endeavour it. | 100 |
| I have not bin to their condition borne | |
| Who are enclyned to respect, and scorne, | |
| As men in their estates doe rise or fall: | |
| Or rich or poore, I vertue love in all. | |
| And where I find it not, I doe despise | 105 |
| To fawn on them; how high soe’re they rise; | |
| For where proud greatnesse without worth I see | |
| Old Mordecay had not a stiffer knee. | |
| I cannot give a plaudit (I protest) | |
| When, as his lordship thinks, he breakes a jeast, | 110 |
| Unles it move me; neither can I grin | |
| When he a causeles laughter doth begin; | |
| I cannot sweare him truly honourable, | |
| Because he once receiv’d me to his table, | |
| And talk’t as if the Muses glad might be | 115 |
| That he vouchsafed such a grace to me: | |
| His slender worth I could not blazen so | |
| By strange hyperboles, as some would do; | |
| Or wonder at it, as if none had bin | |
| His equall, since King William first came in. | 120 |
| Nor can I thinke true vertue ever car’d | |
| To give or take (for praise) what I have heard. | |
| For, if we pryze them well, what goodly grace | |
| Have outward beauties, riches, titles, place, | |
| Or such, that we the owners should commend, | 125 |
| When no true vertues doe on these attend? | |
| If beautiful he be, what honor’s that? | |
| As fayre as he is many a beggar’s brat. | |
| If we his noble titles would extoll, | |
| Those titles he may have, and be a fool. | 130 |
| If seats of justice he hath climbed (we say), | |
| So tyrants and corrupt oppressors may. | |
| If for a large estate his praise we tell, | |
| A thousand villains may be praised as well. | |
| If he his prince’s good esteeme be in, | 135 |
| Why so hath many a bloudy traytor bin. | |
| And if in these things he alone excell, | |
| Let those that list upon his praises dwell. | |
| Some other worth I find ere I have sense | |
| Of any praise deserving excellence. | 140 |
| I have no friends that once affected were, | |
| But to my heart they sit this day as neare | |
| As when I most endear’d them (though they seeme | |
| To fall from my opinion or esteeme:) | |
| For pretious time in idle would be spent, | 145 |
| If I with all should alwayes complement; | |
| And till my love I may to purpose show, | |
| I care not wher’ they think I love or no. | |
| For sure I am, if any find me chang’d, | |
| Their greatnes, not their meannesse, me estranged. | 150 |
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