| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 22. With fools and children, good discretion bears | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1602 (No. 25), and in all later editions.]
To Folly |
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WITH fools and children, good discretion bears. | |
| Then, honest people, bear with LOVE and me! | |
| Nor older yet, nor wiser made by years, | |
| Amongst the rest of fools and children be. | |
| LOVE, still a baby, plays with gauds and toys, | 5 |
| And like a wanton sports with every feather; | |
| And idiots still are running after boys: | |
| Then fools and children fittest to go together. | |
| He still as young as when he first was born; | |
| No wiser I, than when as young as he: | 10 |
| You that behold us, laugh us not to scorn; | |
| Give Nature thanks, you are not such as we! | |
| Yet fools and children sometimes tell in play, | |
| Some wise in shew, more fools indeed than they! | | | |
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