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I do use no pot to seeth my meat in,
Wherefore I do boil it in a beaste's skin;

Then, after my meat, the broth I do drink up ;
I care not for my master, neither cruse nor cup.
I am not newfangled, nor never will be;
I do live in poverty, in mine own countree.

I AM a Lombart, and subtle craft I have,
To deceive a gentleman, a yeman, or a knave;
I work by policy, subtlety, and craught,1
The which, otherwhile, doth bring me to nought.
I am the next neighbour to the Italian ;
We do bring many things out of all fashion;
We care for no man, and no man careth for us;
Our proud hearts maketh us to fare the worse.
In our country we eat adders, snails, and frogs,
And above all thing we be sure of cur dogs;
For men's shins they will lie in wait;
It is a good sport to see them so to bait.

SIR THOMAS WYATT.

[Born in 1503, at Allington Castle, Kent, the seat of his father, who stood deservedly high in favour with Henry VII.; died in October 1542, at Sherborne, Dorsetshire. Wyatt was a man of many gifts: handsome in person, having a form wherein 'force and beauty met," as Lord Surrey said; skilled in languages, music, and other accomplishments; a soldier and negociator; and in poetry surpassing all his predecessors since the time of Chaucer-manly both in his force and in his tenderness, and every now and then thrilling the reader with his deep, true, and direct touches of passionate appeal. Being an influential man in the court of Henry VIII., he used his opportunities for the advancement of others, rather than himself. He married very early; but there is some ground for thinking that he was not insensible at a later date to the charms of Anne Boleyn. He afterwards spent some considerable time in diplomatic services in Spain, and as ambassador in Paris. Returning to England in 1540, he was accused of treasonable complicity with Cardinal Pole, and was imprisoned in the Tower; but had the good fortune of triumphantly vindicating himself, even in the eyes of that decapitating monarch Henry VIII., whose good opinion he continued to enjoy. He was travelling on the service of the state to Falmouth, when his exertions brought on a fever of which he died. Wyatt had a leaning to the Protestant side in religion: his son, also named Sir Thomas Wyatt, conspired against Queen Mary, and was executed in 1554.]

THE RECURED LOVER

EXULTETH IN HIS FREEDOM, AND VOWETH TO REMAIN FREE UNTIL DEATH. I AM as I am, and so will I be ;

But how that I am none knoweth truly.

Be it evil, be it well, be I bond, be I free,

I am as I am, and so will I be.

I lead my life indifferently;

I mean no thing but honesty;

And, though folks judge full diversely,
I am as I am, and so will I die.

1 Craft.

I do not rejoice, nor yet complain;
Both mirth and sadness I do refrain,
And use the means since folks will feign;
Yet I am as I am, be it pleasure or pain.

Divers do judge as they do trow,
Some of pleasure and some of woe,
Yet, for all that, nothing they know,
But I am as I am, wheresoever I go.

But, since judgers do thus decay,
Let every man his judgment say;
I will it take in sport and play,
For I am as I am, whosoever say nay.

Who judgeth well, well God him send;
Who judgeth evil, God them amend ;
To judge the best therefore intend,
For I am as I am, and so will I end.

Yet some there be that take delight
To judge folks' thought for envy and spite,
But, whether they judge me wrong or right,
I am as I am, and so do I write.

Praying you all that this do read
To trust it as you do your creed;
And not to think I change my weed,
For I am as I am, however I speed.
But how that is I leave to you;
Judge as ye list, false or true.

Ye know no more than afore ye knew ;
Yet I am as I am, whatever ensue.

And from this mind I will not flee;
But, to you all that misjudge me,
I do protest, as ye may see,
That I am as I am, and so will be.

OF HIS LOVE, THAT PRICKED HER FINGER WITH

A NEEDLE.

SHE sat and sewed that hath done me the wrong
Whereof I plain, and have done many a day :
And, whilst she heard my plaint, in piteous song
She wished my heart the sampler, as it lay.
The blind mastèr whom I have served so long,
Grudging to hear that he did hear her say,
Made her own weapon do her finger bleed,
To feel if pricking were so good indeed.

What man hath heard such cruelty before?
That, when my plaint remembered her my woe
That caused it, she, cruel more and more,

Wished each stitch, as she did sit and sew,
Had pricked my heart for to increase my sore.
And, as I think, she thought it had been so :
For, as she thought "this is his heart indeed,"
She pricked hard, and made herself to bleed.

HOW TO USE THE COURT, AND HIMSELF THEREIN.

WRITTEN TO SIR FRANCIS BRYAN.

A SPENDING hand that alway poureth out
Had need to have a bringer-in as fast;

And on the stone that still doth turn about

There grow'th no moss: these proverbs yet do last;
Reason hath set them in so sure a place

That length of years their force can never waste.
When I remember this, and eke the case

Wherein thou stand'st, I thought forthwith to write,
Bryan, to thee, who knows how great a grace

In writing is, to counsel man the right.
To thee therefore that trots still up and down,
And never rests, but, running day and night

From realm to realm, from city, street, and town,-
Why dost thou wear thy body to the bones?
And mightst at home sleep in thy bed of down,
And drink good ale so nappy for the nones,
Feed thyself fat, and heap up pound by pound.

Lik'st thou not this? "No." Why? "For swine so groins
In sty, and chaw dung moulded on the ground,
And drivel on pearls, with head still in the manger :
So of the harp the ass doth hear the sound:
So sacks of dirt be filled up in the cloister,
That serve for less than do these fatted swine.
Though I seem lean and dry, withouten moisture,
Yet will I serve my prince, my lord and thine;
And let them live to feed the paunch that list;
So I may live to feed both me and mine."
By God! well said. But what and if thou wist
How to bring in, as fast as thou dost spend?
"That would I learn." And it shall not be missed
To tell thee how. Now hark what I intend :
Thou know'st well first, whoso can seek to please
Shall purchase friends, where truth shall but offend.
Flee therefore truth,-it is both wealth and ease;
For, though that truth of every man hath praise,
Full near that wind go'th truth in great misease.

Use virtue, as it goeth now-a-days,

In word alone, to make thy language sweet :
And of thy deed yet do not as thou says.
Else be thou sure thou shalt be far unmeet
To get thy bread, each thing is now so scant:
Seek still thy profit upon thy bare feet.
Lend in no wise, for fear that thou do want,
Unless it be as to a calf a cheese,-

But if thou can be sure to win a cant 1
Of half at least. It is not good to leese.
Learn at the lad that, in a long white coat,
From under the stall, withouten lands or fees,
Hath leaped into the shop; who knows by rote
This rule that I have told thee here before.
Some time also rich age begins to dote;
See thou when there thy gain may be the more.
Stay him by the arm whereso he walk or go;
Be near alway; and, if he cough too sore,
What he hath spit tread out; and please him so.
A diligent knave that picks his master's purse
May please him so that he, withouten mo,
Executor is: and what is he the worse?
But, if so chance thou get nought of the man,
The widow may for all thy pain disburse.
A rivelled skin, a stinking breath; what than?
A toothless mouth shall do thy lips no harm.
The gold is good and though she curse or ban,
Yet where thee list thou mayst lie good and warm;
Let the old mule bite upon the bridle,
Whilst there do lie a sweeter in thy arm.
In this also see that thou be not idle :-
Thy niece, thy cousin, sister, or thy daughter,
If she be fair, if handsome be her middle,
If thy better hath her love besought her,
Advance his cause, and he shall help thy need :
It is but love, turn thou it to a laughter.
But ware, I say, so gold thee help and speed,
That in this case thou be not so unwise

As Pandar was in such a likè deed;

For he, the fool of conscience, was so nice
That he no gain would have for all his pain.
Be next thyself, for friendship bears no price.

Laughest thou at me? Why? Do I speak in vain ?
"No, not at thee, but at thy thrifty jest.
Wouldst thou I should, for any loss or gain,
Change that for gold that I have ta'en for best,-
Next godly things, to have an honest name?

Should I leave that? Then take me for a beast!"

1 A portion, or eantle.

Nay then, farewell; and, if thou care for shame,
Content thee then with honest poverty;

With a free tongue what thee dislikes to blame,
And, for thy truth, sometime adversity.
And therewithal this gift I shall thee give ;-
In this world now little prosperity,
And coin to keep, as water in a sieve.

THOMAS TUSSER.

[Born towards 1515, died towards 1582. Being a chorister in the collegiate chapel of Wallingford Castle, he was impressed into the service of the royal chapel; afterwards became a retainer of Lord Paget; and then a farmer at Kadwade (or Cattiwade) in Suffolk, and in 1557 published his noted work, A Hundred Points of good Husbandry (from which our specimen is taken). The "Hundred" became ultimately "Five-hundred." It is disheartening to learn that this lawgiver of the olden farmers was himself, according to Fuller, the reverse of successful in farming. "He traded at large in oxen, sheep, dairies, grain of all kinds, to no profit: whether he bought or sold, he lost, and, when a renter, impoverished himself, and never enriched his landlord."]

GOOD HUSBAND AND UNTHRIFT.

Comparing good husband with unthrift his brother
The better discerneth the t'one from the t'other,
ILL husbandry braggeth
To go with the best:
Good husbandry baggeth
Up gold in his chest.

Ill husbandry trudgeth
With unthrifts about:
Good husbandry_snudgeth,
For fear of a doubt.

Ill husbandry spendeth
Abroad, like a mome:
Good husbandry tendeth
His charges at home.
Ill husbandry selleth

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His corn on the ground:
Good husbandry smelleth
No gain that way found.

Ill husbandry loseth,

For lack of good fence;
Good husbandry closeth,
And gaineth the pence.

Ill husbandry trusteth
To him and to her;

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