[89] A lad learn (?) to build in peace.
[90] Stow, Edw. I.
[91] It is impossible in English to give the odd effect of the leonine rhymes. The meaning of these rude lines may be as rudely given thus:
Behold the proud and cruel king, who like a leopard dread
In life the people of the Lord did put in woeful stead:
For which, good friend, along with us unto that place of woe,
Where friends and devils company, right merrily you go.
[92] Why did I sin, woe, woe is me? and took no heed or thought.
Why did I sin, woe, woe is me? all that I loved is nought.
Why did I sin, woe, woe is me? my seed upon the shore
I sowed with toil and sweat, to reap of pains an endless store.
[93] Lib. xii. 13.
[94] Lib. xii. 9.
[95] In the celebrated interview between Solon and Crœsus, the sage first offended the king by questioning the power of wealth to produce happiness, and concluded by reading him a long moral lesson, to the purport, that since no man knew what the morrow might produce, no man could be called happy until present prosperity was crowned by a happy death.
[96] Herod, i. 86–88.
[97] “Ci doivent prendre garde cils qui leur fames mainent avec euls en os, et en batailles, car Daires li rois de Perse, & Antoines, et autre prince terrien manerent leur fames en lor compaignie en os quant il i aloient, & en batailles: et pour ce furent desconfit et occis, Daires par le grant Alexandre, et Antoines par Octavien. Pour ce meismement ne devroient mener nus princes fames en tex besoignes: car elles ne sont fors empecchement.” The language is that of the thirteenth century. Croniques de S. Denys, liv. v. 1.