6
O thou fit bait for wormes![E487] O thou great heape of dust!
O dewe! O vanitie! why so [extolst] thy lust?
Thou therefore ignorant, what time thou hast to liue,
Doe good to erie man, while here thou hast to giue.
7
Quàm breue festum est, hæc mundi gloria?
Vt umbra hominis, sic eius gaudia,
Quæ semper subtrahit, æterna præmia,
Et ducunt hominem, ad dura deuia.
7
How short a feast (to count) is this same worlds renowne?
Such as mens shadowes be, such ioies it brings to towne.
Which alway plucketh vs from Gods eternall blis:
And leadeth man to hell, a iust reward of his.
8
Hæc mundi gloria, quæ magni penditur,
Sacris in literis, flos fæni dicitur,
Vt leue folium, quod vento rapitur,
Sic vita hominum, hac vita tollitur.
8
The brauerie of this world, estéemed here so much,
In Scripture likened is, to flowre of grasse and such:
Like as the leafe so light, through winde abrode is blowne,
So life in this our life, full soone is ouerthrowne.[4]
[1] "These eight verses of St. Bernard seem to have been extremely popular at one period.... In the 'Paradise of Dainty Devices,' first printed in 1576, we find translations of the same words" (Mason).
[2] Who. 1577.
[3] unsteady. 1577.
.... which wind abrod doth blowe,
So doth this worldly life, the life of man bestow. 1577.