Epodium.
1
Now gentle friend, if thou be kinde,
Disdaine thou not, although the lot
Will now with me no better be,
than doth appere:
Nor let it grieue, that thus I liue,
But rather [gesse], for quietnesse,
As others do, so do I to,
content me here.
2
By leaue and loue, of God aboue,
I minde to shew, in verses few,
How through the [breers], my youthfull yeeres,
haue runne their race:
And further say, why thus I stay,
And minde to liue, as Bee in hiue,
Full bent to spend my life to an end,
in this same place.[2]
Borne at Riuenhall in Essex.
3
It came to pas, that borne I was
Of [linage] good, of gentle blood,
In Essex laier, in village faier,
that Riuenhall [hight]:
Which village [lide] by Banketree side,
There spend did I mine infancie,
There then my name, in honest fame,
remaind in sight.
Set to song schoole.
4
I yet but yong, no speech of tong,
Nor teares withall, that often fall
From mothers [eies], when childe out cries,
to part hir fro:
Could pitie make, good father take,
But out I must, to song be thrust,
Say what I would, do what I could,
his minde was so.
Queristers miserie.
Wallingford Colledge.
5
O painfull time, for euerie crime,
What [toesed] eares,[E491] like baited beares!
What [bobbed] lips, what ierks, what [nips]!
what hellish toies!
What robes,[E492] how bare! what colledge fare!
What bread, how stale! what pennie Ale![E493]
Then Wallingford, how [wart] thou abhord
of sillie boies!