Why should not youth fulfil his own mind,
As the course of nature doth him bind?
Is not everything ordained to do his kind?
Report me to you, report me to you.
Do not the flowers spring fresh and gay,
Pleasant and sweet in the month of[139] May?
And when their time cometh, they fade away.
Report me to you, report me to you.
Be not the trees in winter bare?
Like unto their kind, such they are;
And when they spring, their fruits declare.
Report me to you, report me to you.
What should youth do with the fruits of age,
But live in pleasure in his[140] passage?
For when age cometh, his lusts will suage.
Report me to you, report me to you.
Why should not youth fulfil his own mind,
As the course of nature doth him bind? &c.
[They go forth.
Here entereth GOOD COUNSEL.
O merciful Lord, who can cease to lament,
Or keep his heart from continual mourning,
To see how Youth is fallen from thy word and testament,[141]
And wholly inclined to Abhominable Living?
He liveth nothing according to his professing;[142]
But, alas! his life is to thy word['s] abusion,
Except thy great mercy, to his utter confusion.
O, where is now[143] the godly conversation,
Which should be among the professors[144] of thy word!
O, where may a man find now one faithful congregation,[145]
That is not infected with dissension or discord?
Or amongst whom are all vices utterly abhorred![146]
O, where is the brotherly love between man and man!
We may lament the time our vice began.
O, where is the peace and meekness, long suffering and temperance,
Which are the fruits of God's holy spirit?
With whom is the flesh brought under obedience,
Or who readeth the scripture with intent to follow it?
Who useth not now covetousness and deceit?
Who giveth unto the poor that which is due?
I think, in this world few that live now.
O, where is the godly example, that parents should give
Unto their young family by godly and virtuous living?
Alas! how wickedly[147] do they themselves live,
Without any fear of God or his righteous threatening!
They have no respect unto the dreadful reckoning,
Which shall be required of us, when the Lord shall come,
As a rightful judge at the day of doom.
O, what a joyful sight was it for to see,
When Youth began God's word to embrace?
Then he promised Godly Knowledge and me,
That from our instruction he would never turn his face;
But now he walketh, alas! in the ungodly's chase!
Heaping sin upon sin, vice upon vice:
[Here entereth JUVENTUS.
He that liveth most ungodly is counted most wise—
JUVENTUS.
Who is here playing at the dice?
I heard one speak of cinque[148] and sice[149];
His words did me entice
Hither to come.
GOOD COUNSEL.
Ah, Youth, Youth, whither dost thou run?
Greatly I do bewail thy miserable estate;
The terrible plagues, which in God's law are written,
Hang over thy head both early and late:
O fleshly Capernite, stubborn and obstinate,
Thou hadst liever forsake Christ, thy Saviour and King,
Than thy fleshly swinish lusts and abhominable living.
JUVENTUS.
What, old whoreson, art thou a-chiding?
I will play a spurt, why should I not?
I set not[150] a mite by thy checking:
What hast thou to do, and if I lose my coat?
I will trill the bones, while I have one groat;
And, when there is no more ink in the pen,[151]
I will make a shift,[152] as well as other men.