For when my brother and sister were of young age,
You saw they were given to idleness and play,
Would apply no learning, but live in outrage.
And men complained on them every day.
Ye winked at their faults, and tiddled them alway;
By maintenance they grew to mischief and ill,
So at last God's justice did[249] them both spill.
In that God preserved me, small thank to you:
If God had not given me special grace,
To avoid evil and do good, this is true,
I had lived and died in as wretched case,
As they did, for I had both suffrance and space;
But it is an old proverb, you have heard it, I think:
That God will have see, shall not wink.
Yet in this we may all take comfort:
They took great repentance, I heard say,
And as for my sister, I am able to report,
She lamented for her sins to her dying day:
To repent and believe I exhorted her alway;
Before her death she believed, that God of his mercy,
For Christ's sake would save her eternally.
If you do even so, ye need not despair,
For God will freely remit your sins all,
Christ hath paid the ransom, why should ye fear?
To believe this and do well, to God for grace call.
All worldly cares let pass and fall,
And thus comfort my father I pray you heartily,
[Xantippe goeth out.
I have a little to say, I will come by and by.
Right gentle audience, by this interlude ye may see,
How dangerous it is for the frailty of youth,
Without good governance, to live at liberty,
Such chances as these oft happen of truth:
Many miscarry, it is the more ruth,
By negligence of their elders and not taking pain,
In time good learning and qualities to attain.
Therefore exhort[250] I all parents to be diligent
In bringing up their children aye[251] to be circumspect;
Lest they fall to evil, be not negligent;
But chastise them, before they be sore infect:
Accept their well-doing, in ill them reject.
A young plant ye may plant and bow as ye will;
Where it groweth strong, there will it abide still.
Even so by children: in their tender age
Ye may work them, like wax, to your own intent;
But if ye suffer them long to live in outrage,
They will be sturdy and stiff, and will not relent.
O ye children, let your time be well-spent,
Apply your learning, and your elders obey;
It will be your profit another day.
Now, for the Queen's royal majesty let us pray,
[He kneeleth down.
That God (in whose hands is the heart of all queens),
May endue her highness with godly puissance alway:
That her grace may long reign and prosper in all things,
In God's word and justice may give light to all queens.
Let us pray for the honourable council and nobility,
That they may always counsel us[252] wisdom with tranquillity,
God save the Queen, the realm, and commonalty!
[He maketh courtesy and goeth out.