From John Wilbye’s Second Set of Madrigals, 1609.
I live, and yet methinks I do not breathe;
Risposta.
There is a jewel which no Indian mines
Can buy, no chymic art can counterfeit;
It makes men rich in greatest poverty;
Makes water wine, turns wooden cups to gold,
The homely whistle to sweet music’s strain:
Seldom it come, to few from heaven sent,
That much in little, all in nought,—Content.
From John Maynard’s Twelve Wonders of the World, 1611.
The Maid.
I marriage would forswear,
Therefore, if fortune come,
I will not mock and play
Nor drive the bargain on
Till it be driven away.
Titles and lands I like,
Yet rather fancy can
A man that wanteth gold
Than gold that wants a man.
From John Maynard’s Twelve Wonders of the World, 1611.
The Married Man.