[Exeant.
Avar. Well, now will I depart hence, also, for a space;
And, to bourd Respublica, wait a time of grace.
Wherever I find her a time convenient,
I shall say and do that may be expedient!
[Exeat Avarice.
[ACTUS SECUNDI, SCENA PRIMA.]
[Respublica.]
Resp. Lord! what earthly thing is permanent or stable?
Or, what is all this world but a lump mutable?
Who would have thought that I, from so florent estate,
Could have been brought so base as I am made of late?
But, as the waving seas do flow and ebb by course,
So all things else do change to better and to worse.
Great cities and their fame, in time, do fade and pass;
Now is a champion field where noble Troy was.
Where is the great Empire of the Medes and Persians?
Where be th' old conquests of the puissant Grecians?
Where Babylon? where Athens? where Corinth so wide?
Are they not consumed with all their pomp and pride?
What is the cause hereof? man's wit cannot discuss;
But, of long continuance, the thing is found thus.
Yet, by all experience, thus much is well seen:
That, in commonweals, while good governors have been,
All thing hath prospered; and, where such men do lack,
Commonweals decay, and all things do go back.
What marvel then, if I, wanting a perfect stay,
From most flourishing wealth be fallen in decay?
But, like as by default, quick ruin doth befall,
So may good government at once recover all.
[Intrat Avar[ice] cogitabundus et ludibundus.
ACTUS SECUNDI, SCENA SECUNDA.
Avaricia. Respublica.