The famous lines in Spenser's "Colin Clout's come home again,"[[3]] on the instability and hollowness of patronage, may occur to the reader:

"Full little knowest thou, that hast not tride,

What hell it is in suing long to bide:

To lose good days that might be better spent,

To waste long nights in pensive discontent.

To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow,

To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow.

To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares;

To eat thy heart through comfortless despaires," &c.

F.