Age on his hairs the winter snow had spread ;
That silver badge his near end plainly proves:
Yet on to earth he nearer bows his head,

So loves it more; for Like his like still loves:

Deep from the ground he digs his sweetest gain, And deep into the earth digs back with pain: From hell his gold he brings, and hoards in hell again.

His clothes all patch'd with more than honest thrift,
And clouted shoes were nail'd for fear of wasting;
Fasting he prais'd, but sparing was his drift;

And when he eats, his food is worse than fasting;
Thus starves in store, thus doth in plenty pine;

Thus wallowing on his god his heap of mine, He feeds his famish'd soul with that deceiving shinc.

Oh, hungry metal! false, deceitful ray;

Well laid'st thou dark, press'd in th' earth's hidden

womb ;

Yet through our mother's entrails cutting way,

We drag thy buried corse from hellish tomb;
The merchant from his wife and home departs,
Nor at the swelling ocean ever starts;

While death and life a wall of thin planks only parts.

Who was it first, that from thy deepest cell,,
With so much costly toil and painful sweat,

Durst rob thy palace bord'ring next to hell?

Well may'st thou come from that infernal seat;

Thou all the world with hell-black deeds dost fill:

Fond man, that with such pain do'st woo your ill! Needless to send for grief, for he is next us still.

His arms were light and cheap, as made to save
His purse, not limbs; the money not the man ;
Rather he dies, than spend: his helmet brave
An old brass pot; breast plate, a dripping pan;
His spear a spit; a pot-lid broad his shield,

Whose smoky plain a chalked impress fill'd;

A bag sure seal'd: his word, Much better sav'd than

spill'd!

By Pleonectes, shameless Sparing went,

Who whines and weeps to beg a longer day;

Yet with a thund'ring voice claims tardy rent,
Quick to receive, but hard and slow to pay :
His cares to lesson cost with cunning base;

But when he's forc'd beyond his bounded space, Loud would he cry and howl, while others laugh apace.

Next march'd Asotus,* careless, spending swain ;
Who with a fork went spreading all around,
What his old sire, with sweating toil and pain,
Long time won raking from his racked ground;
In giving he observed nor form, nor matter,

But best reward he got that best could flatter, Thus what he thought to give, he did not give, but scatter.

Before array'd in sumptuous bravery,

Deck'd court-like in the choice, and newest guise; But all behind like drudging slavery,

With ragged patches, rent, and bared thighs,

His shameful parts, that shun the hated light,
Were naked left: ah, foul unhonest sight!

Yet neither could he see, nor feel his wretched plight.

* Prodigality

His shield presents to life death's latest rites,
A sad black hearse borne up with sable swains;
Which many idle grooms with hundred lights,

Tapers, lamps, torches, usher through the plains To endless darkness; while the sun's bright brow, With fiery beams, quenches their smoking tow, And wastes their idle cost: the word, Not need, but shew.

A vagrant rout, a shoal of tattling daws,

Strew him with vain-spent pray'rs, and idle lays;
And flattery to his sin close curtains draws,
Cloying his itching ear with tickling praise:
Behind fond pity much his fall lamented,
And misery that former waste repented:
The usurer for his goods, jail for his bones indented.

His steward was his kinsman, Vain Expence,
Who proudly strove in matters light to shew
Heroic mind in braggart affluence ;

So lost his treasure, getting nought in lieu,
But ostentation of a foolish pride,

While women fond, and boys stood gaping wide But wise men all his waste and needless cost deride.

Fido* was nam'd the marshall of the field;
Weak was his mother when she gave him day;
And he at first a sick and weakly, child,

As e'er with tears welcom'd the sunny ray;

Yet when more years afford more growth and might, A champion stout he was, and puissant knight, As ever came in field, or shone in armour bright.

*Faith.

So may we see a little lionet,

When newly whelp'd, a weak and tender thing,

Despis'd by ev'ry beast; but waxen great,

When fuller times full strength and courage bring; The beasts all crouching low, their king adore,

And dare not see what they contemn'd before; The trembling forest quakes at his affrighting roar.

Mountains he flings in deep with mighty hand;

Stops and turns back the sun's impetuous course ;
Nature breaks nature's laws at his command;
Nor force of hell or heaven withstands his force;
Events to come, yet many ages hence,

He present makes, by wondrous proscience;
Proving the senses blind, by being blind to sense.

His sky-like arms, dy'd all in blue and white,
And set with golden stars that flamed wide;
His shield, invisible to mortal sight,

Yet he upon it easily descry'd

The lively 'semblance of his dying Lord,

Whose bleeding side with wicked steel was gor❜d, Which to his fainting sprits new courage would afford.

Strange was the force of that enchanted shield,
Which highest pow'rs to it from heav'n impart;
For who could bear it well, and rightly wield,
It sav'd from sword, and spear, and poison'd dart;
Well might he slip, but yet not wholly fall;

Nor final loss his courage might appal;

Growing more sound by wounds, and rising by his

fall.

So some have feign'd that Tellus' giant son,

Drew many new-born lives from his dead mother;

Another rose as soon as one was done,

And twenty lost, yet still remain'd another;"

For when he fell, and kiss'd the barren heath, His parent straight inspir'd successive breath; And though himself was dead, yet ransom'd him from. death.*

Next went Elpinus,† clad in sky-like blue;

And through his arms few stars did seem to peep, Which there the workman's hand so finely drew, That rock'd in clouds they softly seem'd to sleep: His ragged shield was like a rocky mould,

On which an anchor bit with surest hold j
I hold by being held, was written round in gold.

Nothing so cheerful was his thoughtful face,..
As was his brother Fido's ; fear did dwell
Close by his heart; his colour chang'd apace,

+ Hope.

* This shield is again alluded to in Canto 12th.

Of one pure diamond celestial fair,50

That heav'nly shield by cunning hand was made;
Whose light divine spread through the misty air,
To brightest morn would turn the western shade,
And lightsome day beget before his time;
Framed in heav'n, without all earthly crime,
Dipp'd in the fiery sun, which burnt the baser slime.

As when from fenny moors, the lumpish clouds
With rising steams damp the bright morning's face,
At length the piercing sun his team unshrouds,~
And with his arrows th' idle fog doth clace;
The broken mist lies melted all in tears:
So this bright shield the shrouding darkness tears,
And giving back the day dissolves their former fears