Next godly things, to have an honest name?
Should I leave that? then take me for a beast.
Nay then, farewell, and if thou care for shame,
Content thee then with honest poverty;
With free tongue what thee mislikes, to blame,
And for thy truth, sometime adversity.
And therewithal this gift I shall thee give,
In this world now little prosperity;

And coin to keep, as water in a sieve.

83

90

PENITENTIAL PSALMS.

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND HIS SINGULAR GOOD LORD,
WILLIAM MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON,

EARL OF ESSEX, BARON OF KENDAL, LORD PARR,
AND KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER,
YOUR MOST BOUNDEN ORATOR AT COMMANDMENT,

JOHN HARRINGTON,

WISHETH HEALTH AND PROSPERITY

WITH INCREASE OF VIRTUE,

AND THE MERCY OF GOD FOR EVER.

CONSIDERING the manifold duties and abundant service that I owe unto your good Lordship, right honourable and my singular good Lord, I cannot but see infinite causes why I, chiefly of all others, ought with all cheerful and ready endeavour to gratify your good Lordship by all means possible, and to apply myself wholly to the same, as one that would gladly, but can by no means be able to do accordingly as his bounden duty requireth: I cannot, I say, but see and acknowledge myself bounden, and not able to do such service as I owe, both for the inestimable benefits that your noble progenitors, and also your good Lordship hath showed unto my parents and predecessors; and also to myself, as to one least able to do any acceptable service, though the will be at all times most ready. In token whereof, your Lordship shall at all times perceive by simple things that my little wit shall be able to invent, that if mine heart could do you any service, no labour or travail should withhold me from doing my duty; and that if busy labour and the heart might be able to pay the duty that love oweth, your Lordship should in no point find me ingrate or unthankful. And to declare this my ready will, I have dedicated unto your name this little treatise, which, after I had perused and by the advice of others (better learned than myself) determined to put it in print, that the noble fame of so worthy a knight as was the author hereof, Sir Thomas Wyatt, should not perish but remain, as well for his singular learning as valiant deeds in martial feats, I thought that I could not find a more worthy patron for such a man's work than your Lordship, whom I have always known to be of so godly a zeal to the furtherance of God's holy and sacred Gospel, most humbly beseeching your good Lordship herein to accept my good will, and to esteem me as one that wisheth unto the same all honour, health, and prosperous success. Amen.

Your good Lordship's most humble at commandment,

JOHN HARRINGTON.

PENITENTIAL PSALMS.

H. S.

The great Macedon that out of Persia chased
Darius, of whose huge power all Asia rang;
In the rich ark if Homer's rhymes he placed,
Who feigned gests of heathen princes sang;
What holy grave, what worthy sepulture

To Wyatt's Psalms should Christians then purchase,
Where he doth paint the lively faith and pure,

The steadfast hope, the sweet return to grace

Of just David by perfect penitence;

Where rulers may see in a mirrour clear,
The bitter fruits of false concupiscence,

How Jewry bought Urias' death full dear.
In princes' hearts God's scourge y-printed deep,
Ought them awake out of their sinful sleep.

THE PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR. i LovE to give law unto his subjects' hearts, Stood in the eyes of Batsabé the bright; And in a look anon himself converts

Cruelly pleasant before King David's sight; First dazed his eyes, and further-forth he starts With venom❜d breath, as softly as he might Touches his sinews, and overruns his bones With creeping fire, sparkled for the nones.

2 And when he saw that kindled was the flame,
The moist poison in his heart he lanced,
So that the soul did tremble with the same;
And in this brawl as he stood entranced,
Yielding unto the figure and the frame,

That those fair eyes had in his presence glanced;
The form, that Love had printed in his breast,
He honoureth as a thing of thingès best.

3 So that, forgot the wisdom and forecast,

Which woe to realms, when that the King doth lack!

Forgetting eke God's majesty as fast,

Yea and his own; forthwith he doth to make

Urie to go into the field in haste,

Urie, I say, that was his jewel's make,1 Under pretence of certain victory,

For the enemies' swords a ready prey to be.

4 Whereby he may enjoy her out of doubt,

Whom more than God or himself he mindeth: And after he had brought this thing about,

And of that lust possess'd himself, he findeth That hath and doth reverse, and clean turn out

Kings from kingdoms, and cities undermineth; He blinded thinks, this train2 so blind and close, To blind all things, that nought may it disclose.

5 But Nathan hath spied out this treachery,

With rueful chere; and sets afore his face The great offence, outrage, and injury,

That he hath done to God, as in this case,
By murder for to cloak adultery:

He showeth eke from heaven the threats, alas!
So sternly sore this Prophet, this Nathan,
That all amazed was this woful man.

6 Like him that meets with horror and with fear;
The heat doth straight forsake the limbès cold,
The colour eke droopeth down from his chere;
So doth he feel his fire manifold,

His heat, his lust, his pleasure all in fere 3

Consume and waste: and straight his crown of gold,

1'Make:' mate.-2 Train:' stratagem. In fere:' together.

His purple pall, his sceptre he lets fall,
And to the ground he throweth himself withal.

7 Then pompous pride of state, and dignity Forthwith rebates 1 repentant humbleness: Thinner vile cloth than clotheth poverty

Doth scantly hide and clad his nakedness: His fair hoar beard of reverent gravity,

With ruffled hair, knowing his wickedness: More like was he the selfsame repentance Than stately prince of worldly governance.

8 His harp he taketh in hand to be his guide,
Wherewith he offereth plaints, his soul to save,
That from his heart distills on every side,
Withdrawing himself into a dark deep cave
Within the ground, wherein he might him hide,
Flying the light, as in prison or grave;

In which, as soon as David entered had,
The dark horror did make his soul adrad.

9 But he, without prolonging or delay

Of that which might his Lord his God appease, Falleth on his knees, and with his harp, I say, Afore his breast yfraughted with disease Of stormy sighs, deep draughts of his decay, Dressed upright, seeking to counterpoise

His song with sighs, and touching of the strings, With tender heart, lo, thus to God he sings.

DOMINE, NE IN FURORE.2

O LORD! since in my mouth thy mighty name
Suffereth itself, my Lord, to name and call,
1 'Rebates:' abates, diminishes.- Psalm vi.