I joy not in no earthly bliss ; I weigh not Croesus' wealth a straw; I fear not fortune's fatal law : I wish but what I have at will; I wander not to seek for more; I kiss not where I wish to kill; I feign not love where most I hate I wait not at the mighty's gate; I scorn no poor, I fear no rich; ; The court, ne cart, I like ne loath * [In an early manuscript copy of this celebrated song, among Rawlinson's MSS. in the Bodleian library, Oxford, it is ascribed to Sir Edward Dyer, a poetical friend of Sir Philip Sidney. That manuscript contains the following stanza, neither printed here by Ritson, nor by Dr. Percy in his Reliques. (See vol. i. p. 309.) SONG II. BY THE COUNTESS OF WINCHELSEA. WOULD we attain the happiest state, Some weigh their pleasure by their lust, A cloaked craft their store of skill: But all the pleasure that I find, Is to maintain a quiet mind. In Byrd's Psalmes, Sonets, and Songs of Sadness and Pietie,' 1589, the second stanza was thus printed : I press to bear no haughty sway, I wish no more than may suffice; I do no more than well I may; Look what I want, my mind supplies. Lo! thus I triumph like a king, My mind content with any thing. The old copies contain many other variations from the reprints.] No charms of youth or beauty move In such a heart soft peace will live, SONG III. BY MR. W. BEDINGFIELD. To hug yourself in perfect ease, What would you wish for more than these? A healthy, clean, paternal seat, Well shaded from the summer's heat. A little parlour stove, to hold A constant fire from winter's cold, Safe from the harpies of the law, From party-rage, and great man's paw; Have choice few friends of your own taste; A wife agreeable and chaste. An open, but yet cautious mind, Where guilty cares no entrance find; Plain equipage, and temp'rate meals, Few taylors', and no doctors' bills; Content to take, as Heaven shall please, A longer or a shorter lease. SONG IV. BY MRS. PILKINGTON. I ENVY not the proud their wealth, I in this sweet retirement find Great Cincinnatus at his plough, Tumultuous days, and restless nights, Ambition ever knows, A stranger to the calm delights Of study and repose. Then free from envy, care, and strife, Keep me, ye powers divine! And pleas'd, when ye demand my life, May I that life resign. SONG V. THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE. BY SIR HENRY WOTTON. How happy is he born and taught, Whose passions not his masters are, Whose soul is still prepar'd for death; Untied unto the world by care Of public fame, or private breath: Who envies none that chance doth raise, Who hath his life from rumours freed, Whose conscience is his strong retreat ; Whose state can neither flatterers feed, Nor ruin make oppressors great: Who God doth late and early pray, And entertains the harmless day |