| To Mr H. W. |
| Sr, More then kisses, Letters mingle Soules: [f. 25v] |
| For thus, frinds absent speake. This ease controules |
| The tediousnes of my Life: But for these |
| I could Ideate nothing wch could please: |
| But I should wither in one day & pas |
| To'a bottle of hay, yt ame a Lock of gras. |
| Life is a voyage; & in or Lifes wayes |
| Cuntryes, Courts, Towns, are Rocks or Remoraes. |
| They breake, or stop all ships, yet or state is such |
| That though then pitche they staine worse we must touch. |
| If in the furnace of the euen Line |
| Or vnder th'aduerse Icy Poles thou pine, |
| Thou knowest two temperate regions girded in |
| Dwell there: But, oh, what refuge canst thou win |
| Parch'd in the Court, & in the Cuntry frozen? |
| Shall Cityes built of both extreames be chosen? |
| Can Dung & Garlick be'a perfume? Or can |
| A Scorpion & Torpedo cure a Man? |
| Cityes are worst of all three; Of all three |
| (O knotty riddle) each is worst equally. |
| Cityes are Sepulchers; They who dwell there |
| Are Carcases as if no such ther were. |
| And Courts are Theaters, where some men play |
| Princes; some slaues; all to'one end & of one Clay. |
| The Cuntry is a Desert, where no Good |
| Gaind, as Habitts, not borne, is vnderstood. |
| There Men become Beasts, & prone to more euills, |
| In Cityes, blocks, & in a lewd Court, Deuills. |
| As in the first Chaos, confusedlie |
| Each Elements qualityes were in th'other three, |
| So Pride, Lust, Couetise, being seuerall |
| To these three places, yet all are in all. |
| And mingled thus, ther issue incestuous. |
| Falshood is denizend; Vertu is barbarous. |