To My Noble Friend Master William Browne, Of The Euill Time Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCADDEEFFGGDDHHAA IIIICIIDDDDDDDDIIEEC CAEBBAABBDDIIIIIIIID DIIIIIIEEIIAAJJIIDDI IIIEEIICCII EEAAIIEEDDBBKKAAKKII KKDDEEDDIIEEBBKKDDDD DDAAEEDeare friend be silent and with patience see | A |
What this mad times Catastrophe will be | A |
The worlds first Wisemen certainly mistooke | B |
Themselues and spoke things quite beside the booke | B |
And that which they haue of said of God vntrue | C |
Or else expect strange iudgement to insue | A |
This Isle is a meere Bedlam and therein | D |
We all lye rauing mad in euery sinne | D |
And him the wisest most men use to call | E |
Who doth alone the maddest thing of all | E |
He whom the master of all wisedome found | F |
For a marckt foole and so did him propound | F |
The time we liue in to that passe is brought | G |
That only he a Censor now is thought | G |
And that base villaine not an age yet gone | D |
Which a good man would not haue look'd vpon | D |
Now like a God with diuine worship follow'd | H |
And all his actions are accounted hollow'd | H |
This world of ours thus runneth vpon wheeles | A |
Set on the head bolt vpright with her heeles | A |
Which makes me thinke of what the Ethnicks told | I |
Th' opinion the Pythagorists vphold | I |
That the immortall soule doth transmigrate | I |
Then I suppose by the strong power of fate | I |
And since that time now many a lingering yeare | C |
Through fools and beasts and lunatiques haue past | I |
Are heere imbodyed in this age at last | I |
And though so long we from that time be gone | D |
Yet taste we still of that confusion | D |
For certainely there's scarse one found that now | D |
Knowes what t' approoue or what to disallow | D |
All arsey varsey nothing is it's owne | D |
But to our prouerbe all turnd vpside downe | D |
To doe in time is to doe out of season | D |
And that speeds best thats done the farth'st from reason | D |
Hee 's high'st that 's low'st hee 's surest in that 's out | I |
He hits the next way that goes farth'st about | I |
He getteth vp vnlike to rise at all | E |
He slips to ground as much vnlike to fall | E |
Which doth inforce me partly to prefer | C |
The opinion of that mad Philosopher | C |
Who taught that those all framing powers aboue | A |
As 'tis suppos'd made man not out of loue | E |
To him at all but only as a thing | B |
To make them sport with which they vse to bring | B |
As men doe munkeys puppets and such tooles | A |
Of laughter so men are but the Gods fooles | A |
Such are by titles lifted to the sky | B |
As wherefore no man knowes God scarcely why | B |
The vertuous man depressed like a stone | D |
For that dull Sot to raise himselfe vpon | D |
He who ne're thing yet worthy man durst doe | I |
Neuer durst looke vpon his countrey's foe | I |
Nor durst attempt that action which might get | I |
Him fame with men or higher might him set | I |
Then the base begger rightly if compar'd | I |
This Drone yet neuer braue attempt that dar'd | I |
Yet dares be knighted and from thence dares grow | I |
To any title Empire can bestow | I |
For this beleeue that Impudence is now | D |
A Cardinall vertue and men it allow | D |
Reuerence nay more men study and inuent | I |
New wayes nay glory to be impudent | I |
Into the clouds the Deuill lately got | I |
And by the moisture doubting much the rot | I |
A medicine tooke to make him purge and cast | I |
Which in short time began to worke so fast | I |
That he fell too 't and from his backeside flew | E |
A rout of rascall a rude ribauld crew | E |
Of base Plebeians which no sooner light | I |
Vpon the earth but with a suddaine flight | I |
They spread this Ile and as Deucalion once | A |
Ouer his shoulder backe by throwing stones | A |
They became men euen so these beasts became | J |
Owners of titles from an obscure name | J |
He that by riot of a mighty rent | I |
Hath his late goodly Patrimony spent | I |
And into base and wilfull beggery run | D |
This man as he some glorious acte had done | D |
With some great pension or rich guift releeu'd | I |
When he that hath by industry atchieu'd | I |
Some noble thing contemned and disgrac'd | I |
In the forlorne hope of the times is plac'd | I |
As though that God had carelessely left all | E |
That being hath on this terrestriall ball | E |
To fortunes guiding nor would haue to doe | I |
With man nor aught that doth belong him to | I |
Or at the least God hauing giuen more | C |
Power to the Deuill then he did of yore | C |
Ouer this world the feind as he doth hate | I |
The vertuous man maligning his estate | I |
- | |
All noble things and would haue by his will | E |
To be damn'd with him vsing all his skill | E |
By his blacke hellish ministers to vexe | A |
All worthy men and strangely to perplexe | A |
Their constancie there by them so to fright | I |
That they should yeeld them wholely to his might | I |
But of these things I vainely doe but tell | E |
Where hell is heauen and heau'n is now turn'd hell | E |
Where that which lately blasphemy hath bin | D |
Now godlinesse much lesse accounted sin | D |
And a long while I greatly meruail'd why | B |
Buffoons and Bawdes should hourely multiply | B |
Till that of late I construed it that they | K |
To present thrift had got the perfect way | K |
When I concluded by their odious crimes | A |
It was for vs no thriuing in these times | A |
As men oft laugh at little Babes when they | K |
Hap to behold some strange thing in their play | K |
To see them on the suddaine strucken sad | I |
As in their fancie some strange formes they had | I |
Which they by pointing with their fingers showe | K |
Angry at our capacities so slowe | K |
That by their countenance we no sooner learne | D |
To see the wonder which they so discerne | D |
So the celestiall powers doe sit and smile | E |
At innocent and vertuous men the while | E |
They stand amazed at the world ore gone | D |
So farre beyond imagination | D |
With slauish basenesse that the silent sit | I |
Pointing like children in describing it | I |
Then noble friend the next way to controule | E |
These worldly crosses is to arme thy soule | E |
With constant patience and with thoughts as high | B |
As these be lowe and poore winged to flye | B |
To that exalted stand whether yet they | K |
Are got with paine that sit out of the way | K |
Of this ignoble age which raiseth none | D |
But such as thinke their black damnation | D |
To be a trifle such so ill that when | D |
They are aduanc'd those few poore honest men | D |
That yet are liuing into search doe runne | D |
To finde what mischiefe they haue lately done | D |
Which so preferres them say thou he doth rise | A |
That maketh vertue his chiefe exercise | A |
And in this base world come what euer shall | E |
Hees worth lamenting that for her doth fall | E |
Michael Drayton
(1)
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