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 DDAAEE

Deare friend be silent and with patience seeA
What this mad times Catastrophe will beA
The worlds first Wisemen certainly mistookeB
Themselues and spoke things quite beside the bookeB
And that which they haue of said of God vntrueC
Or else expect strange iudgement to insueA
This Isle is a meere Bedlam and thereinD
We all lye rauing mad in euery sinneD
And him the wisest most men use to callE
Who doth alone the maddest thing of allE
He whom the master of all wisedome foundF
For a marckt foole and so did him propoundF
The time we liue in to that passe is broughtG
That only he a Censor now is thoughtG
And that base villaine not an age yet goneD
Which a good man would not haue look'd vponD
Now like a God with diuine worship follow'dH
And all his actions are accounted hollow'dH
This world of ours thus runneth vpon wheelesA
Set on the head bolt vpright with her heelesA
Which makes me thinke of what the Ethnicks toldI
Th' opinion the Pythagorists vpholdI
That the immortall soule doth transmigrateI
Then I suppose by the strong power of fateI
And since that time now many a lingering yeareC
Through fools and beasts and lunatiques haue pastI
Are heere imbodyed in this age at lastI
And though so long we from that time be goneD
Yet taste we still of that confusionD
For certainely there's scarse one found that nowD
Knowes what t' approoue or what to disallowD
All arsey varsey nothing is it's owneD
But to our prouerbe all turnd vpside downeD
To doe in time is to doe out of seasonD
And that speeds best thats done the farth'st from reasonD
Hee 's high'st that 's low'st hee 's surest in that 's outI
He hits the next way that goes farth'st aboutI
He getteth vp vnlike to rise at allE
He slips to ground as much vnlike to fallE
Which doth inforce me partly to preferC
The opinion of that mad PhilosopherC
Who taught that those all framing powers aboueA
As 'tis suppos'd made man not out of loueE
To him at all but only as a thingB
To make them sport with which they vse to bringB
As men doe munkeys puppets and such toolesA
Of laughter so men are but the Gods foolesA
Such are by titles lifted to the skyB
As wherefore no man knowes God scarcely whyB
The vertuous man depressed like a stoneD
For that dull Sot to raise himselfe vponD
He who ne're thing yet worthy man durst doeI
Neuer durst looke vpon his countrey's foeI
Nor durst attempt that action which might getI
Him fame with men or higher might him setI
Then the base begger rightly if compar'dI
This Drone yet neuer braue attempt that dar'dI
Yet dares be knighted and from thence dares growI
To any title Empire can bestowI
For this beleeue that Impudence is nowD
A Cardinall vertue and men it allowD
Reuerence nay more men study and inuentI
New wayes nay glory to be impudentI
Into the clouds the Deuill lately gotI
And by the moisture doubting much the rotI
A medicine tooke to make him purge and castI
Which in short time began to worke so fastI
That he fell too 't and from his backeside flewE
A rout of rascall a rude ribauld crewE
Of base Plebeians which no sooner lightI
Vpon the earth but with a suddaine flightI
They spread this Ile and as Deucalion onceA
Ouer his shoulder backe by throwing stonesA
They became men euen so these beasts becameJ
Owners of titles from an obscure nameJ
He that by riot of a mighty rentI
Hath his late goodly Patrimony spentI
And into base and wilfull beggery runD
This man as he some glorious acte had doneD
With some great pension or rich guift releeu'dI
When he that hath by industry atchieu'dI
Some noble thing contemned and disgrac'dI
In the forlorne hope of the times is plac'dI
As though that God had carelessely left allE
That being hath on this terrestriall ballE
To fortunes guiding nor would haue to doeI
With man nor aught that doth belong him toI
Or at the least God hauing giuen moreC
Power to the Deuill then he did of yoreC
Ouer this world the feind as he doth hateI
The vertuous man maligning his estateI
-
All noble things and would haue by his willE
To be damn'd with him vsing all his skillE
By his blacke hellish ministers to vexeA
All worthy men and strangely to perplexeA
Their constancie there by them so to frightI
That they should yeeld them wholely to his mightI
But of these things I vainely doe but tellE
Where hell is heauen and heau'n is now turn'd hellE
Where that which lately blasphemy hath binD
Now godlinesse much lesse accounted sinD
And a long while I greatly meruail'd whyB
Buffoons and Bawdes should hourely multiplyB
Till that of late I construed it that theyK
To present thrift had got the perfect wayK
When I concluded by their odious crimesA
It was for vs no thriuing in these timesA
As men oft laugh at little Babes when theyK
Hap to behold some strange thing in their playK
To see them on the suddaine strucken sadI
As in their fancie some strange formes they hadI
Which they by pointing with their fingers showeK
Angry at our capacities so sloweK
That by their countenance we no sooner learneD
To see the wonder which they so discerneD
So the celestiall powers doe sit and smileE
At innocent and vertuous men the whileE
They stand amazed at the world ore goneD
So farre beyond imaginationD
With slauish basenesse that the silent sitI
Pointing like children in describing itI
Then noble friend the next way to controuleE
These worldly crosses is to arme thy souleE
With constant patience and with thoughts as highB
As these be lowe and poore winged to flyeB
To that exalted stand whether yet theyK
Are got with paine that sit out of the wayK
Of this ignoble age which raiseth noneD
But such as thinke their black damnationD
To be a trifle such so ill that whenD
They are aduanc'd those few poore honest menD
That yet are liuing into search doe runneD
To finde what mischiefe they haue lately doneD
Which so preferres them say thou he doth riseA
That maketh vertue his chiefe exerciseA
And in this base world come what euer shallE
Hees worth lamenting that for her doth fallE

Michael Drayton



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