111I pray thee Baldwin since thou dost intend

22To show the fall of such as climb too high,

33Remember me, whose miserable end

44May teach a man his vicious life to fly.

55Oh Fortune, Fortune, out on her I cry,

66My body and fame she hath made lean and slender

77For I poor wretch am starved Owen Glendower.

288A Welshman born, and of a gentle blood,

99But ill brought up, whereby full well I find,

1010That neither birth nor lineage make us good

1111Though it be true that cat will after kind,

1212Flesh gendreth flesh, so doeth not soul or mind,

1313They gender not, but foully do degender,

1414When men to vice from virtue them do surrender.

31515Each thing by nature tendeth to the same

1616Whereof it came, and is disposed like:

1717Down sinks the mold, up mounts the fiery flame,

1818With horn the hart, with hoof the horse doth strike,

1919The wolf doth spoil, the subtle fox doth pike,

2020And generally no fish, flesh, fowl, or plant

2121Doth any property that their dame had, want.

42222But as for men, since severally they have

2323A mind whose manners are by learning made,

2424Good bringing up alonely doth them save

2525In virtuous deeds, which with their parents fade.

2626So that true gentry standeth in the trade

2727Of virtuous life, not in the fleshly line:

2828For blood is brute, but gentry is divine.

52929Experience doth cause me thus to say,

3030And that the rather for my countrymen,

3131Which vaunt and boast their selves above the day

3232If they may strain their stock for worthy men,

3333Which let be true, are they the better then?

3434Nay fare the worse if so they be not good,

3535For why they stain the beauty of their blood.