26852500Vnlikely wonders: how the
se vaine weake nailes
26862501May teare a pa
ssage thorow the
flinty ribs
26872502Of this hard world my ragged pri
son walles:
26882503And for they cannot die in their owne pride,
26892504Thoughts tending to content
flatter them
selues,
26902505That they are not the
fir
st of fortunes
slaues,
26912506Nor
shall not be the la
st like
seely beggars,
26922507Who
sitting in the
stockes refuge their
shame,
26932508That many haue, and others mu
st set there.
26942509And in this thought they
find a kind of ea
se,
26952510Bearing their owne misfortunes on the backe
26962511Of
such as haue before indurde the like.
26972512Thus play I in one per
son many people,
26982513And none contented;
sometimes am I King,
26992514Then trea
sons make me wi
sh my
selfe a beggar,
27002515And
so I am: then cru
shing penurie
27012516Per
swades me I was better when a king,
27022517Then am I kingd againe, and by and by,
27032518Thinke that I am vnkingd by Bullingbrooke,
27042519And
strait am nothing. But what ere I be,
27052520Nor I, nor any man, that but man is,
27062521With nothing
shall be plea
sde, till he be ea
sde,
27072522With being nothing. Mu
sicke do I heare,
the musike plaies 27082523Ha ha keepe time, how
sowre
sweete Mu
sicke is
27092524When time is broke, and no proportion kept,
27102525So is it in the mu
sike of mens liues:
27112526And here haue I the daintine
sse of eare
27122527To checke time broke in a di
sordered
string:
27132528But for the concord of my
state and time,
27142529Had not an eare to heare my true time broke,
27152530I wa
sted time, and now doth time wa
ste me:
27162531For now hath time made me his numbring clocke;
27172532My thoughts are minutes, and with
sighes they iarre,
27182533Their watches on vnto mine eyes the outward watch
27192534Whereto my
finger like a dialles poynt,
27202535Is pointing
still, in clean
sing them from teares.
27212536Now
sir, the
sound that telles what houre it is,
Are