26852500Vnlikely wonders: how these vaine weake nailes

26862501May teare a passage thorow the flinty ribs

26872502Of this hard world my ragged prison walles:

26882503And for they cannot die in their owne pride,

26892504Thoughts tending to content flatter themselues,

26902505That they are not the first of fortunes slaues,

26912506Nor shall not be the last like seely beggars,

26922507Who sitting in the stockes refuge their shame,

26932508That many haue, and others must set there.

26942509And in this thought they find a kind of ease,

26952510Bearing their owne misfortunes on the backe

26962511Of such as haue before indurde the like.

26972512Thus play I in one person many people,

26982513And none contented; sometimes am I King,

26992514Then treasons make me wish my selfe a beggar,

27002515And so I am: then crushing penurie

27012516Perswades 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 pleasde, till he be easde,

27072522With being nothing. Musicke do I heare, the musike plaies

27082523Ha ha keepe time, how sowre sweete Musicke is

27092524When time is broke, and no proportion kept,

27102525So is it in the musike of mens liues:

27112526And here haue I the daintinesse of eare

27122527To checke time broke in a disordered string:

27132528But for the concord of my state and time,

27142529Had not an eare to heare my true time broke,

27152530I wasted time, and now doth time waste 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 cleansing them from teares.

27212536Now sir, the sound that telles what houre it is,