Works

Studies themselves will languish and decay,
When either price or praise is ta'en away.

In the hope of ease to come,
Let's endure one martyrdom.

We merit all we suffer, and by far
More stripes than God lays on the sufferer.

Does fortune rend thee? Bear with thy hard fate:
Virtuous instructions ne'er are delicate.
Say, does she frown? still countermand her threats:
Virtue best loves those children that she beats.

While leanest beasts in pastures feed,
The fattest ox the first must bleed.

Bad are all surfeits; but physicians call
That surfeit took by bread the worst of all.

He that will live of all cares dispossess'd,
Must shun the bad, aye, and suspect the best.

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness:
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction
An erring lace, which here and there
Enthralls the crimson stomacher...

'Tis not greatness they require
To be offer'd up by fire;
But 'tis sweetness that doth please
Those Eternal Essences.

Those tapers which we set upon the grave
In fun'ral pomp, but this importance have:
That souls departed are not put out quite;
But as they walked here in their vestures white,...

Tears most prevail; with tears, too, thou may'st move
Rocks to relent, and coyest maids to love.

Knew'st thou one month would take thy life away,
Thou'dst weep; but laugh, should it not last a day.

When Julia chid I stood as mute the while
As is the fish or tongueless crocodile.
Air coin'd to words my Julia could not hear,
But she could see each eye to stamp a tear;...

These temporal goods God, the most wise, commends
To th' good and bad in common for two ends:
First, that these goods none here may o'er-esteem
Because the wicked do partake of them;...

Those saints which God loves best,
The devil tempts not least.

Temptations hurt not, though they have access:
Satan o'ercomes none, but by willingness.

Thanksgiving for a former, doth invite
God to bestow a second benefit.

Lord, thou hast given me a cell,
Wherein to dwell;
A little house, whose humble roof
Is weather proof;
Under the spars of which I lie
Both soft and dry;
Where thou, my chamber for to ward,...

Seest thou those diamonds which she wears
In that rich carcanet;
Or those, on her dishevell'd hairs,
Fair pearls in order set?
Believe, young man, all those were tears
By wretched wooers sent,...

I saw a fly within a bead
Of amber cleanly buried;
The urn was little, but the room
More rich than Cleopatra's tomb.