Short Poems

P ERUSIUS sweares his purse not pursy is,
Because it is (like him) exceeding loose:
Both must be bound, or weare away for this:
But let them weare,—of them's none other use:
Then sith hee's loose and his purse laxatiue
Twere sinne to give them a restoratiue.

BAD-DEBTERS are good lyers; for, they say
Ile pay you without faile on such a day;
Come is the day, to come the due is still:
So, still they lye, sith stand in debt they will.
But Fucus hath so oft li'de in this wise,
That now he lyes in Ludgate for his lies.

S ERUUS is like a durty soft-knit hose
That serues each leg; and he as fitly serues
The seruile turnes and humors base of those
Whose fauours any way his state preserues:
Stockings are chafte and knockd, if soild with mudd
And so must he, els he will ne'er be good.

At all, quoth Rufus, set ye what ye dare:
Ile throw at all and 'twere a pecke of gold:
No life lies int, then coyne Ile neuer spare:
Why Rufus, that's the cause that ail is sold:
For with francke gamesters it doth oft befall,
They throw at all till throwne quite out of all.

G RANTUS the malt-worme, at an ale-house dore,
Straue with another who should first goe in:
In kindnesse he the other put before:
How long (quoth he) haue you thus curteons bin?
I know the day not long since hath bin ore you
No man should in an ale-house goe before you.

P ERO is faire, but yet her face she paints;
So pictures are made faire, though boords or blocks:
I muse with coulors she her face acquaints,
And die with sallendine her sable lockes:
When those that gallop by, will say and sweare
She painted hath her face and dide her heare.

If wit bee fixèd on the longest beard,
And wisedome waiteth on such excrements,
As Guacus weenes; why then it's like that heards
Of wildest goates haue wisest gouernments:
If they are wise whose chafs baue longest heare.
Then goats' and Guacus' wisedome hath no peere.

C ALUISIUS all forgets, himselfe withall;
He can remember nothing done or said;
And sure his memory was very small,
When for his wife he got with childe his maide;
But if by Law thou needes must answere this,
Say thou forgotst thyselfe; and true it is.

C ORAX is eloquent but yet doth fill
His eloquence for money; which is ill.
Why so? Because it's aire (in Rhethorickes name)
Which should be common, none should sell the same:
But if that Corax for it had no hire
He scarce would haue fruition of the aire.

D RUSUS , in stealing of a deere, was killd,
So dyed he ere he had his belly filld;
Thus (like a flea, in seeking but for food
Ere he was full) he lost his life and blood.