Then is the meane estate commended well for meaner sorte[1043] And golden meane is best in euery trade of life: For though a countrey clowne doe[1044] keepe a stately porte, [And in expenses great, and idle charge is rife; Although he brauely builde his house and proudly paint his wife, Yet is he but a clowne, and makes (in deede) himselfe a scorne: Full hard it is to make such one a gentill borne, Except some noble gifts of grace his gentill minde adorne.][1045] 4. So though a noble borne could get an higher seate By conquest, or by weale, by fauour, or by fight, And would from mighty _Ioue_ his petegrue repeate, Yet ought hee not aduaunce him selfe aboue his height, Hee ought not make a clayme to that hee hath no right, Or trust to Fortune so (although shee seeme to smyle) As though shee did not turne her selfe within a while: [For whom shee fauours most of all, shee soonest doth beguyle.] 5. When with my _Picts_ I came first to the _Scotish_ shore, I bare my selfe in hand that I could _Brytayne_ win, Because that _Scithes_ of whome I came, by conquests wan before[1046] Right many noble Realmes, which they had entred in: Yet I no sooner could my conquest here begin, But strayght King _Marius_ came with all his bande, And met with mee and mine in _Westmerlande_,[1047] [Where both our armies met, and fought it hande to hande.][1048] 6. I trusted sure that Fortune woulde mee guide so well As erste shee had,[1049] in batayles whilome faught: But proofe doth teache mee nowe the trueth[1050] to tell What I by Fortune’s flattery fayre haue caught.[1051] Whom shee setts vp,[1052] shee bringeth soone to naught. [As when I had the _Britaynes_ in disdayne, And thought by batayle all theyr lande to gayne: In fielde both I and mine were vanquisht, taken, slayne.][1053] 7. T’is foly or the ende, for men to prayse theyr chaunce, Or brag what luck they haue, or tell theyr fate,[1054] Or boaste how Lady Fortune doth theyr deedes aduaunce: For Fortune at the last doth vse to gieue the mate.[1055] Whom first shee loues, shee afterwarde doth hate, She flings them headlong downe, whom erste shee made excell, Shee makes them bare and poore, whom erst shee placed well,[1056] [And those which thinke to scale the skies, she hurleth downe to hell.] How Seuerus the Emperour of Rome, and Gouernour of Britayne, was slaine at Yorke, fighting against the Pictes, about the yeere after Christ, 206, after others, 213. 1.