Lo thus you heare the race of all my life, And how I past the pickes of painfull woe: How twise I thought to bee a Prince his wife,[301] And twise was quite depriu’d my[302] honour fro, The third time Queene and felt foule ouerthro. Let Princely Ladyes vewe mine historie, Mine haps, and woes, and hatefull desteny.[303] 51. Bid them beware, lest beuty them abuse, Beware of pryde, for haue a fall it must: And will them Fortune’s flattery to refuse,[304] Her turned[305] wheele is voyde of steedy trust. Who reckes no meane, but leaueth all to lust, Shall finde my wordes as true as I them tell: Bid them beware[306] in time, I wish them well.[307] LENUOYE. 1. Who here considers _Elstride’s_ beauty braue was seene: Her noble birth, the sundry haps shee had: How many erst the like infortunate haue beene, Whose forme haue made right noble hearts full sad: Hee neede not now in loue bee halfe so mad, Sith beauty is the baite enbaneth many a bower, A meate too sweete in taste, that sauced is too sower. 2. It caused _Hercules_ to slay th’ _Œchalian_ King, And _Deianire_ her worthy fere to bane: It caus’d the _Greekes_ their armies forth to bring, And _Troia_ faire to fall, by _Græcians_ tane. It setled here in _Britayne_ first the Dane, For it of Kingdomes great the warres did oft deuoure: The prouerbe sayth, sweete meate will haue of sauces sower. 3. Wherefore let noble men beware of beauties grace, Lest so inflam’d they chaunce to fall thereby. If they allur’d the _Sirens_ sweete embrace, And ships forsake, the waues are wilde perdy. The monsters diue, the seas do swell to skye, The toyling tempests tosse to reaue the vitall power, While rockes, shelues, sands, and seas, the woefull wights deuoure. 4. They may hereby beholde the woefull childrens fall, Of those which led their liues in lawelesse lust: And learne to loue their Ladyes best of all, Which are to them so faithfull, true, and iust. Wherefore recyte the death of _Sabrine_ here I must, The Lady young, mee thought, from waters droun’d that came: Which might thus wise her tale haue seem’d to frame.[308] How the Lady Sabrine daughter of King Locrinus and Elstride, was drowned by Queene Guendoline, the yeare before Christ, 1064. 1.