Mirror for Magistrates, Volume 2, Part 1

Great Britain -- History -- Poetry; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Sources

Wee worke with wiles, the mindes of men like wax,
        The fauning whelp gets many a peece of bred:
        Wee follow kings, with many coning knacks,
        By searching out how are their humoures fed:
        Hee haunts no court, that hath a doltish hed:
          For as in golde, the pretious stone is set,
          So finest wits, in court the credit get.

    9.

        I quickely learnde to kneele and kysse the hand,
        To waite at heele, and turne like top about,
        To stretch out necke and lyke an image stand,
        To taunt, to skoffe, and face the matter out,
        To preace in place, among the greatest rout:
          Yet like a priest, my selfe did well behaue,
          In fayre long gowne, and goodly garments graue.

    10.

        Where _Wolsey_ went, the world like bees would swarme,
        To heare my speach, and note my nature well:
        I coulde with tongue vse such a kinde of charme,
        That voyce, full cleare, should sounde like siluer bell:
        When head deuisde a long discours to tell,
          With stories straunge, my speach should spised bee,
          To make the worlde to muse the more on mee.

    11.

        Each tayle was sweete, each worde a sentence wayde,
        Each ear I pleasde, each eye gaue mee the vewe,
        Each judgment markt, and paysed what I sayde,
        Each minde I fed, with matter rare and newe,
        Each day and howre my grace and credit grewe:
          So that the king, in hearing of this newes,
          Deuysed howe hee might my seruice vse.

    12.

        Hee made mee then his chaplayne, to say masse
        Before his grace, yea, twise or thrise a weeke:
        Now had I time, to trym my selfe by glasse,
        Now founde I meane, some liuing for to seeke,
        Now I became both humble, mylde, and meeke:
          Now I applyde my wyts and sences throwe,
          To reape some corne, if God would speede the plowe.

    13.

        Whom most I sawe in fauour with the king,
        I followde fast, to get some hap thereby:
        But I obserude another finer thing,
        That was, to keepe me still in prince’s eye:
        As vnder wyng the hawke in winde doth lye,
          So for a pray, I prowled heere and there,
          And tryed frendes and fortune euery where.

    14.

        The king at length sent mee beyonde the seas,
        Embastour then, with message good and greate:
        And in that time, I did the king so pleas,
        By short dispatch, and wrought so fine a feate,
        That did aduaunce my selfe to higher seate,
          The deanrie then of Lincolne hee mee gaue:
          And bownty shewde before I gan to craue.

    15.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Mirror for Magistrates, Volume 2, Part 1

Great Britain -- History -- Poetry; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Sources

Wee worke with wiles, the mindes of men like wax,
        The fauning whelp gets many a peece of bred:
        Wee follow kings, with many coning knacks,
        By searching out how are their humoures fed:
        Hee haunts no court, that hath a doltish hed:
          For as in golde, the pretious stone is set,
          So finest wits, in court the credit get.

    9.

        I quickely learnde to kneele and kysse the hand,
        To waite at heele, and turne like top about,
        To stretch out necke and lyke an image stand,
        To taunt, to skoffe, and face the matter out,
        To preace in place, among the greatest rout:
          Yet like a priest, my selfe did well behaue,
          In fayre long gowne, and goodly garments graue.

    10.

        Where _Wolsey_ went, the world like bees would swarme,
        To heare my speach, and note my nature well:
        I coulde with tongue vse such a kinde of charme,
        That voyce, full cleare, should sounde like siluer bell:
        When head deuisde a long discours to tell,
          With stories straunge, my speach should spised bee,
          To make the worlde to muse the more on mee.

    11.

        Each tayle was sweete, each worde a sentence wayde,
        Each ear I pleasde, each eye gaue mee the vewe,
        Each judgment markt, and paysed what I sayde,
        Each minde I fed, with matter rare and newe,
        Each day and howre my grace and credit grewe:
          So that the king, in hearing of this newes,
          Deuysed howe hee might my seruice vse.

    12.

        Hee made mee then his chaplayne, to say masse
        Before his grace, yea, twise or thrise a weeke:
        Now had I time, to trym my selfe by glasse,
        Now founde I meane, some liuing for to seeke,
        Now I became both humble, mylde, and meeke:
          Now I applyde my wyts and sences throwe,
          To reape some corne, if God would speede the plowe.

    13.

        Whom most I sawe in fauour with the king,
        I followde fast, to get some hap thereby:
        But I obserude another finer thing,
        That was, to keepe me still in prince’s eye:
        As vnder wyng the hawke in winde doth lye,
          So for a pray, I prowled heere and there,
          And tryed frendes and fortune euery where.

    14.

        The king at length sent mee beyonde the seas,
        Embastour then, with message good and greate:
        And in that time, I did the king so pleas,
        By short dispatch, and wrought so fine a feate,
        That did aduaunce my selfe to higher seate,
          The deanrie then of Lincolne hee mee gaue:
          And bownty shewde before I gan to craue.

    15.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Mirror for Magistrates, Volume 2, Part 1

Mirror for Magistrates, Volume 2, Part 1

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