With sight whereof soone cloyd, and long deluded xxv With idle hopes, which them doe entertaine, After I had ten yeares my selfe excluded From natiue home, and spent my youth in vaine, I gan my follies to my selfe to plaine, And this sweet peace, whose lacke did then appeare. Tho backe returning to my sheepe againe, I from thenceforth haue learn’d to loue more deare This lowly quiet life, which I inherite here. Whylest thus he talkt, the knight with greedy eare[546] xxvi Hong still vpon his melting mouth attent; Whose sensefull words empierst his hart so neare, That he was rapt[547] with double rauishment, Both of his speach that wrought him great content, And also of the obiect of his vew, On which his hungry eye was alwayes bent; That twixt his pleasing tongue, and her faire hew, He lost himselfe, and like one halfe entraunced grew. Yet to occasion meanes, to worke his mind, xxvii And to insinuate his harts desire, He thus replyde; Now surely syre, I find, That all this worlds gay showes, which we admire, Be but vaine shadowes to this safe retyre Of life, which here in lowlinesse ye lead, Fearelesse of foes, or fortunes wrackfull yre, Which tosseth states, and vnder foot doth tread The mightie ones, affrayd of euery chaunges dread. That euen I which daily doe behold xxviii The glorie of the great, mongst whom I won, And now haue prou’d, what happinesse ye hold In this small plot of your dominion, Now loath great Lordship and ambition; And wish the heauens[548] so much had graced mee, As graunt me liue in like condition; Or that my fortunes might transposed bee From pitch of higher place, vnto this low degree. In vaine (said then old _Melibœ_) doe men xxix The heauens of their fortunes fault accuse, Sith they know best, what is the best for them: For they to each such fortune doe diffuse, As they doe know each can most aptly vse. For not that, which men couet most, is best, Nor that thing worst, which men do most refuse; But fittest is, that all contented rest With that they hold: each hath his fortune in his brest. It is the mynd, that maketh good or ill, xxx That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore: For some, that hath abundance at his will, Hath not enough, but wants in greatest store; And other, that hath litle, askes no more, But in that litle is both rich and wise. For wisedome is most riches; fooles therefore They are, which fortunes doe by vowes deuize, Sith each vnto himselfe his life may fortunize.