Where is now my conquest and victory? Where is my riches and my royal aray? Wher be my coursers and my horses hye? Where is my myrth, my solas, and my[173] play? As vanyte, to nought al is wandred[174] away. O lady Bes, longe for me may ye call! For I[175] am departed tyl domis day; But loue ye that Lorde that is soueraygne of all. Where be my castels and buyldynges royall? But Windsore alone, now I haue no mo, 70 And of Eton the prayers perpetuall, _Et, ecce, nunc in pulvere dormio!_ Why should a man be proude or presume hye? Sainct Bernard therof nobly doth trete, Seyth a man is but[176] a sacke of stercorry, And shall returne vnto wormis mete. Why, what cam of Alexander the greate? Or els of stronge Sampson, who can tell? Were not[177] wormes ordeyned theyr flesh to frete? And of Salomon, that was of wyt the well? 80 Absolon profferyd his heare for to sell, Yet for al his bewte wormys ete him also; And I but late in honour dyd excel, _Et, ecce, nunc in pulvere dormio!_ I haue played my pageyond, now am I past; Ye wot well all I was of no great yeld: This[178] al thing concluded shalbe at the last, When death approchyth, then lost is the felde: Then sythen this world me no longer vphelde, Nor nought[179] would conserue me here in my place, 90 _In manus tuas, Domine_, my spirite vp I yelde, Humbly[180] beseching thé, God, of thy[181] grace! O ye curtes commyns, your hertis vnbrace Benyngly now to pray for me also; For ryght wel you know your kyng I was, _Et, ecce, nunc in pulvere dormio_! [155] _Of the death_, &c.] From the ed. by Kynge and Marche of _Certaine bokes compyled by Mayster Skelton_, n. d.—collated with the same work, ed. Day, n. d., and ed. Lant, n. d.; with Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_, 1568; occasionally with the _Mirrour for Magistrates_, 1587 (in the earlier eds. of which the poem was incorporated), and with a contemporary MS. in the possession of Miss Richardson Currer, which last has furnished a stanza hitherto unprinted. [156] _This world_, &c.] MS.: “For the _world hathe_ conformid _me to fall_.” [157] _may_] MS. “myzt.” [158] _Now there_, &c.] MS.: “_Now is ther no_ helpe _but pray for_ my sovle.” [159] _twenty-two_] So MS. and _Mir. for Mag._ Eds. “xxiii.;” see notes. [160] _it_] So other eds. Ed. of Kynge and Marche, “hit.” [161] _That_] So MS. Eds. “As.” [162] _the erth_] MS. “dethe.” [163] _himselfe assure_] So _Mir. for Mag._ Eds. and MS., “be sure.” [164] _What is it_, &c.] MS.: “_What ys it to trust_ the _mutabylyte_ Of _this world_ whan _no thyng may endure_.” [165] _cheryfayre_] MS. “cheyfeyre.” [166] _I se wyll_, &c.] This stanza only found in MS. [167] _This_] See notes. [168] _lyst_] MS. “lust”—against the rhyme. [169] _chest_] MS. “chestys”—against the rhyme.