Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.
Gods Bounty EnlargedXCI. John Hagthorpe
O
Mount you aloft beyond the foggy aire,
Past the reflection of all terrene things,
And sublamate your soules to things more faire;
That, touching these terrestrial beauties, we
Might rather heare thinke why, than what they be!
Full of officious seruants for your vse,
Hath Heauen ordained to entertaine you all;
Wherein, if any want, ’tis but th’ abuse
Of foul excesse, whose surfets wasts the store
That might supply the needies’ wants twice o’er.
The flowerie earth to entertaine your feete,
Where euery plant and flowre that shews his head
Brings with it profit, wonder, and delight;
How many a pretty flie with spotted wing
Vpon there slender stalke their canzons sing!
How many beautious forrests clad in greene,
Where watery nimphes with soft embraces locks;
Such shady groues, as for true loue may seeme
Fit chappels to the winged singers’ layes,
And burbling streames to chaunt true beautie’s praise.
Ten thousand things of farre more valued prise;
And th’ sea for pleasure and for vse conteines
The choisest beauties, richest smells and dies:
Thus hath our Maker for touch, tast, and smell,
For eye and eare, puruey’d compleatly well.
And contemplation onely cooks the dish:
What is it, then,—hath Heauen all these assigned
For our vse, to that end we should be his?
Then must we giue him one poor little part,
The onely thing he craues—a thankfull heart.