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Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.

Lines from “Catascopos”

XCIV. Anonymous

I SEE good lawes for godlie vse deuised;

The iust man’s right, and rigor for offenses,

By filthy lucre masqued and disguised;

Truth’s but a sound to shadow foule pretenses;

For pride, ambition, ire, and auarice,

Do dull, dimme, blanch, and blind the wisest eies.

I see how wars, the canker of estate,

Hel’s image and al commonweales’ downthrow,

Spring from the proud ambitious hart’s debate,

Where rancor, spleene, and enuie overflow:

Not multitudes of men conquest atchieve;

’Tis onely God that victorie doth giue.