Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Sir Henry Wotton. 15681639179. The Character of a Happy Life
HOW happy is he born and taught | |
That serveth not another’s will; | |
Whose armour is his honest thought, | |
And simple truth his utmost skill! | |
Whose passions not his masters are; | 5 |
Whose soul is still prepared for death, | |
Untied unto the world by care | |
Of public fame or private breath; | |
Who envies none that chance doth raise, | |
Nor vice; who never understood | 10 |
How deepest wounds are given by praise; | |
Nor rules of state, but rules of good; | |
Who hath his life from rumours freed; | |
Whose conscience is his strong retreat; | |
Whose state can neither flatterers feed, | 15 |
Nor ruin make oppressors great; | |
Who God doth late and early pray | |
More of His grace than gifts to lend; | |
And entertains the harmless day | |
With a religious book or friend; | 20 |
—This man is freed from servile bands | |
Of hope to rise or fear to fall: | |
Lord of himself, though not of lands, | |
And having nothing, yet hath all. |