Page:Shakespeare Collection of Poems.djvu/76

For then is Tarquin brought unto his bed,
Intending weariness with heavy spright:
For after supper long he questioned
With modest Lucrece, and wore out the night:
Now leaden slumber with lives strength doth fight,
And every one to rest themselves betake,
Save thieves, and cares, and troubled minds that wake.

As one of which doth Tarquin lie revolving
The sundry dangers of his will's obtaining;
Yet ever to obtain his will resolving,
Tho weak-built hopes perswade him to abstaining,
Despair to gain doth traffique oft for gaining,
And when great treasure is the meed proposed,
Though death be adjunct, there's no death supposed.

Those that much covet are with gain so fond,
That oft they have not that which they possess,
They scatter and unloose it from the bond,
And so, by hoping more they have but less,
Or gaining more the profit of excess,
Is but to surfet, and such griefs sustain,
That they prove bankrout in this poor-rich gain.

The aim of all is but to nurse the life
With honour, wealth and ease, in wayning age:
And in this aim there is such thwarting strife,
That one for all, or all for one we gage:
As life for honor, in fell battles rage,

Honor