Cant. IIII.
the Faery Queene.
53
His life was nigh vnto deaths dore yplaste,And thred-bare cote, and cobled shoes hee ware,Ne scarse good morsell all his life did taste,But both from backe and belly still did spare,To fill his bags, and richesse to compare;Yet childe ne kinsman liuing had he noneTo leaue them to; but thorough daily careTo get, and nightly feare to lose his owne,He led a wretched life vnto him selfe vnknowne.
Most wretched wight, whom nothing might suffise,Whose greedy lust did lacke in greatest store,Whose need had end, but no end couetise,Whose welth was want, whose plēty made him pore,Who had enough, yett wished euer more,A vile disease, and eke in foote and handA grieuous gout tormented him full sore,That well he could not touch, nor goe, nor stand:Such one was Auarice, the forth of this faire band.
And next to him malicious Enuy rode,Vpon a rauenous wolfe, and still did chawBetweene his cankred teeth a venemous tode,That all the poison ran about his chaw;But inwardly he chawed his owne mawAt neibors welth, that made him euer sad;For death it was, when any good he saw,And wept, that cause of weeping none he had,But when he heard of harme, he wexed wondrous glad.
All in a kirtle of discolourd sayHe clothed was, ypaynted full of eies;And in his bosome secretly there layAn hatefull Snake, the which his taile vptyes
In
