Unto me the poor man's part,
But the husbandman's not so.

HUSBANDMAN.

Friend, be thy part what it may,
Thee the Author never told

To enact the sturdy beggar.

Toil, and sweat, and labor strong,

We pass over a little in which the different parts

are further brought out, and resume.

a suggestion:

Seeing that this life of ours
Is a play and nothing more,
And that we are all together

The king makes

Travelling the self-same road,

Let its present smoothness lead us
Fellowship in talk to hold.

DISCRETION.

World this were not, if it did not
So much fellowship afford.

RICH MAN.

Let each tell by turns a story.

DISCRETION.

That were wearisome and long:
It were better each in order

Should his inmost thought unfold.

KING.

I gaze upon my kingdoms far and nigh,
The pomp, the pride, the glory that I own,
In whose variety has Nature shown
Her patience and her prodigality.
Towers I possess built up unto the sky,
And Beauty is a vassal at my feet;
Alike before me, as my servants, meet
Whatever is elsewhere of low or high,
A monster of so many necks, so strong,
So violent that I may wiselier rule,

Grant me what lore to monarchs should belong,

Lead and instruct me, Heavens, in wisdom's school,

For never with one yoke, to all applied,
May be subdued so many necks of pride.

WORLD.

He that he may govern rightly

Wisdom asks, like Solomon.

[A sad Voice from within sings, on the side at which is the door of the coffin.

Monarch of this fleeting realm,

Give thy pomp, thy glory o'er;

For on this world's theatre

Thou shalt play the king no more.

KING.

Speaks a sad voice in mine ear

That the part I play is o'er—
Voice which leaves me, at the hearing,

Without reason or discourse.

Then will I, my part concluded,

Quit the scene. But whither go?

For to that first portal, where
I my cradle did behold,
Thither, ah! return I can not.
Wo is us!-oh, rigorous doom!
That we can not toward the cradle
Make one step, but toward the tomb
Each must bring us nearer, nearer;
That the river, ocean-born,

From the sea drawn up, returning

Thither, may be sea once more;
That the rivulet, derived

From the river, may restore

What it drew from thence, again

Being what it was before;

But that man what once he has been
Never can be any more!

If my part has reached its ending,
Mighty Author, sovereign Lord,
Its innumerable errors

Pardon, which at heart I mourn.

[He goes out at the door of the coffin, as do all the others in their turn.

WORLD.

Well the king his part has ended,

With repentance at the close.

BEAUTY.

From the circle of his vassals,
Pomp and glory of his court,
Fails the king.

HUSBANDMAN.

So spring showers fail not

At the due time for our corn:

With good crops, and without king,
We shall not have much to mourn.

DISCRETION.

Yet withal it is great pity—

BEAUTY.

And a matter to deplore.

What shall we do now?

RICH MAN.

Return

To the talk we held before:

Say what in thy thought is passing.

BEAUTY.

This is passing in my thought

WORLD.

But the living for the dead

Take not long to be consoled.

HUSBANDMAN.

And, above all, when the dead

Leave behind them ample store.

BEAUTY.

I gaze upon my beauty bright and pure,

Nor grudge the king, nor to his pomps incline;

For a more glorious empery mine,

Even that which beauty doth to me assure;

For if the king the bondage may secure