PRIEST. 
Man. 
PRIEST. 
a 
poetry. Mi: Sept. 11, 
All-a-boon, Sir priest! all,a-boon ! hey * 
I beseech thee now say unto me, 
Why Sir Geoff’ry the knight, with his lady so bright, 
So rich and so happy fhould be, 
Whilst myself and my mate, in wretched estate, 
Must in labour and drudgery all our days waste; 
Yet never of plenty or honours fhall taste ? 
Turn thine eyes round upon this new mown lee ; 
With look. attentive view the wither’d dale ; 
Here to thy question thou’lt fit answer see ; 
This faded flow’r suggests a moral tale. 
Late. freth it blow’d, it flourified and did well, 
Proudly disdaining the fhort neighb’ring green ; 
Yet now its pride is humbled;—lo! where fell 
Its faded glories on the sun burnt plain ! 
Did not its gaudy look, whilst it did stand, 
To pluck it im its prime move some dread hand ? 
Such is the way of life :—the’ great’ man’s wealth 
Tempts ruffian violence his peace to wound : 
If thou art blefs’d with bread, content, and health, 
’ Believe the truth,—none is more happy found. 
‘Thou workest ?—well can that a trouble be? 
Sloth more would tire thee than the roughest day; 
Couldst thou the inmost soul of man but see, 
Full well thou’dst be convine’d of what T say. 
But let me hear thy way of life; and then 
Hear thou from me the liyes of other men, 
I rise up with the sun, 
Working the live long day ; 
And when my work is done, 
I tune some roundelay ; 
I follow the plough-tail 
With a jug of good ale. 
On ev’ry holiday 
With the Minstrils am I seen, 
Chearful, footing it away, 
With maidens on the green: 
But oh! I wifh to be more great 
Tn honour, title, and estate. 
Hast thou not seen a tree upon a hill, 
Whose tow’ring branches to the fkies ascend ? 
Hast thou not'seen it by the roots up-torn, 
When some fierce tempest earth and heav’n doth rend? 
While lowly thrubs that in the vale delight, 
Unhurt, unfhaken bide the pelting storm ? 
Such is this world’s estate :—the man of might 
Tstempest chaft ; his woe great as his form: 
Thys.') now a low fhrub ofsmaJl account, 
Wond’st fiercer feel the wind, ifhigher thou cond’st mount, 
