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To bid the Gods to battaile bende, and to descende in sight, Though farre vnfit, and mates vnmeete, with mortall men to fight. Too late (alas) we wish his life, too soone deceiues vs Death, (30) Too little wit we haue to seeke, the dead agayne to breath: What helpelesse is, most carelesse be, as Natures course doth show, For death shall reape what life hath sowen, by nature this we know. Where is that fierce Achilles fled, where is king Turnus shroude? What is become of Priamus state, where is Periander proude? (35) Hector , Hanno , Hanniball, dead, Pompei , Pirrhus spild, Scipio , Cyrus , Cæsar slayne, and Alexander kild. So long there Fortune fast did flow, and charged Fame to sound, Till frowning Fortune foild by fate, which fawning Fortune found: Shun Fortunes feakes, shake Fortune of, to none is Fortune sound, (40) Sith none may say of Fortune so, I Fortune faithfull found. Behold where Fortune flowed so fast, and fauoured Saunders lure, +Till fickle Fortune false agayne, did Saunders death procure: Loe clothed cold in cloddes of clay, in drossie dust remaine, By fate return’d from whence he came, to his mothers wombe agayne, (45) Who welnigh thirtie yeares was Iudge, before a Iudge did fall, And iudged by that mighty Iudge, which Iudge shall iudge vs all: The heauens may of right reioyce, and earth may it bewayle, Sith heauen wan, and earth hath lost, the guide and arke of vayle. The gayne is much, our losse is great, their mirth, our mone is such, (50) That they may laugh as cause doe yeld, and we may weepe as much. O happy he, vnhappy we, his hap doth aye encrease, Happy he, and haplesse we, his hap shall neuer cease. We liue to dye, he died to liue, we want and he possest, We bide in bandes, he bathes in blisse, the Gods aboue him blest: (55) Beyng borne to liue, he liued to dye, and dyed to God so playne, That birth, that life, that death doe shew, that he shall liue agayne. His youth to age, his age to death, his death to fame applied, His fame to time, his time to God, thus Saunders liued and dyed: O happy life, O happier death, O ten times happy he, (60) Whose hap it was, such hap to haue, a Iudge this age to be. Oh ioyfull time, Oh blessed soyle, where Pallas rules with wit, +O noble state, O sacred seate, where Saba sage doth sit: Like Susan sound like Sara sad, with Hesters Mace in hand, With Iudithes sword Bellona like, to rule this noble land.