¶ Old Damons Pastorall.
+Author: Thomas Lodge. Structure (May/Ringler): 44: 1×4, 3×12, 1×4, abab8, abab4troch.
F Rom Fortunes frownes and change remou’d, wendproceed, go sillysimple, innocent Flocks in blessed feeding: None of Damon +conventional pastoral name, see Virgil, Eclogues , VIII more belou’d, feede gentle Lambs while I sit reading.
(5) Carelessehaving no anxieties; thoughtless, irresponsible Worldlingsworldly-minded people , outrage quelleth all the pride and pompe of Citie: But true peace with Shepheards dwelleth, (Shepheards who delight in pittie.) Whether grace of heauen betidethchances, happens (to bestow) , (10) on our humble minds such pleasure: Perfect peace with Swaines abidethdwells , loue and faith is Shepheards treasure. On the lower Plaines the thunder little thriues, and nought preuaileth: (15) Yet in Cities breedeth wonder, and the highest hills assaileth. +Variant on the proverb ‘The highest trees abide the sharpest storms’; ‘High cedars fall (are shaken) when low shrubs remain (are scarcely moved).’ Tilley, Proverbs , T509, C208. For other uses of this proverb, see: Tottel , ‘The mean estate is to be accompted the best’, 17-8: ‘The highest tree … windes’ *, Gorgeous Gallery (1578), ‘A louing Epistle’, 57. ‘As highest … winde’ * and Paradise , ‘Who waiteth on this wavering world’, 2. ‘when taller … thunder clap’ *, and ’45. Prudence. The history of Damacles, and Dionise’, 3: ‘High trees… doe blow’. *
Enuie of a forraigne Tyrant threatneth Kings, not Shepheards humble: Age makes silly Swaines delirantmad, insane , (20) thirst of rule garresgars, makes great men stumble. What to other seemeth sorrie, abiect state and humble bidinglife to endure, suffer : Is our ioy and Country glorie, highest states haue worse betidingfortune . (25) Golden Cups doe harbour poyson, +proverbial, ‘Poison is hidden in golden cups’, Tilley, Proverbs , P458, for other uses of this proverb see Paradise , ‘Most happy is that state alone’ * and Poetical Rhapsody , An Invenctive against love’ *and the greatest pompe, dissembling: Court of seasoned wordswords familiarized with court life in a negative sense hath foysonabundance , treason hauntsdwells, lives in most assemblingwhere many people gather .