r greatest power therin doth oftnest shewe.
Whence growes, we dailie see, who in their youth
Gatt honor ther, do loose it in their age,
Vanquisht by some lesse warlike then themselues:
Whome yet a meaner man shall ouerthrowe.
Hir vse is not to lende vs still her hande,
But sometimes headlong back a gaine to throwe,
When by hir fauor she hath vs extolld
Vnto the topp of highest happines.

_Ant._ well ought I curse within my grieued soule,
Lamenting daie and night, this sencelesse loue,
Whereby my faire entising foe entrap'd
My hedelesse _Reason_, could no more escape.
It was not fortunes euer chaunging face,
It was not Dest'nies chaungles violence
Forg'd my mishap. Alas! who doth not know
They make, nor marre, nor any thing can doe.
Fortune, which men so feare, adore, detest,
Is but a chaunce whose cause vnknow'n doth rest.
Although oft times the cause is well perceiu'd,
But not th'effect the fame that was conceiu'd.
_Pleasure_, nought else, the plague of this our life,
Our life which still a thousand plagues pursue,
Alone hath me this strange disastre spunne,
Falne from a souldior to a Chamberer,
Careles of vertue, careles of all praise.
Nay, as the fatted swine in filthy mire
With glutted heart I wallow'd in delights,
All thoughts of honor troden vnder foote.
So I me lost: for finding this swete cupp
Pleasing my tast, vnwise I drunke my fill,
And through the swetenes of that poisons power
By stepps I draue my former witts astraie.
I made my frends, offended me forsake,
I holpe my foes against my selfe to rise.
I robd my subiects, and for followers
I saw my selfe besett with flatterers.
Mine idle armes faire wrought with spiders worke,
My scattred men without their ensignes strai'd:
_Caesar_ meane while who neuer would haue dar'de
To cope with me, me sodainlie despis'de,
Tooke hart to fight, and hop'de for victorie
On one so gone, who glorie had forgone.

_Lu._ Enchaunting pleasure; _Venus_ swete delights
Weaken our bodies, ouer-cloud our sprights,
Trouble our reason, from our harts out chase
All holie vertues lodging in their place.
Like as the cunning fisher takes the fishe
By traitor baite wherby the hooke is hidde:
So _Pleasure_ serues to vice in steede of foode
To baite our soules theron too licourishe.
This poison deadlie is alike to all,
But on great kings doth greatest outrage