Dazled thus with height of place,

Whilst our Hopes our wits Beguile,

No man marks the narrow space

‘Twixt a Prison and a Smile.

Then since Fortunes favours fade,

You that in her arms do sleep,

Learn to swim and not to wade;

For the Hearts of Kings are deep.

But if Greatness be so blind,

As to trust in Towers of Air,

Let it be with Goodness lin’d,

That at least the Fall be fair.

Then though darkned you shall say,

When Friends fail and Princes frown,

Vertue is the roughest way,

But proves at night a Bed of Down.