Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

XXVI. THE STEEL GLAS, 3'5Art thou a craftsman ? take thee to thine arte,And cast of slouth, which loytreth in the Campes.Art thou a plowman pressed for a shift ?635Then learne to clout thine old cast cobled shoes,And rather bide at home with barly bread,Than learne to spoyle, as thou hast scene some do.Merchants.And master Merchant, he whose trauaile ought 750Commodiously to doe his countrie good,And by his toyle the same for to enriche.Can finde the meane to make MonopolyesOf euery ware that is accompted strange,And feeds the vaine of courtiers vaine desires 755Vntil the court haue courtiers cast at heele,Quia non habent vestes Nuptiales.O painted fooles, whose harebrainde heades must haueMore clothes attones than might become a king :For whom the rocks in forain Realmes must spin, 760For whom they carde, for whom they weaue their webbes,For whom no wool appeareth fine enough,(I speake not this by english courtiers,Since english wool was euer thought most worth)For whom al seas are tossed to and fro, 765For whom these purples come from Persia,The crimosine and liuely red from Inde :For whom soft silks do sayle from Se?'icane,And all queint costs do come from fardest coastsWhiles, in meane while, that worthy Emperour, 770Which rulde the world and had all welth at wil,Could be content to tire his wearie wife,