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Works of Sir Thomas More


Lady Fortune and her Wheel.
British Library Harley MS 4431, f. 129.



Two Poems by Sir Thomas More

Two short Ballads, which Sir Thomas made for his pastime,
while he was prisoner in the Tower
, preserved in Rastell's
edition of his works.


First Ballad
to the tune of "Lewis the lost lover."

Eye-flattering Fortune! look thou ne'er so fair,
     Or ne'er so pleasantly begin to smile,
As though thou wouldst my ruin all repair,
     During my life thou shalt not me beguile;
     Trust shall I God to enter in erewhile,
His haven of havens sure and uniform:—
After a calm I still expect the storm.*


Second Ballad
to the tune of "Davy the Dicer."

Long was I, Lady Luck, your serving-man,
     And now have lost again all that I gat;
When, therefore, I think of you now and then,
     And in my mind remember this and that,
     Ye may not blame me, though I shrew your cat;
In faith I bless you, and a thousand times,
For lending me some leisure to make rhymes.



* Roper tells us that this was written down with More's usual pencil of coal, on Cromwell's quitting the Tower, after his unsuccessful endeavour to talk him into a subscription to the oath.



Source:

Walter, W. Joseph. Sir Thomas More: His Life and Times. 2nd Ed.
       London: Charles Dolman, 1840.  316-7.





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Persons of Interest
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Pico della Mirandola
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Government
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The Act of Supremacy, 1534
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Images of London:
London in the time of Henry VII. MS. Roy. 16 F. ii.
London, 1510, earliest view in print
Map of England from Saxton's Descriptio Angliae, 1579
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Detail of Norden's Map of the Bankside, 1593
Bull and Bear Baiting Rings from the Agas Map (1569-1590, pub. 1631)
Sketch of the Swan Theatre, c. 1596
Westminster in the Seventeenth Century, by Hollar
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