A Skeltoniad

The Muse should be sprightly,     Yet not handling lightly     Things graue; as much loath,     Things that be slight, to cloath     Curiously: To retayne     The Comelinesse in meane,     Is true Knowledge and Wit.     Not me forc'd Rage doth fit,     That I thereto should lacke     Tabacco, or need Sacke,     Which to the colder Braine     Is the true Hyppocrene;     Nor did I euer care     For great Fooles, nor them spare.     Vertue, though neglected,     Is not so deiected,     As vilely to descend     To low Basenesse their end;     Neyther each ryming Slaue     Deserues the Name to haue     Of Poet: so the Rabble     Of Fooles, for the Table,     That haue their Iests by Heart,     As an Actor his Part,     Might assume them Chayres     Amongst the Muses Heyres.     Parnassus is not clome     By euery such Mome;     Vp whose steep side who swerues,     It behoues t' haue strong Nerues:     My Resolution such,     How well, and not how much     To write, thus doe I fare,     Like some few good that care     (The euill sort among)     How well to liue, and not how long.