Note 56 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
I give a taste of these young verses, first published in the Poetical Blossoms of 1633; also sampled approvingly by the mature Cowley in his essay On Myself:
“This only grant me, that my means may lie Too low for envy, for contempt too high. Some honor I would have Not from great deeds, but good alone. The unknown are better than ill known; Rumour can ope the grave. “Thus would I double my life’s fading space, For he that runs it well, twice runs his race. And in this true delight, These unbought sports, this happy state, I would not fear nor wish my fate. But boldly say each night To-morrow let my sun his beams display, Or in clouds hide them;—I have liv’d to-day!”