64.*

To beard thy foes shews forth thy witt, but helpes the matter nere a whit. My sonne, were it not worst to frame thy nature so, That as thine vse is to thy friend, likewise to greet thy foe: Though not for hope of good, yet for the feare of euill, Thou maist find ease so proffering vp a candell to the deuill. This knowne, the surest way thine enemies wrath to swage; If thou canst currey fauour thus, thou shalt be counted sage. Of truth I tell no lye, by proofe to well I knowe, The stubborne want of only this hath brought full many lowe. And yet to speak the trouth the Deuill is worse then naught, That no good turne will once deserue, yet looketh vp so haught. Exalt him how we please, and giue him what we can, Yet skarcely shall we find such Deuill a truly honest man. But where the mighty may of force the weake constraine, It shal be wysely doone to bow to voyd a farther payne, Like as in tempest great, where wind doth beare the stroke, Much safer stands the bowing reede then doth the stubborne oke. And chiefly when of all thy selfe art one of those That fortune needes, will haue to dwell fast by the Deuils nose: Then (though against thine hart) thy tongue thou must so charme That tongue may say, where ere thou come the Deuill doth no man harme. For where as no reuenge may stand a man in steede, As good is then an humble speech, as otherwise to bleede. Like as ye see by him that hath a shrew to wife, As good it is to speak her faire as still to liue in strife. Put thou no Deuill in boote as once did master Shorne:[E404] Take heede as from madde bayted bull to keepe thee fro his horne. And where ye see the Deuill so bold to wrest with lawe, Make congé oft, and crouch aloofe, but come not in his clawe. The scholer forth of schoole may boldlier take his mind, The fields haue eyes, the bushes eares, false birds can fetch the wind.[E405] The further from the gone the safer may ye skippe, The nerer to the carters hand the nerer to the whippe. The neerer to the whippe the sooner comes the jerke, The sooner that poore beast is strucke the sooner doth he yerke. Some loueth for to whippe, to see how ierkes will smart, In wofull taking is that horse that nedes must drawe in cart. Such fellow is the Deuell, that doth euen what he list, Yet thinketh he what ere he doth none ought dare say, but whist. Take therefore heed, my sonne, and marke full well this song, Learne thus with craft to claw the deuell, else liue in rest not long.