65.
Reading edition
¶ A sonet against a slanderous tongue.[E406]
¶ Chap. 54.
Doth darnell good, among the flowrie wheat? Doo thistles good, so thick in fallow spide? Doo taint wormes good, that lurke where ox should eat Or sucking drones, in hiue where bees abide? Doo hornets good, or these same biting gnats? Foule swelling toades, what good by them is seene? In house well deckt, what good doth gnawing rats? Or casting mowles, among the meadowes greene? Doth heauie newes make glad the hart of man? Or noisome smels, what good doth that to health? Now once for all, what good (shew who so can?) Doo stinging[1] snakes, to this our Commonwealth? No more doth good a peeuish slanderous toung, But hurts it selfe, and noies both old and young.[E407]
Notes in this chapter
Note 1 · The following poem on Evil Tongues is from a MS. of the 15th century, edited for the Percy Soc. by the late Mr. T. Wright, 1847: "A man thatNote 2 · stinking. 1577.Note 3 · There is a smoothness in the versification of this sonnet, and a succession of imagery, though drawn from common sources, which we do not of