Note 22 — WHO WROTE CAVENDISH’S LIFE OF WOLSEY?
Reading edition
The reference is to Dr. Wordsworth’s text; the passage will be found at p. 77 of the present edition. The same strain of querulous complaint occurs in his prologue to the Metrical Visions:
How some are by fortune exalted to riches, And often such as most unworthy be, &c.
Afterwards he checks himself, and calls Dame Reason to his aid:
But after dewe serche and better advisement, I knew by Reason that oonly God above Rewlithe thos thyngs, as is most convenyent, The same devysing to man for his behove: Wherefore Dame Reason did me persuade and move To be content with my small estate, And in this matter no more to vestigate.
Here we have decisive proof that the writer’s fortunes were not in the flourishing condition which marked those of Sir William Cavendish at this period, i. e. in the reign of Mary.
S. W. S.