For without gold now nothing will be got,
Therefore (if please you) this shall be our plot:
We will not be of any occupation;
Let such vile vassals, born to base vocation,
Drudge in the world, and for their living droil,
Which have no wit to live withouten toil;
But we will walk about the world with pleasure
Like two free men, and make our ease our treasure.
Free men some beggars call, but they be free,
And they which call them so more beggars be;
For they do swink and sweat to feed th' other,
Who live like Lords of that which they do gather,
And yet do never thank them for the same,
But as their due by Nature do it claim.
Such will we fashion both our selves to be,
Lords of the world; and so will wander free
Where so us listeth, uncontroll'd of any:
Hard is our hap, if we (amongst so many)
Light not on some that may our state amend:
Seldom but some good cometh ere the end.
-- Edmund Spenser (1553-1599), Prosopopoia: Or Mother Hubberds Tale
