To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be,
Which breaks the clouds, and opens forth the light
That doth both shine, and give us sight to see.

O take fast hold! let that light be thy guide,
In this small course which birth draws out to death,
And think how evil becometh him to slide,
Who seeketh heaven, and comes from heavenly breath.
Then farewell, world, thy uttermost I see,
Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me.

SPLENDIDIS LONGUM VALEDICO NUGIS



Footnote:

{1} Edward Wotton, elder brother of Sir Henry Wotton. He was
knighted by Elizabeth in 1592, and made Comptroller of her
Household. Observe the playfulness in Sidney's opening and close of
a treatise written throughout in plain, manly English without
Euphuism, and strictly reasoned.

{2} Here the introduction ends, and the argument begins with its
Part 1. Poetry the first Light-giver.

{3} A fable from the "Hetamythium" of Laurentius Abstemius,
Professor of Belles Lettres at Urbino, and Librarian to Duke Guido
Ubaldo under the Pontificate of Alexander VI. (1492-1503).