I Suffer a proude Bailiffe.

If he be proude onely, and not a theefe also, it is wel with thee.

I haue an euil Bayliffe.

Beare him indifferently, for vn∣lesse he be very euyl, he is a good Baylyffe.

I am grieued at my rude Bailiffe.

Thou wouldest be more grieued at hym, yf he were soft and delicate: Roughnesse and rudenesse are termes proper for Clownes, for they toyle with the rough oxen, with rough plowes and harrowes, with rough spades and rakes, and lastly with the rough earth it self, and what then shoulde they be other then rude and rough them selues? If he haue no other faulte but that he is rude, he is Bailiffe good ye∣nough.

I cannot abyde an importunate Clowne.

But thou must eyther abyde thy Bayliffe, or els be Bayliffe thy selfe, and determine to goe dwel in the rude countrey where all thynges are hard and rough.

I haue an vnruly husbandman, and without all ciuilitie.

None of these ought to be vnthought vpon of thee. So soone as thou Page  236hadst lande, thou shouldest haue forseene the manyfolde toyles be∣longing thereto, barkynges, and thy Bayliffes disdaynefulnesse. At what tyme thou vauntedst thy selfe of thy fruiteful lande, I tolde thee that husbandmen were the last of all people whom iustice departed from, when she forsooke the earth. If euer man∣kynde shoulde be reuiued agayne, I suppose, that they be the laste that shall fynd her. Thus they be gone before them whom they fo∣lowed, and are become of all euyll men, the most wicked.

I haue a very sharpe Bayliffe.

Where as the trueth him selfe sayde, that the earth should bryng foorth vnto man thornes and bryars, that is to be vnderstoode of husbandmen, who are sharper then any bryars.

I haue a very wycked Farmer.

Eyther learne to suffer the wyc∣kednesse of thy Farmer, or els sterue for hunger: For to chaunge thy Farmer it shal not auayle thee, seeyng they be all in a maner of one qualitie, sauing that alwayes the woorst commeth laste.

My Bayliffe is a Theefe.

Now thou hast spoken that whiche I looked for all this whyle: For they are so adicted to stealyng, that the litle whiche they get that way is more sweete vnto them, then whatsoeuer they gayne by theyr true labour. But this must also be borne withall, neyther ought one to complaine of that which is common to al men. And truely although the Poet set downe, that the Hyndes of the Countrey were last of all forsaken of iustice, as I haue sayde twise before: Notwithstandyng it is well knowen, that the first man that was begotten amongst you of the seede of man, was both an husband∣man, and a murtherer of his owne brother, that they may seeme alwayes to haue been the worste kynde of people, ouer whom whyles thou thynkest, thou needest not to maruayle that they be Theeues also.

Through the faulte of my Bay∣liffe, my Farme is destroyed, and vntylled.

The lyke hapneth euerye day vnto greater personagies then thou: and in olde tyme vnto Anaxagoras, and Architas, who were both, I thynke, sory for it, but neyther of them angrie.