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VIRGIDEMIAE: BOOK 5: SATIRE: 4, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Villius the wealthy farmer left his heir
Last Line: That fourtie pounds serue not the farmers heyre.
Subject(s): Farm Life; Inheritance & Succession; Money; Wealth; Agriculture; Farmers; Heirs; Riches; Fortunes


Villius the welthy farmer left his heire,
Twise twenty sterling pounds to spend by yeare;
The neighbours praysen Villios hide-bound sonne,
And say it was a goodly portion;
Not knowing how some Marchants dowre can rise,
By sundaies tale to fiftie Centuries;
Or to weigh downe a leaden Bride with Gold;
Worth all that Matho bought, or Pontice sold:
But whiles ten pound goes to his wiues new gown,
Nor little lesse can serue to sute his owne,
Whiles one peece payes her idle wayting man,
Or buyes an hoode, or siluer-handled Fanne,
Or hires a Friezeland Trotter halfe yarde deepe,
To drag his Tumbrell through the staring Cheape;
Or whiles he rideth with two liueries,
And's treble rated at the Subsidies,
One end a kennell keeps of thriftlesse hounds,
What thinke yow rest's of all my younkers pounds,
To diet him, or deale out at his doore,
To cofer vp, or stocke his wasting store?
If then I reckon'd right, it should appeare,
That fourtie pounds serue not the Farmers heyre.





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