Classic Poem

In the deserued Honour of the Au thor, Captaine Iohn Smith , and his Worke.

Damn'd Enuie is a sp'rite, that euer haunts
Beasts, mis-nam'd Men; Cowards, or Ignorants
But onely such shee followes, whose deere W ORTH
(Maugre her malice) gets their glorie forth

If this faire Ouerture, then, take not; It
Is Enuie's spight (dear friend) in men-of-wit;
Or Feare, lest morsels, which our mouthes possesse,
Might fall from thence; or else tis Sottishnesse.

If either; (I hope neither) thee they raise;
Thy Letters are as Letters in thy praise:
Who, by their Vice, improue (when they reprooue)
Thy vertue; so, in hate, procure thee Loue.
Then, On firme Worth: this Monument I frame;
Scorning for any Smith to forge such Fame.