To Thomas Lord Chancellor
by Ben Jonson

WHIL'ST thy weigh'd judgements, EGERTON, I heare,
    And know thee, then, a judge, not of one yeare ;
Whil'st I behold thee live with purest hands ;
    That no affection in thy voice commands ;
That still th'art present to the better cause ;
    And no lesse wise, than skilfull in the lawes ;
Whil'st thou art certaine to thy words, once gone,
    As is thy conscience, which is alwayes one :
The Virgin, long since fled from earth, I see,
    T' our times return'd, hath made her heaven in thee.


  Sir Thomas Egerton
Sir Thomas Egerton
Source:
The Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse.
H. J. C. Grierson and G. Bullough, eds.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934. 151.
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