XXIV. Rich fools there be, whose base and filthy heart

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

RICH fools there be, whose base and filthy heart

Lies hatching still the goods wherein they flow:

And damning their own selves to TANTAL’s smart,

Wealth breeding want; more blest, more wretched grow.

Yet to those fools, heaven such wit doth impart,

As what their hands do hold, their heads do know;

And knowing, love and loving lay apart,

As sacred things, far from all danger’s show:

But that rich fool, who by blind Fortune’s lot,

The richest gem of love and life enjoys;

And can with foul abuse, such beauties blot:

Let him deprived of sweet but unfelt joys,

(Exiled for aye from those high treasures, which

He knows not) grow in only folly rich!