English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
39. The Means to Attain Happy Life
M
The happy life be these, I find:—
The richesse left, not got with pain;
The fruitful ground, the quiet mind;
No charge of rule, nor governance;
The household of continuance;
True wisdom join’d with simpleness;
The night dischargèd of all care,
Where wine the wit may not oppress.
Such sleeps as may beguile the night:
Contented with thine own estate
Ne wish for death, ne fear his might.