To Sir Henry Goodyere
This is the eighty-sixth of the poet’s first
book of epigrams, and, like its immediate
Ben Jonson. predecessor, it was addressed
to a gentleman bound in bonds of
friendship to many of the men of
genius of his time.
When I would know thee, Goodyere, my thought looks
Upon thy well-made choice of friends and books;
Then do I love thee, and behold thy ends
In making thy friends books, and thy books friends:
Now must I give thy life and deed the voice
Attending such a study, such a choice;
Where, though ’t be love that to thy praise doth move,
It was a knowledge that begat that love.