1Those

that1

employéd are the apes to catch,

2The places

where they haunt they use to watch2

;

3Stockings and clothes about the ground they scatter.

4Then instantly the apes begin to chatter;

5And being ambitious to be in the fashion

6(Just as we imitate

our neighbor nation3

),

7

They draw them on4

. The huntsmen then they see;

8Then every ape begins to

take5

a tree.

9But up they could not get for all their

pains6

;

10They straight were caught and led away in chains.

11Thus those which took a town once from the Moors

12Through their ambition were enslaved to

boors7

.

13

Semiramis, that was old Ninus’s love8

,

14’Twas her ambition turned her to a dove.

15

Crook’d-Back’s ambition made five monarchs yield9

,

16

Whose score he paid again in Bosworth field10

.

17Ambition made one

O11

his sovereign kill,

18And to

mak’t12

good, much innocent blood to spill.

19But there’s a

Nemesis13

that will look down

20On all usurpers of their masters’

crown14

.

21So

Jezebel bid furious Jehu15

see

22The curséd end of

Zimri’s treachery16

.

23

Phocion the royal family subdued17

,

24And in their princely blood his hands

imbrued18

,

25Which horrid action

he and his19

all rued.

26

Andronicus20

, that made his sovereign bleed,

27Cried out at last, “Don’t bruise a bruiséd reed.”

28So

Diocles the fatal boar pulled down21

29And triumphed in his murdered master’s crown,

30Till, finding it too heavy, laid it by;

31But yet,

for all22

, he by the sword did die.

32

Pompey’s ambition23

would no superior have;

33

He lost his hopes, in Egypt found a grave24

.

34

Cæsar no equal ever would abide25

;

35He had his aim, yet by the senate died.

36Ambition made

the trumviri26

end

37When each to other sacrificed his friend.

38Ambition made the

ephory27

give o’er

39

And kicked king, lords, and commons, out of doors28

.

40Thus all confusion from ambition springs:

41Apes would be men, and all men would be kings.

42Then, by this emblem it doth plain appear,

43’Tis best for every one to keep his

sphere29

.