[The Court of the Temple, Jerusalem, Model]from The Temple (1633), by George Herbert:

 

¶   Dotage.


FAlse glozing1 pleasures, casks of happinesse,
Foolish night-fires, womens and childrens wishes,
Chases in Arras, guilded emptinesse,
Shadows well mounted, dreams in a career,
Embroider’d lyes, nothing between two dishes;
                                       These are the pleasures here.

True earnest sorrows, rooted miseries,
Anguish in grain, vexations ripe and blown,
Sure-footed griefs, solid calamities,
Plain demonstrations, evident and cleare,
Fetching their proofs ev’n from the very bone;
                                       These are the sorrows here.

But oh the folly of distracted men,
Who griefs in earnest, joyes in jest pursue;
Preferring, like brute beasts, a lothsome den
Before a court, ev’n that above so cleare,
Where are no sorrows, but delights more true
                                       Then2 miseries are here!


1 glozing. Flattering, coaxing, cajoling. (Oxford English Dictionary) [Return]
2 then can mean "than" or "then." [Return]

Dotage. The state of one who has his/her intellect impaired, as through age or defect. Foolish affection. (Oxford English Dictionary)


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