Queen Elizabeth's Translation of
Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy
All human kind on earth
From like beginning comes:
One father is of all,
One only all doth guide.
He gave to sun the beams
And horns on moon bestowed;
He men to earth did give
And signs to heaven.
He closed in limbs our soul
Fetched from the highest seat.
A noble seed therefore
Brought forth all mortal folk.
What crake you of your stock
Or forefathers old?
If your first spring and author
God you view,
No man bastard be,
Unless with vice the worst he feed
And leaveth so his birth.
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