The poem
THOUGH fickle Fortune has deceived me, She pormis’d fair and perform’d but ill; Of mistress, friends, and wealth bereav’d me, Yet I bear a heart shall support me still.
I’ll act with prudence as far ’s I’m able, But if success I must never find, Then come misfortune, I bid thee welcome, I’ll meet thee with an undaunted mind.
I adore this fragment of a Fickle Fortune. He had such a sense of humor, and could laugh at himself. That is so difficult to do at any age, or in any century.