O, I have passed a miserable night,

So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams,

That, as I am a Christian faithful man,

I would not spend another such a night,

Though 't were to buy a world of happy days.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 4.

It is a very good world to live in,

To lend, or to spend, or to give in;

But to beg or to borrow, or to get a man's own,

It is the very worst world that ever was known.

What more felicitie can fall to creature

Than to enjoy delight with libertie,

And to be lord of all the workes of Nature,

To raine in th' aire from earth to highest skie,

To feed on flowres and weeds of glorious feature.

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599): Muiopotmos: or, The Fate of the Butterflie. Line 209.