Pastime with Good Company

"Pastime with good company
I love, and shall until I die.
Gruch who lust but none deny,
So God be pleas'd thus live will I.
For my pastance, hunt, sing, and dance, my heart is set
All goodly sport, for my comfort, who shall me let?

Youth must have some dalliance,
of good or ill some pastance.
Company methinks then best,
all thoughts and fancies to digest.
For idleness, is chief mistress of vices all
Then who can say but mirth and play is best of all.

Company with honesty,
Is virtue, vices to flee.
Company is good and ill,
but every man hath his free will.
The best ensue, the worst eschew, my mind shall be
Virtue to use, vice to refuse, thus shall I use me."

Tudor madrigaal, tekst en muziek van Hendrik VIII, gezongen door drie Dominicaanse broeders in Blackfrairs, Oxford.