That is Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey—the poet-courtier who practically invented English blank verse and was famously portrayed in The Tudors. His translation of the Roman poet Martial, “The Means to Attain a Happy Life” (often titled “The Things that Cause a Quiet Life”, c. 1547), is one of the most celebrated philosophical poems of the Tudor era:
Martial, the things that do attain
A happy life be these, I find:
The riches left, not got with pain;
The fruitful ground; the quiet mind;
The equal friend; no grudge, no strife;
No charge of rule, nor governance;
Without disease, the healthful life;
The household of continuance;
The mean diet, no delicate fare;
True wisdom joined with simpleness;
The night dischargèd of all care,
Where wine the wit may not oppress;
The faithful wife, without debate;
Such sleeps as may beguile the night:
Contented with thine own estate,
Ne wish for death, ne fear his might.
The beauty of this poem lies in Surrey’s recognition that true happiness comes from “the mean diet,” “simpleness,” and “no charge of rule, nor governance”—relinquishing the ego’s lust for status and control to secure a tranquil, unburdened spirit.
