In
his speech when Elizabeth I’s was born, Thomas Cranmer (the Archbishop of
Canterbury during Henry VIII’s reign), mentions “Under his own vine, what he
plants;” The speech talks about weighty stuff, as this is the
birth of a future queen, about governing a country; this is about “治國平天下”In her days every man shall eat in safety,
Under his own vine, what he plants; and sing
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours:
We also read the ‘vine’ in his poem of The Rape of Lucrece,
“What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?
For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?
Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,
Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?”
And these are the vines in our garden.



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