'Tis a mad world (my masters) and in sadnes
I travail'd madly in these dayes of madnes.

The syntax of "a mad world (my masters)" may indicate allusion to and/or acknowledgement of Nicholas Breton's 1603 tract "A Mad World, my Masters". | The play A Mad World, My Masters by Thomas Middleton, published in 1608, is recorded as being performed in 1605. | The veteran BBC journalist John Simpson used "A Mad World, My Masters" as the title for memoirs published in 1999/2000.