Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalms paraphrastically translated: With other Philosophicall Poems, and a Hymne to Christ vpon the Crosse. Written by George Chapman |
 |
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IIII. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
|
A sleight man.
|
|
 | Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalms |  |
A sleight man.
A sleight, and mixt man (set as twere the meane
Twixt both the first) frō both their heapes doth gleane:
Is neither good, wise, great, nor polititick,
Yet tastes of all these with a naturall tricke.
Nature and Art, sometimes meet in his parts:
Sometimes deuided are: the austere arts,
Splint him together, set him in a brake
Of forme and reading. Nor is let partake
With iudgement, wit, or sweetnesse: but as time,
Terms, language, and degrees, haue let him clime,
To learn'd opinion; so he there doth stand,
Starke as a statue; stirres nor foote nor hand.
Nor any truth knowes: knowledge is a meane
To make him ignorant, and rapts him cleane,
In stormes from truth. For what Hippocrates
Sayes of foule bodies (what most nourishes,
That most annoies them) is more true of minds:
For there, their first inherent prauitie blinds
Their powres preiudicate: and all things true
Proposd to them, corrupts, and doth eschue:
Some, as too full of toyle; of preiudice some:
Some fruitlesse, or past powre to ouercome:
With which, it so augments, that he will seeme
With iudgment, what he should hold, to contemne
And is incurable. And this is he
Whose learning formes not lifes integritie.
Twixt both the first) frō both their heapes doth gleane:
Is neither good, wise, great, nor polititick,
Yet tastes of all these with a naturall tricke.
Nature and Art, sometimes meet in his parts:
Sometimes deuided are: the austere arts,
Splint him together, set him in a brake
Of forme and reading. Nor is let partake
With iudgement, wit, or sweetnesse: but as time,
Terms, language, and degrees, haue let him clime,
To learn'd opinion; so he there doth stand,
Starke as a statue; stirres nor foote nor hand.
Nor any truth knowes: knowledge is a meane
To make him ignorant, and rapts him cleane,
In stormes from truth. For what Hippocrates
Sayes of foule bodies (what most nourishes,
55
For there, their first inherent prauitie blinds
Their powres preiudicate: and all things true
Proposd to them, corrupts, and doth eschue:
Some, as too full of toyle; of preiudice some:
Some fruitlesse, or past powre to ouercome:
With which, it so augments, that he will seeme
With iudgment, what he should hold, to contemne
And is incurable. And this is he
Whose learning formes not lifes integritie.
This the mere Artist; the mixt naturalist,
With foole quicke memorie, makes his hand a fist,
And catcheth Flies, and Nifles: and retaines
With heartie studie, and vnthriftie paines,
What your composd man shuns. With these his pen
And prompt tongue tickles th' eares of vulgar men:
Sometimes takes matter too, and vtters it
With an admir'd and heauenly straine of wit:
Yet with all this, hath humors more then can
Be thrust into a foole, or to a woman.
As nature made him, reason came by chance,
Held her torch to him, cast him in a trance;
And makes him vtter things that (being awake
In life and manners) he doth quite forsake.
He will be graue, and yet is light as aire;
He will be proude, yet poore euen to despaire.
Neuer sat Truth in a tribunall fit,
But in a modest, staid, and humble wit.
I rather wish to be a naturall bred,
Then these great wits with madnesse leauened.
With foole quicke memorie, makes his hand a fist,
And catcheth Flies, and Nifles: and retaines
With heartie studie, and vnthriftie paines,
What your composd man shuns. With these his pen
And prompt tongue tickles th' eares of vulgar men:
Sometimes takes matter too, and vtters it
With an admir'd and heauenly straine of wit:
Yet with all this, hath humors more then can
Be thrust into a foole, or to a woman.
56
Held her torch to him, cast him in a trance;
And makes him vtter things that (being awake
In life and manners) he doth quite forsake.
He will be graue, and yet is light as aire;
He will be proude, yet poore euen to despaire.
Neuer sat Truth in a tribunall fit,
But in a modest, staid, and humble wit.
I rather wish to be a naturall bred,
Then these great wits with madnesse leauened.
He's bold, and frontlesse, passionate, and mad,
Drunken, adulterous, good at all things bad.
Yet for one good, he quotes the best in pride,
And is enstil'd a man well qualifide.
Drunken, adulterous, good at all things bad.
Yet for one good, he quotes the best in pride,
And is enstil'd a man well qualifide.
These delicate shadowes of things vertuous then
Cast on these vitious, pleasing, patcht vp men,
Are but the diuels cousenages to blind
Mens sensuall eyes, and choke the enuied mind.
And where the truly learnd is euermore
Gods simple Image, and true imitator:
These sophisters are emulators still
(Cousening, ambitious) of men true in skill.
Their imperfections yet are hid in sleight,
Of the felt darknesse, breath'd out by deceipt,
The truly learn'd, is likewise hid, and failes
To pierce eyes vulgar, but with other vailes.
And they are the diuine beames, truth casts round
About his beauties, that do quite confound
Sensuall beholders. Scuse these rare seene then,
And take more heede of common sleighted men.
Cast on these vitious, pleasing, patcht vp men,
Are but the diuels cousenages to blind
Mens sensuall eyes, and choke the enuied mind.
And where the truly learnd is euermore
Gods simple Image, and true imitator:
57
(Cousening, ambitious) of men true in skill.
Their imperfections yet are hid in sleight,
Of the felt darknesse, breath'd out by deceipt,
The truly learn'd, is likewise hid, and failes
To pierce eyes vulgar, but with other vailes.
And they are the diuine beames, truth casts round
About his beauties, that do quite confound
Sensuall beholders. Scuse these rare seene then,
And take more heede of common sleighted men.
| Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalms | |