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. | PSALME IIII. Recordari libet. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
 |
 | Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalms |  |
12
PSALME IIII. Recordari libet.
1
Once let me serue, Lord, my desire,Thy gifts to me recounting, and their prise,
That shame may set my cheekes on fire,
And iust confusion teare in teares mine eyes.
Since quite forgetting what I am,
Adorn'd so Godlike with thy grace,
I yet neglect to praise thy name,
And make thy image in me, poore and base.
2
Thou hast created, euen for me,The starres, all heauen, and all the turns of time;
For of what vse are these to thee,
Though euery one distinguisht by his clime?
Thou Sunne and Moone, thou Nights and Dayes,
Thou Light and Darknesse hast disposd:
Wrapt earth in waters nimble wayes,
Her vales, hils, plains, with founts, floods, seas enclosd
13
3
Her rich wombe thou hast fruitfull made,With choyce of seeds, that all wayes varied are:
And euery way, our eyes inuade
With formes and graces, in being common, rare.
In sweete greene herbes thou cloth'st her fields,
Distinguishest her hils with flowres.
Her woods thou mak'st her meadowes shields,
Adorn'd with branches, leaues, and odorous bowres.
4
The wearie thou hast rest prepar'd,The hote refreshest with coole shades of trees,
Which streames melodious enterlar'd,
For sweete retreats, that none but thy eye sees:
The thirstie, thou giu'st siluer springs;
The hungrie, berries of all kinds;
Herbes wholesome, and a world of things,
To nurse our bodies, and informe our minds.
5
Now let me cast mine eye, and seeWith what choice creatures, strangely form'd and faire,
All seas, and lands, are fil'd by thee:
14
Whose names or numbers who can reach?
With all earths powre, yet in thy span:
All which, thy boundlesse bounties preach,
All laide, O glorie! at the foote of man.
6
Whose body, past all creatures shines,Such wondrous orders of his parts thou mak'st,
Whose countenance, state, and loue combines:
In him vnmou'd, when all the world thou shak'st.
Whose soule thou giu'st powre, euen of thee,
Ordaining it to leaue the earth,
All heauen, in her discourse to see,
And note how great a wombe, went to her birth.
7
Vnnumberd arts thou add'st in him,To make his life more queint and more exact:
His eye, eternesse cannot dim.
Whose state he mounts to, with a mind infract:
Thou shew'st him all the milke-white way,
Op'st all thy Tabernacles dores.
Learn'st how to praise thee, how to pray,
To shun, and chuse, what likes and what abhorres.
15
8
To keepe him in which hallowed path,As his companions, and perpetuall guides,
Prayre thou ordainst, thy word and faith,
And loue, that all his foule offences hides.
And to each step his foote shall take,
Thy couenants stand like wals of brasse,
Which, from thy watch towre, good to make,
Thou add'st thine eye for his securer passe.
9
All this deare (Lord) I apprehend,Thy Spirit euen partially inspiring me:
Which to consort me to my end,
With endlesse thanks, Ile strew my way to thee.
Confessing falling, thou hast staid:
Confirm'd me fainting, prostrate raisd,
With comforts rapt me, quite dismaid,
And dead, hast quickn'd me, to see thee praisd.
All glorie to the Father be,
And to the Sonne, &c.
And to the Sonne, &c.
| Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalms | |