Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalms paraphrastically translated: With other Philosophicall Poems, and a Hymne to Christ vpon the Crosse. Written by George Chapman |
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| IIII. |
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To yong imaginaries in knowledge.
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 | Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalms |  |
To yong imaginaries in knowledge.
Neuer for common signes, dispraise or praise,
Nor art, nor want of art, for what he saies
Ascribe to any. Men may both waies make
In forme, & speech, a mans quicke doome mistake.
All then that stand in any ranke of Art,
Certaine decrees haue, how they shall impart
That which is in them: which decrees, because
They are within men, making there the lawes
To all their actions, hardly shew without:
And till their ensignes are displaid, make doubt
To go against or with them: nor will they
So well in words as in their deeds display.
Decrees are not degrees. If thou shalt giue
Titles of learning, to such men as liue
Like rude Plebeians, since they haue degrees,
Thou shalt do like Plebeians. He that sees
A man held learn'd do rudely, rather may
Take for that deed, his learned name away,
Then giu't him for his name. True learnings act,
And speciall obiect is, so to compact
The will, and euery actiue powre in man,
That more then men illiterate, he can
Keepe all his actions in the narrow way
To God and goodnesse, and there force their stay
As in charm'd circles. Termes, tongs, reading, all
That can within a man, cald learned, fall;
Whose life is led yet like an ignorant mans:
Are but as tooles to goutie Artizans,
That cannot vse them; or like childrens arts,
That out of habite, and by rootes of hearts,
Construe and perce their lessons, yet discerne
Nought of the matter, whose good words they learn:
Or like our Chimicke Magi, that can call
All termes of Art out, but no gold at all:
And so are learn'd like them, of whom, none knows
His Arts cleare truth, but are meere Ciniflos.
Nor art, nor want of art, for what he saies
Ascribe to any. Men may both waies make
84
All then that stand in any ranke of Art,
Certaine decrees haue, how they shall impart
That which is in them: which decrees, because
They are within men, making there the lawes
To all their actions, hardly shew without:
And till their ensignes are displaid, make doubt
To go against or with them: nor will they
So well in words as in their deeds display.
Decrees are not degrees. If thou shalt giue
Titles of learning, to such men as liue
Like rude Plebeians, since they haue degrees,
Thou shalt do like Plebeians. He that sees
A man held learn'd do rudely, rather may
Take for that deed, his learned name away,
Then giu't him for his name. True learnings act,
And speciall obiect is, so to compact
The will, and euery actiue powre in man,
That more then men illiterate, he can
Keepe all his actions in the narrow way
To God and goodnesse, and there force their stay
As in charm'd circles. Termes, tongs, reading, all
That can within a man, cald learned, fall;
Whose life is led yet like an ignorant mans:
85
That cannot vse them; or like childrens arts,
That out of habite, and by rootes of hearts,
Construe and perce their lessons, yet discerne
Nought of the matter, whose good words they learn:
Or like our Chimicke Magi, that can call
All termes of Art out, but no gold at all:
And so are learn'd like them, of whom, none knows
His Arts cleare truth, but are meere Ciniflos.
But sacred learning, men so much prophane,
That when they see a learn'd-accounted man
Liue like a brute man; they will neuer take
His learn'd name from him, for opinions sake:
But on that false gound brutishly conclude,
That learning profites not. You beastly rude,
Know, it mores profites, being exact and true,
Then all earths high waies chokt with herds of you.
That when they see a learn'd-accounted man
Liue like a brute man; they will neuer take
His learn'd name from him, for opinions sake:
But on that false gound brutishly conclude,
That learning profites not. You beastly rude,
Know, it mores profites, being exact and true,
Then all earths high waies chokt with herds of you.
But must degrees, & termes, and time in schooles,
Needs make men learn'd, in life being worse then fooles?
What other Art liues in so happy aire,
That onely for his habite, and his haire,
His false professors worth you will commend?
Are there not precepts, matter, and an end
To euery science? which, not kept, nor showne
By vnderstanding; vnderstanding knowne
By fact; the end, by things to th'end directed,
What hap, or hope haue they to be protected?
Yet find such, greatest friends: and such professe
Most learning, and will preasse for most accesse
Into her presence, and her priuiest state,
When they haue hardly knockt yet at her gate.
Externall circumscription neuer serues
To proue vs men: blood, flesh, nor bones nor nerues
But that which all these vseth, and doth guide:
Gods image in a soule eternifide,
Which he that shewes not in such acts as tend
To that eternesse, making that their end:
In this world nothing knowes, nor after can,
But is more any creature then a man.
This rather were the way, if thou wouldst be,
A true proficient in philosophie:
Dissemble what thou studiest, till alone
By thy impartiall consention
Thou prou'st thee fit, to do as to professe.
And if thou still professe it not, what lesse
Is thy philosophie, if in thy deeds
Rather then signes, and shadowes, it proceedes?
Shew with what temper thou dost drinke, and eate:
How farre from wrong thy deeds are, angers heate;
How thou sustainst, and abstainst; how farre gone
In appetite and auersation:
To what account thou doest affections call,
Both naturall, and aduentitiall:
That thou art faithfull, pious, humble, kind,
Enemie to enuie: of a chearefull mind,
Constant, and dantlesse. All this when men see
Done with the learnedst, then let censure thee;
But if so dull, and blind of soule they are,
Not to acknowledge heauenly Mulciber,
To be a famous Artist by his deeds,
But they must see him in his working weeds:
What ill is it, if thou art neuer knowne
To men so poore of apprehension?
Are they within thee, or so much with thee
As thou thy selfe art? Can their dull eyes see
Thy thoughts at worke? Or how like one thats sworn
To thy destruction, all thy powres are borne
T'entrap thy selfe? whom thou dost hardlier please
Then thou canst them? Arme then thy mind wt these:
I haue decrees set downe twixt me and God;
I know his precepts, I will beare his lode,
But what men throw vpon me, I reiect:
No man shall let the freedome I elect;
I haue an owner that will challenge me,
Strong to defend, enough to satisfie:
The rod of Mercurie, will charme all these,
And make them neither strange, nor hard to please.
And these decrees, in houses constitute
Friendship, and loue: in fields cause store of fruite:
In cities, riches; and in temples zeale:
And all the world would make one commonweale.
Shun braggart glorie, seeke no place, no name:
No shewes, no company, no laughing game,
No fashion: nor no champion of thy praise,
As children sweete meates loue, and holidaies:
Be knowing shamefastnesse, thy grace, and guard,
As others are with dores, wals, porters bard.
Liue close awhile; so fruits grow, so their seed
Must in the earth a little time lie hid;
Spring by degrees, and so be ripe at last.
But if the Eare, be to the blades top past
Before the ioynt amidst the blade, be knit,
The corne is lanke, and no Sunne ripens it.
Like which art thou yong Nouice; florishing
Before thy time, winter shall burne thy spring.
The husbandman dislikes his fields faire birth,
When timelesse heate beates on vnreadie earth,
Grieues lest his fruits with aire should be too bold,
And not endure the likely-coming cold.
Comfort the roote then first, then let appeare
The blades ioynt knit, and then produce the Eare:
So Natures selfe, thou shalt constraine, and be
Blest with a wealthy crop in spite of thee.
Needs make men learn'd, in life being worse then fooles?
What other Art liues in so happy aire,
That onely for his habite, and his haire,
His false professors worth you will commend?
Are there not precepts, matter, and an end
To euery science? which, not kept, nor showne
86
By fact; the end, by things to th'end directed,
What hap, or hope haue they to be protected?
Yet find such, greatest friends: and such professe
Most learning, and will preasse for most accesse
Into her presence, and her priuiest state,
When they haue hardly knockt yet at her gate.
Externall circumscription neuer serues
To proue vs men: blood, flesh, nor bones nor nerues
But that which all these vseth, and doth guide:
Gods image in a soule eternifide,
Which he that shewes not in such acts as tend
To that eternesse, making that their end:
In this world nothing knowes, nor after can,
But is more any creature then a man.
This rather were the way, if thou wouldst be,
A true proficient in philosophie:
Dissemble what thou studiest, till alone
By thy impartiall consention
Thou prou'st thee fit, to do as to professe.
And if thou still professe it not, what lesse
Is thy philosophie, if in thy deeds
Rather then signes, and shadowes, it proceedes?
Shew with what temper thou dost drinke, and eate:
87
How thou sustainst, and abstainst; how farre gone
In appetite and auersation:
To what account thou doest affections call,
Both naturall, and aduentitiall:
That thou art faithfull, pious, humble, kind,
Enemie to enuie: of a chearefull mind,
Constant, and dantlesse. All this when men see
Done with the learnedst, then let censure thee;
But if so dull, and blind of soule they are,
Not to acknowledge heauenly Mulciber,
To be a famous Artist by his deeds,
But they must see him in his working weeds:
What ill is it, if thou art neuer knowne
To men so poore of apprehension?
Are they within thee, or so much with thee
As thou thy selfe art? Can their dull eyes see
Thy thoughts at worke? Or how like one thats sworn
To thy destruction, all thy powres are borne
T'entrap thy selfe? whom thou dost hardlier please
Then thou canst them? Arme then thy mind wt these:
I haue decrees set downe twixt me and God;
I know his precepts, I will beare his lode,
But what men throw vpon me, I reiect:
88
I haue an owner that will challenge me,
Strong to defend, enough to satisfie:
The rod of Mercurie, will charme all these,
And make them neither strange, nor hard to please.
And these decrees, in houses constitute
Friendship, and loue: in fields cause store of fruite:
In cities, riches; and in temples zeale:
And all the world would make one commonweale.
Shun braggart glorie, seeke no place, no name:
No shewes, no company, no laughing game,
No fashion: nor no champion of thy praise,
As children sweete meates loue, and holidaies:
Be knowing shamefastnesse, thy grace, and guard,
As others are with dores, wals, porters bard.
Liue close awhile; so fruits grow, so their seed
Must in the earth a little time lie hid;
Spring by degrees, and so be ripe at last.
But if the Eare, be to the blades top past
Before the ioynt amidst the blade, be knit,
The corne is lanke, and no Sunne ripens it.
Like which art thou yong Nouice; florishing
Before thy time, winter shall burne thy spring.
The husbandman dislikes his fields faire birth,
89
Grieues lest his fruits with aire should be too bold,
And not endure the likely-coming cold.
Comfort the roote then first, then let appeare
The blades ioynt knit, and then produce the Eare:
So Natures selfe, thou shalt constraine, and be
Blest with a wealthy crop in spite of thee.
| Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalms | |