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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| FRAGMENTS. |
 | Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalms |  |
FRAGMENTS.
Of Circumspection.
In hope to scape the law, do nought amisse,The penance euer in the action is.
Of Sufferance.
It argues more powre willingly to yeeldTo what by no repulse can be repeld,
Then to be victor of the greatest state,
We can with any fortune subiugate.
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Of the Soule.
The Soule serues with her functions to excite,Abhorre, prepare, and order appetite,
Cause auersation, and susception:
In all which, all her ill is built vpon
Ill receiu'd iudgements; which reforme with good;
And as with ill she yeelded to thy blood,
And made thy pleasures, God and man displease,
She will as well set both their powres at peace,
With righteous habits, and delight thee more
With doing good now, then with ill before.
Of great men.
When Homer made Achilles passionate,Wrathfull, reuengefull, and insatiate
In his affections; what man will denie
He did compose all that of industrie?
To let men see, that men of most renowne,
Strong'st, noblest, fairest, if they set not downe
Decrees within them, for disposing these,
Of iudgement, resolution, vprightnesse.
And vertuous knowledge of their vse and ends,
Mishaps and miserie, no lesse extends
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Then to the poorest, and the most despisde.
Of learned men.
Who knows not truth, knows nothīg; who what's bestKnowes not, not truth knowes. Who (alone profest
In that which best is) liues bad: Best not knowes,
Since with that Best and Truth, such ioy still goes,
That he that finds them, cannot but dispose
His whole life to them. Seruile Auarice can
Prophane no liberall-knowledge-coueting man.
Such hypocrites, opinion onely haue,
Without the minds vse: which doth more depraue
Their knowing powres, then if they nought did know.
For if with all the sciences they flow,
Not hauing that, that such ioy brings withall,
As cannot in vnlearn'd mens courses fall:
As with a tempest they are rapt past hope
Of knowing Truth, because they thinke his scope
Is in their tongues, much reading, speech profuse,
Since they are meanes to Truth in their true vse:
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One thing to praise, another to pursue:
As those learn'd men do, that in words preferre
Heauen and good life, yet in their liues so erre,
That all heauen is not broade enough for them
To hit or aime at, but the vulgar streame
Hurries them headlong with it: and no more
They know or shall know, then the rudest Bore.
| Petrarchs seven penitentiall psalms | |