THOMAS MORE et al.
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Seu servos mavis, seu magis esse reos:
Nempe reos, nostra si spectes crimina vitæ,
Ingratæ nimium crimina mentis opus:
At tua si potius in nobis munera cernas,
Munera præcipuis nobilitata bonis,
Nos sumus ipsa olim tibi quos natura ministros
Mox fecit natos gratia sancta tuos.
Sed premit heu! miseros tantæ indulgentia sortis,
Quos fecit natos gratia, culpa reos.
Culpa reos fecit, sed vincat gratia culpam,
Ut tuus in nostro crimine crescat honor.
Nam tua sive aliter sapientia, sive potestas,
Nota suas mundo prodere possit opes,
Major in erratis bonitatis gloria nostris,
Illeque præ cunctis fulget amandus amor,
Qui potuit cœlo Dominum deducere ab alto,
Inque crucem summi tollere membra Dei:
Ut male contractas patrio de semine sordes
Ablueret lateris sanguis et unda tui:
Sic amor et pietas tua, Rex mitissime, tantis
Dat mala materiem suppeditare bonis.
O amor! O pietas nostris bene provida rebus!
O bonitas servi facta ministra tui!
O amor! O pietas nostris male cognita sæclis!
O bonitas nostris nunc prope victa malis!
Da, precor, huic tanto qui semper fervet amori
Ardorem in nostris cordibus esse parem:
Da Sathanæ imperium, cui tot servisse per annos
Poenitet excusso deposuisse jugo:
Da, precor, extingui vesanæ incendia mentis,
Et tuus in nostro pectore vivat amor:
Ut cum mortalis perfunctus munere vitæ
Ductus erit Dominum spiritus ante suum,
Promissi regni felici sorte potitus
Non Dominum sed Te sentiat esse Patrem.
The poem on Benivieni is in a happier vein:-
Lætor, io, Tyrrhena, tibi, Florentia, lætor!
Clamet, io Pæn, quisquis amicus adest!
Quale decus, qua fama, tibi, qua gloria surgit!
Tolle caput, Libycas tolle superba jubas!
Ille tuos agros intra et tua moenia natus,
Atque Arni liquidas inter adultus aquas,
Cui cum divinum sit sacro in pectore numen
Quam bene de sacro nomine nomen habet!
Ille, inquam, plausu jam cœpit ubique frequenti,
Jam cœpit multo non sine honore legi.
Sicelis Ausonias illius Musa per urbes
Fert celebrem magna candida laude pedem.
Auctorem patriæ quisquis legit invidet illi,
Atque optat patriæ nomina tanta sum.
Gaude, gaude iterum tanto insignita decore,
Et vati adplaudas terra beata tuo.
Cinge coronatos vernanti flore capillos,
Conveniunt titulo Florida serta tuo.
Undique Achæmenio spargantur compita costo,
Et per odoratas lilia multa vias.
En! stirps in nostras Benivenia protulit auras
PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA
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Etruscum docto qui gerat ore senem!
Ponite Avernales jam gens Etrusca cupressus,
Quas rapta immiti funere Laura dedit.
Pellantur queruli fletus; en! Laura revixit;
Spirat; et argutum novit, ut ante, loqui.
Quin solito nitet illa magis, majorque priore
Nescio quæ cultu gratia ab ore venit.
Reddidit hanc nobis laus nostra Hieronimus urbis,
Et dedit infernos posse iterare lacus:
At certe (procul hinc O Livor inique facessas)
Nunc graviore sonat grandius illa chely.
Di Superi! sublime ales modulatur, ut aqua
Sit jam Romano Tusca loquela sono.
Nec tamen ille Euros frondosus jactat inanes:
Plus quam promittit fronte recessus habet.
Quid referam, quam lenis erat? quam carmina piano
In numeros currunt ordine juncta suos:
Sic memini me sæpe sacros vidisse liquores
Profluere, imbriferi vis ubi nulla Noti.
Sed quis miretur meditato in carmine tantum
Cultus, cum pariter non meditata canat?
Quis non hunc juret Phoebum, modo pendeat arcus?
Cornua sint, Bromium quis neget esse Deum?
Audivi hunc quoties cithara cantare recurva,
Abduxit sensus protinus ille meos.
Et quid non possent digiti mulcere loquentis?
Sisteret his rapidi flumina magna Padi:
Phoebeos medio firmaret in æthere currus:
Lunares pictos sisteret axe boves.
Terribilem sævis Martem revocaret ab armis:
Leniret Ditem, falciferumque senem:
Et quas non potuit quondam Rhodopeius Orpheus
Flectere Strymonias flecteret ille nurus.
The poem was apparently written after the death of Lorenzo, whose successor
Pico hails in Benivieni. The epithet "Sicelis," applied to Benivieni's muse, refers to his
bucolics; one of which (in praise of poetry) is entitled "Lauro," after Lorenzo; in
another, which bears the name of "Pico," Lorenzo and Pico converse in amœbean
strains. "Laura" stands apparently for Lorenzo's muse. "Etruscum qui gerat ore
senem," is an uncouth and somewhat obscure phrase. "Nec tamen ille Euros frondosus
jactat inanes" is plainly corrupt, but it is not easy to suggest a satisfactory emendation.
"Quid referam, quam lenis erat?" is too bad Latin to have been written by Pico.
Perhaps the true reading is "quam lene sonet." The verses are undeniably spirited,
though somewhat too rhetorical for true poetry.
It is, indeed, only as a rhetorician that Pico can claim to have succeeded. The
letter to Ermolao Barbaro in defence of the schoolmen, and that to Lorenzo in praise
of his verses are admirable examples of the rhetorical exercise pure and simple -- for
as such they must primarily be regarded -- a little too elaborate, perhaps, too artificial,
too declamatory, but still decidedly meritorious in their kind. The air of sincerity they
certainly have not -- indeed the scholastics of Padua were so far from taking Pico's
eloquent panegyric of their predecessors seriously that they were inclined to suspect
him of laughing at them in his sleeve. Nor is it easy to believe that Pico was really
sincere in the exaggerated encomium which he passed on the verses of Lorenzo, one
of the most insipid writers which even that age of learned insipidity produced. The
real man, however, undoubtedly speaks in the letters on the philosophic and Christian
life, the latter written, it must be remembered, when Pico was solemnized by the