life of john picus earl of mirandola - The Center for Thomas More ...

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The Eighth Rule.
Twelve Rules of Spiritual Battle
In time of battle so put thyself in preace°
As though thou shouldest after that victory
Enjoy for ever a perpetual peace:
For God of His goodness and liberal mercy 1
May grant the gift, and eke thy proud enemy,
Confounded and ⌐ rebukèd ¬ by thy battle,
Shall thee no more haply for very shame assail. 2
But when thou mayèst once the triumph obtain
Prepare thyself and trim thee° in thy gear 3
As thou shouldèst incontinent° fight again,
⌐ For if thou be ready the devil will thee fear: ¬
Wherefore in any wise so even thou thee bear
That thou remember and have ever in memory
In victory battle, in battle victory.
The Ninth Rule.
If thou think thyself well fenced° and sure
⌐ Against every subtle suggestiòn of vice,
Consider frail glass may no distress endure,
And great adventurers oft curse the dice:
Jeopard° not too far therefore an° ye be wise, ¬
But evermore eschew the occasiòns of sin,
For¦ he that loveth peril shall perish therein. 4
3 in preace “into the thick of the fight” (OED s.v. press sb. I.1c in press) / 12 trim thee dress
yourself / 13 incontinent immediately, at once / 21 fenced armed, protected / 25 Jeopard
Wager (OED s.v. jeopard v. 2) / an if
¦ 27 More omits ut dicit sapiens, “as the wise man says” (CW 1:374, 375).
1. of His goodness and liberal mercy: More’s expansion of the Latin ex gratia sua, “by his grace” (CW
1:374, 375).
2. Shall thee . . . assail: More’s rendering of amplius non redibit, “will not come back any more”
(CW 1:374, 375).
3. trim thee in thy gear: As Edwards points out, “OED does not record a reflexive sense of the
verb, and More’s usage in the sense of ‘dress’ antedates the earliest recorded there (s.v. trim v.
7)” (CW 1:245).
4. he that . . . therein: Ecclesiasticus 3:26b. According to Edwards, “the saying had become proverbial
in Middle English” (CW 1:245).
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