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

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Twelve Properties of a Lover
Is void of perfect joy and sure delight.
The Third Property.
The third point of a perfect lover is
To make him fresh to see that all thing been°
Appointed well and nothing set amiss
But all well fashioned, proper, goodly, clean:
That in his person, there be nothing seen
In speech, apparel, gesture, look or pace
That may offend or minish any grace.
So thou that wilt with God get into favour
Garnish 1 thyself up in as goodly wise
As comely be°, as honest in behaviour,
As it is possible for thee to devise:
I mean not hereby that thou shouldest arise
And in the glass upon thy body prowl, 2
But with fair virtue to adorn thy soul.
The Fourth Property.
If love be strong, hot, mighty and fervent,
There may no trouble, grief, or sorrow fall,
But that the lover would be well content
All to endure and think it eke too small,
Though it were death, so he might therewithal
The joyful presence of that person get
On whom he hath his heart and love yset.°
Thus should of God the lover be content
Any distress or sorrow to endure,
Rather than to be from God absent,
6 all thing been all things are / 15 as comely be as is proper, seemly / 29 yset set
1. Garnish: Used here in the sense of “dress or clothe, especially in an elegant fashion,” this
instance antedates the earliest recorded in OED (s.v. garnish v. 3), which is from More’s Dialogue
of Comfort against Tribulation III: It maketh vs gooe much more gay and glorious in sight, garnyshed in sylke.
2. prowl: “Although prowl can mean ‘to search, seek for something (without moving about)’... More
seems to use the word in the strained sense ‘gaze,’ perhaps for the sake of rhyme” (CW 1:248–249).
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