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

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68 Thomas More’s Life of John Picus
The honour, laud, commendation and praising,
And everything that may the fame clear°
Of his love: he may in no manner
Endure to hear that therefrom mighten vary
Or anything sound into° the contrary.
The lover of God should covet in like wise
To hear His honour, worship, laud and praise,
Whose sovereign goodness none heart may comprise,°
Whom hell, earth, and all the heaven obeys,
Whose perfect lover ought by no manner ways
To suffer the cursed words of blasphemy,
Or anything spoken of God unreverently.
The Ninth Property.
A very lover believeth in his mind
On whomsoever he hath his heart ybent,°
That in that person men may nothing find
But honourable, worthy and excellent,
And eke surmounting far in his entent°
All other that he hath known by sight or name:
And would that every man should think the same.
Of God likewise so wonderful and high
All thing esteem and judge his lover ought,
So reverence, worship, honour and magnify,°
That all the creatures in this world ywrought°
In comparison should he set at nought,
And glad be if he might the mean° devise
That all the world would thinken in like wise.
The Tenth Property.
The lover is of colour dead and pale;
There will no sleep into his eyes stalk;
2 clear make clear, known / 5 into to / 9 comprise take in, conceive / 18 ybent bent /
21 entent intent / 27 magnify glorify / 28 ywrought made / 30 mean means
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