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

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Twelve Properties of a Lover
He favourèth neither meat, wine, nor ale;
He mindeth not what men about him talk;
But eat he, drink he, sit, lie down or walk, 1
He burneth ever as it were with a fire
In the fervent heat of his desire.
Here should the lover of God ensample take
To have Him continually in remembrance,
With him in prayer and meditation wake,
While other° play, revel, sing, and dance:
None earthly joy, disport, or vain plesance°
Should him delight, or anything remove
His ardent mind from God, his heavenly love.
The Eleventh Property.
Diversely passioned 2 is the lover’s heart:
Now pleasant hope, now dread and grievous fear,
Now perfect bliss, now bitter sorrow smart;
And whether his love be with him, or elsewhere,
Oft from his eyes there falleth many a tear,—
For very joy, when they together be;
When they be sundered, for adversity.
Like affections feeleth eke the breast
Of God’s lover 3 in prayer and meditation:
When that his love liketh in him rest
With inward° gladness of pleasant contemplation,
Out break the tears for joy and delectation;°
And when his love list eft to part him fro, 4
Out break the tears again for pain and woe.
10 other others / 11 plesance pleasure, delight / 28 inward inner / 29 delectation delight
1. But eat . . . walk: In other words, “Whether he eats, drinks, . . .”
2. passioned: Used in the sense of “affected with or possessed by passion,” this instance antedates
the earliest recorded in OED (s.v. passioned ppl. a. 1).
3. Like affections . . . lover: That is, “The one who loves God feels similar affections …”
4. And when . . . fro: In other words, “And afterward when his love desires to depart from him...”
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