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

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70 Thomas More’s Life of John Picus
The Twelfth Property.
A very lover will his love obey:
His joy it is and all his appetite
To pain himself in all that ever he may,
That person in whom he set hath his delight
Diligently to serve both day and night
For very love, without any regard
To any profit, guerdon° or reward.
So thou likewise that hast thine heart yset
Upward to God, so well thyself endeavour,
So studiously that nothing may thee let
Not for His service any wise dissever: 1
Freely look eke thou serve that thereto never
Trust of reward or profit do thee bind,
But only faithful heart and loving mind.
* * *
Wageless 2 to serve, three things may us move: 3
First, if the service self° be desirable:
Second, if they whom that we serve and love
Be very good and very amiable:¦
Thirdly, ⌐ of reason be we serviceable 4
Without the gaping after any more ¬
To such as have done much for us before.
Serve God for love, then, not for hope of meed:°
9 guerdon requital, reward / 22 self in itself / 29 meed reward, wages
¦ 24 More omits sicut solemus dicere “Servimus illi propter suas virtutes”, “as we ordinarily say, ‘We serve
him because of his virtues’” (CW 1:378, 379).
1. Not for: Edwards argues, “All early editions read ‘Not for,’ which does not make sense here; the
error for for fro is commonplace. Possibly ‘Not’ is an error for ‘Nor,’ which would make the syntax
clearer” (CW 1:249). Following Edwards’ suggestion, then, the line might mean: “nor separate
[you] from His service in any way.”
2. Wageless: Used here in the sense of “not earning or receiving wages,” this instance antedates
the earliest recorded in OED (s.v. wageless a. 2).
3. Wageless to serve . . .move: That is, “Apart from the incentive of wages, three things may lead us
to serve.” As Edwards points out, this and the following stanza are based upon Picus’ Latin;
but “the parallels are selective and not very close”—especially in the latter stanza (CW 1:249).
4. of reason . . . serviceable: In other words, “we reasonably serve…”
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