👈The Tears of St Peter (1587-1596)
El Greco (Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614
Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico.
+ + +
- 34 -
So farre lukewarm desires in crasie loue,
Farre off, in neede with feeble foote they traine; [200]
In tydes they swim, low ebbes they scorne to proue;
They seeke their friends' delights, but shun their paine:
Hire of a hireling minde is earned shame:
Take now thy due, beare thy begotten blame.
I followed Him from afar . . . so far, as when the lukewarm longings of a love that is easily broken seem so distant; in distress they hang back, weakly and hesitantly. They are happy to take the plunge and go with the flow when it suits, but when the tide turns and they find themselves at a low ebb, they seem to be stranded and unwilling to move. They are all for seeking out the pleasure and delight of friends, but they avoid altogether their friends’ sorrows and sufferings.
The reward earned for such a selfish and mercenary mentality is shame. Take this shame, which is thy due; and thou must bear the blame and guilt which thou didst bring upon thyself.
199. crasie. Full of cracks or flaws; damaged, impaired, unsound; liable to break or fall to pieces; frail. 1583 P. Stubbes Anat. Abuses sig. Dviiv If Aeolus with his blasts, or Neptune with his stormes, chaunce to hit vppon the crasie bark.
200. neede. The state or condition of requiring help or support; difficulty, distress. a1533 Ld. Berners tr. Arthur of Brytayn (?1560) lxxiii. sig. Siii Whan nede is than a frende is proued.
traine. Train. To drag oneself along; to creep, trail. 1566 J. Studley tr. Seneca Agamemnon iii. sig. C.iiv He traynes along the roaryng seas and eke the waltryng waue By shouyng on hys bourly brest in sonder quyte he draue.
201. tydes . . . ebbes. Tide. Applied to that which is like the tide of the sea in some way; as in ebbing or flowing, rising or falling, or ‘turning’ at a certain time. 1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. E4v My vncontrolled tide Turnes not, but swels the higher by this let. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) iv. ii. 270 There is a Tide in the affayres of men, Which taken at the Flood, leades on to Fortune.
203. hireling. Characteristic of or pertaining to a hireling; serving for hire or wages; to be had for hire; mercenary. (Usually opprobrious.) 1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. xxxii. 593 What find we in all the writings of the Heathen but a Hireling vertue? 1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. i. viii. §15. 177 The factious and hireling Historians of all Ages.
204. beare. Bear. There are several meanings possible here, e.g. : 1) To support the weight of; 2) To experience, entertain (an idea, feeling, or emotion); to hold on to, harbour (a feeling, esp. a negative one). 3) to assume, be given, or have attributed to one (responsibility, blame, guilt, etc.). 4) To suffer (pain, hardship, or adversity). 1611 Bible (King James) Gen. iv. 13 My punishment is greater then I can beare.
gg
+ + +
- 35 -
Ah, coole remisnes! Virtue's quartane feuer, [210]
Pyning of loue, consumption of grace;
Old in the cradle, languor dying euer,
Soule's wilfull famine, sinne's soft-stealing pase;
The vndermining euill of zealous thought,
Seeming to bring no harmes, till all be brought. [215]
How thy heart has grown cold and neglectful. Virtue’s recurring ague — pining for love, longing for absent grace; grown old while yet in the cradle, with sorrow never-ending; the self-inflicted starvation of a soul, sin’s silent and stealthy progress; good undermined by evil stemming from zealous thoughts: seeming quite innocent until the resulting harm becomes apparent.
205. remisnes. Reduction or lack of force or intensity; diminution; weakness. Carelessness, negligence; laxity. 1608 A. Willet Hexapla in Exodum 259 Nor yet do I consent to them, that thinke Moses still continued his prayers, but that this remisnes was only in his strength. 1575 in MSS. Rye & Hereford Corporations (1892) 48 We for remisenes in dutie to be gretly blamid.
Virtue. Conformity to moral law or accepted moral standards, the possession of morally good qualities; behaviour arising from such standards, abstention on moral grounds from any form of wrongdoing or vice. Frequently with capital initial. Such moral excellence personified. a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 3 (1623) iii. ii. 63 That loue which Vertue begges, and Vertue graunts.
quartane. Quartan. Medicine. Recurring (by inclusive reckoning) every fourth day (i.e. at intervals of approximately seventy-two hours); spec. designating a form of malaria in which fever recurs in this way. 1547 A. Borde Breuiary of Helthe i. f. lxi A feuer quartayne..doth infest a man euery thyrde daye, that is to saye .ii. dayes whole and one sicke.
Perhaps in the sense of ague: An acute or high fever; disease, or a disease, characterized by such fever, esp. when recurring periodically, spec. malaria. Whence: A state or bout of distress, fear, or other strong emotion; a fit or spell of shaking or shivering.
206. pyning. Pine. v. To suffer, to endure pain or (occasionally) penance. 1584 R. Scot Discouerie Witchcraft xii. vii. 226 She sticketh also needels fine In liuers, whereby men doo pine. To afflict with pain or suffering; to cause to suffer; to torment, trouble, distress.
` Also intransitive.To yearn; to languish with desire, to hunger for something; to long eagerly. 1599 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet v. iii. 235 The new-made Bridegroome..For whome, and not for Tibalt, Iuliet pinde.
consumption. There are several possible meanings here: 1. The action or fact of destroying or being destroyed; destruction. c1540 J. Bellenden tr. H. Boece Hyst. & Cron. Scotl. xv. xv. f. 240/1 The vnstabyl conditioun of mannis lyfe sa suddany alterit. Now flurisand, and suddanly falling to vter consumption. 2. abnormality or loss of humours, resulting in wasting (extreme weight loss) of the body; such wasting; (obsolete). Later: disease that causes wasting of the body. Figurative and in extended use: 1576 A. Fleming tr. Erasmus in Panoplie Epist. 337 Freendly services..ceasing, freendshippe must needes be in daunger of a consumption.
207. languor. 1. Mental suffering or distress; pining, longing, sorrow, grief. 1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iii. i. 13 My harts deepe languor, and my soules sad teares.
208. pase. The action or manner of stepping when walking, running, or dancing; the rate at which a person or animal takes steps, or moves by stepping. c1515 Ld. Berners tr. Bk. Duke Huon of Burdeux (1882–7) lv. 185 The horse wold nother trot nor galop but go styll his owne pase.
209. vndermining. Undermine. To work secretly or stealthily against (a person); to overthrow or supplant by underhand means. 1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. iv. xviii To beguile and vndermine an other man, al men know to be vnlawfull.
+ + +
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
No comments:
Post a Comment