In lowly lookes high maiestie did sitt,
In tender tunge, sound sence of sagest sort:
Nature imparted all that she could teache,
And God supplyd where Nature coulde not reach.
His mirth, of modest meane a mirrhour was,
His sadness, tempred with a mylde aspecte;
His eye, to trye ech action was a glasse,
Whose lookes did good approue and bad correct;
His nature’s giftes, His grace, His word, and deede,
Well shew’d that all did from a God proceede.
—Southwell.
[THE TROWEL OR THE CROSS]
FROM THE GERMAN OF CONRAD VON BOLANDEN.