Page:The Life of Benvenuto Cellini Vol 2.djvu/115

Rh  To make an O, I dipped the splinter thrice In that thick mud; worse woe could scarcely grind Spirits in hell debarred from Paradise.

Seeing I'm not the first by fraud confined, This I'll omit; and once more seek the cell Wherein I rack for rage both heart and mind.

I praise it more than other tongues will tell; And, for advice to such as do not know, Swear that without it none can labour well.

Yet oh! for one like Him I learned but now. Who'd cry to me as by Bethesda s shore: Take thy clothes, Benvenuto, rise and go!

Credo I'd sing, Salve reginas pour And Paternosters; alms I'd then bestow Morn after morn on blind folk, lame, and poor.

Ah me! how many a time my cheek must grow Blanched by those lilies! Shall I then forswear Florence and France through them for evermore?

If to the hospital I come, and fair Find the Annunziata limned, I'll fly: Else shall I show myself a brute beast there.

These words flout not Her worshipped sanctity, Nor those Her lilies, glorious, holy, pure, The which illumine earth and heaven high!