The Fourth Part

Summary

Humility's praise, proved by arguments

A fortiori and twinned texts’ contents

‘WHO’, ASKED THE CYNIC,

‘speaks, and at his word^a

Dirges and mourning cries are forthwith heard?

Prolix beyond proportion^b to adduce

Arguments from afar,^c commending use

Of humble manners, till his soul, that yearns

To be called meek, lies crushed,^d what time he spurns^e

Violent evil, blithely unawaref

Of secrets rumour bruits about the air:

To wit, that whosoever flaunts his pride

Toils not, nay, he unwearied shall abide.

Whereas the meek, like Cain must ever stray,^g

His lowness humbled more beneath the sway

Of arrogance, cast down beneath the tramp

Of men who, violent, on reason stamp,

Their hopes all set upon life's goodly spread

Whilst on more modest backs roughshod they tread.

So let each mother's son look, and mark well,^h

How Israel's first king, Saul, from favour fell,

Who had his misplaced modesty to thank

For loss of throne, authority, and rank:

Thereon the prophet, left to lead his folk

To war and back from battle, sternly spoke,

“Slight though thou mayest be in thine own eyes,^j

Thou art the king, but didst not exercise

Firm rule: forfeit thy rank, each single thing

Thou ownest; God rejects thee now as king,^k

Since broken, crushed,^l henceforth thou art no more

Than a mere vagabond.” Whoso, therefore,

A humble mien in self-abasement wears,

’Tis arrant folly^m on his part: he shares

The cony's destitution, left by fate

To starve.ⁿ His history I now relate.

Men say that once there lived in Sheba's land

A buzzard—stout his thighs,^o his plumage, fanned,

A splendid sight,^p which he showed off with pride:

Fast could he run, and, like the eagle, glide

From far,^q afoot he sped by tortuous ways

Rabbits to catch, bewildered by his maze—

Vengeful, and warning^r of what lay before;

From distant parts he sniffed the scent of war.^s

Amongst the rabbits one there was, it chanced,

Of perfect parts, meek-mannered, well advanced

In years.^t