The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume IICrashaw, Richard
General
The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume II
Crashaw, Richard
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
Cuncta Deo debentur: habet tamen et sua Caesar;
Nec minus inde Deo est, si sua Caesar habet.
Non minus inde Deo est, solio si caetera dantur
Caesareo, Caesar cum datur ipse Deo.
_Give to Cæsar ... and to God...._
All we have is God's, and yet
Cæsar challenges a debt;
Nor hath God a thinner share,
Whatever Cæsar's payments are.
All is God's; and yet 'tis true
All we have is Cæsar's too.
All is Cæsar's; and what ods,
So long as Cæsar's selfe is God's? CR.
ANOTHER RENDERING.
All things belong to God, yet Cæsar has his all;
Not due the less to God that they to Cæsar fall.
Not less they're God's because they're giv'n to Cæsar's throne;
For Cæsar's throne itself belongs to God alone. G.
LXXXVI.
_Dominus asino vehitur._ Matt. xxi. 7.
Ille igitur vilem te, te dignatur asellum,
O non vectura non bene digne tua!
Heu, quibus haud pugnat Christi patientia monstris!
Hoc quod sic fertur, hoc quoque ferre fuit.
_The Lord borne on the ass._
Does He, base ass, thus deign to honour thee,
Unworthy thus to bear th' incarnate God?
Alas, Thy patience strangely tried I see,
Thee carried thus who bear'st sin's awful load! B.
ANOTHER RENDERING.
A common ass does the Lord dignify?
O, how unworthy such a burden high!
With the Lord's patience, ah, what can compare?
So to be borne, this also was to bear. R. WI.
LXXXVII.
_Videbunt Filium hominis venientem in nube._ Luc. xxi. 27.
Immo, veni: aërios, ô Christe, accingere currus,
Inque triumphali nube coruscus ades.
Nubem quaeris? erunt nostra, ah! suspiria nubes:
Aut sol in nubem se dabit ipse tuam.
_They shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud._
Come, yoke Thy chariots of the air, O Lord;
Triumphal honours let bright clouds afford.
Dost seek a cloud? Our sighs a cloud will be,
Or the sun melt into a cloud for Thee. G.
LXXXVIII.
_Nisi digitum immisero, &c._ Joan. xx. 25.
Impius ergo iterum clavos? iterum impius hastam?
Et totum digitus triste revolvet opus?
Tune igitur Christum, Thoma, quo vivere credas,
In Christum faceres, ah truculente! mori?
CHRIST TO THOMAS.
_Except I shall put my finger, &c._
Thy impious finger, would it, then, re-borrow
The nails, the spear, each circumstance of sorrow?
That on a living Christ thou mayst rely,
Cruel, wouldst thou thy Christ re-crucify? G.
LXXXIX.
_Ad Judaeos mactatores S. Stephani._ Act. vi. 9-12.
Quid datis, ah miseri! saxis nolentibus iras?
Quid nimis in tragicum praecipitatis opus?
In mortem Stephani se dant invita: sed illi
Occiso faciunt sponte sua tumulum.
_To the Jews stoning St. Stephen._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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