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Home  »  The Sonnets of Europe  »  Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639)

Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888.

The Human Comedy

Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639)

Translated by John Addington Symonds

NATURE, by God directed, formed in space

The universal comedy we see;

Wherein each star, each man, each entity,

Each living creature, hath its part and place;

And when the play is over, it shall be

That God will judge with justice and with grace.—

Aping this art divine, the human race

Plans for itself on earth a comedy:

It makes kings, priests, slaves, heroes for the eyes

Of vulgar folk; and gives them masks to play

Their several parts—not wisely, as we see;

For impious men too oft we canonise,

And kill the saints; while spurious lords array

Their hosts against the real nobility.