Conway, William Martin: Literary remains of Albrecht Dürer (1889)

durer’s rhymes.

281

Who strives against the devil’s might,
The Lord will help him in the fight.
Who keeps his heart for ever pure,
He of Wisdom’s crown is sure.
And who loves God with all his heart,
Chooses the wise and better part.
“But neither did the above please Herr Willibald Pirkheimer.
Then I begged Lazarus Spengler to put my meaning into rhymes,
which he did as here follows;”—with Spengler’s rhymes, however, we
are not concerned. “When he had sent me this, he sent me also by
Herr Willibald Pirkheimer a satirical Poem,” in which he made merry
over Diirer turning poet.
“When I received this from Lazarus Spengler, I made him the
following poem in reply,
In Niirnberg it is known full well
A man of letters now doth dwell,
My Lord —, and worthy among men,
He is so clever with his pen,
And others knows so well to hit,
And make ridiculous with wit;
And he has made a jest of me,
Because I made some poetry,
And of True Wisdom something wrote.
But as he likes my verses not,
He makes a laughing stock of me,
And says I’m like the Cobbler, he
Who criticised Apelles’ art.
With this he tries to make me smart,
Because he thinks it is for me
To paint, and not write poetry.
But I have undertaken this
(And will not stop for him or his),
To learn whatever thing I can,
For which will blame me no wise man.
For he who only learns one thing,
And to naught else his mind doth bring,
To him, as to the notary,
It haps, who lived here as do we,
In this our town. To him was known
To write one form and one alone.