EUCHARISTIC ELEGY

inserted under the name of the Graces.

O it is well that lovers are joined by a like bond
whom the laws of God equal beyond others.
To whom there is one dowry or fortune, when you weigh individual things,
a like spirit, nothing not like flourishes in both.
Therefore, greetings, you two, husband and best wife,
one and the same flesh joined by a sacred treaty.
Greetings, decent maiden joined to such a husband
as she has not been associated with for a long time:
of whom each part is most adorned: whether you look at the body
as strong, it prevails in integrity:
or you consider the mind adorned with virtue and art,
no one was more to be looked up to than he.
What gravity, what note of the modesty of his own life?
What piety, candor, what vigor of genius?
What skillful study, what earnest industry of the mind?
Which he often bathed in the Aonian lake the Muses' fountain:
Thus far, by which he is outstanding in the looked-upon name,
and he will fly through many mouths in the number of praises.
Rejoice therefore that you have obtained such a husband,
O chaste girl, the ornament of the virginal choir,
Rejoice: undoubtedly he shares with you the same
honor in which your husband deservedly shines.
Rejoice: for your husband is your tutor, head, and crown,
the protection of your life and your delight,
in adverse things he is a port, and a breeze in favorable ones:
whence it is fitting that you are a part of his body.