d Nature's Ape and the world's despair
For his peerless painting? (see Vasari.)

--
St. 9. "Stefano is extolled by Vasari as having left Giotto himself
far behind, but it is very difficult to ascertain what were really
his works."--Heaton. "Stefano appears from Landinio's
Commentary on Dante to have been called `scimia della natura',
the ape of nature, which seems to refer to the strong realistic tendencies
common to the school."--Woltmann and Woermann's History of Painting.
Giorgio Vasari, an Italian painter of Arezzo, b. 1512, d. 1574;
author of `Vite de' piu excellenti pittori scultori ed architettori'.
Florence, 1550.

10.

There stands the Master. Study, my friends,
What a man's work comes to! So he plans it,
Performs it, perfects it, makes amends
For the toiling and moiling, and then, `sic transit'!
Happier the thrifty blind-folk labor,
With upturned eye while the hand is busy,
Not sidling a glance at the coin of their neighbor!
'Tis looking downward makes one dizzy.

11.

"If you knew their work you would deal your dole."
May I take upon me to instruct you?
When Greek Art ran and reached the goal,
Thus much had the world to boast `in fructu'--
The Truth of Man, as by God first spoken,
Which the actual generations garble,
Was re-uttered, and Soul (which Limbs betoken)
And Limbs (Soul informs) made new in marble.

--
St. 11. "If you knew their work", etc.: The speaker imputes
this remark to some one; the meaning is, if you really knew
these old Christian painters, you would deal them your mite of praise,
damn them, perhaps, with faint praise, and no more. The poet
then proceeds to instruct this person.

12.

So, you saw yourself as you wished you were,
As you might have been, as you cannot be;
Earth here, rebuked by Olympus there:
And grew content in your poor degree
With your little power, by those statues' godhead,
And your little scope, by their eyes' full sway,
And your little grace, by their grace embodied,
And your little date, by their forms that stay.

13.

You would fain be kinglier, say, than I am?
Even so, you will not sit like Theseus.
You would prove a model? The Son of Priam
Has yet the advantage in arms' and knees' use.
You're wroth--can you slay your snake