War, ignorance, fraud, tyranny,
    Death, homicide, abortion, woe—­
    These to the world are fair, as we
    Reckon the chase or gladiatorial show
    To pile our hearth we fell the tree,
    Kill bird or beast our strength to stay,
    The vines, the hives our wants obey—­
    Like spiders spreading nets, we take and slay
    As tragedy gives men delight,
    So the exchange of death and strife
    Still yields a pleasure infinite
    To the great world’s triumphant life
    Nay seeming ugliness and pain
    Avert returning Chaos’ reign—­
    Thus the whole world’s a comedy,
    And they who by philosophy
    Unite themselves to God, will see
    In ugliness and evil nought
    But beauteous masks—­oh, mirthful thought!

XIV.  The same theme is continued with a further development.  Men among themselves play their own comedy, but do not rightly assign the parts.  They make kings of slavish souls, and elevate the impious to the rank of saints.  They ignore their true and natural leaders, and stone the real prophets.

XV.  Between the false kings of men, who owe their thrones to accident, and the really royal, who by chance of birth or station are a prey to tyrants, there is everlasting war.  Yet the spirit of the martyrs survives, and long after their death they rule.

XVI.  True kinghood is independent of royal birth or power or ensigns.  High moral and intellectual qualities make the natural kings of men, and these are so rarely found in sceptred families that a republic is the safest form of government.  See Sonnets XXXI., XXXVII.

XVII.  As men mistake their kings, so they mistake the saints.  The true spirit of Christ is ignored, and if Christ were to return to earth, they would persecute him, even as they persecute those who follow him most closely in their lives and doctrines.

XVIII.  Christ symbolises and includes all saintly truth-seeking souls.  Compare the three last lines of this sonnet with the three last lines of No.  XV. and No.  XX.

XIX., XX., XXI.  Expanding the same themes, Campanella contrasts the ignorance of self-love with the divine illumination of the true philosopher, and insists that, in spite of persecution and martyrdom, saintly and truth-seeking souls will triumph.

XXII.  Resumes the thought of No.  X. If only the soul of man, infinite in its capacity, could be enamoured of God, it would at once work miracles and attain to Deity.

XXIII.  A bitter satire on love in the seventeenth century.  Lines 9-11:  as Adami sometimes says, qui legit intelligat.  Line 12:  la squilla mia is a pun on Campanella’s name.  He means that he has shown the world a more excellent way of love.  Cp.  No.  XXII.

XXIV.  The essence of nobility is subjected to the same critique as kinghood in No.  XVI.  Line 11:  the Turk is Europe’s foe.  Campanella praises the Turks because they had no hereditary nobility, and conferred honours on men according to their actions.