True and False Nobility
Valour and mind form real nobility,The which bears fruit and shows a fair increaseBy doughty actions: these and nought but theseConfer true patents of gentility.Money is false and light unless it beBought by a man's own worthy qualities;And blood is such that its corrupt diseaseAnd ignorant pretence are foul to see.Honours that ought to yield more true a type,Europe, thou measurest by fortune still,To thy great hurt; and this thy foe perceives:He rates the tree by fruits mature and ripe,Not by mere shadows, roots, and verdant leaves:--Why then neglect so grave a cause of ill?
Words in this poem
- doughty a.
- Able; strong; valiant; redoubtable; as, a doughty hero.
- gentility n.
- Good extraction; dignity of birth. [L. gentilitas the relationship of those who belong to the same clan, also, heathenism: cf. F. gentilité heathenism. See Gentile.]
- pretence n.
- The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. [LL. praetensus, for L. praetentus, p. p. of praetendere. See Pretend, and cf. Tension.]
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
True and False Nobility is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella, Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, the John Addington Symonds translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Tommaso Campanella, True and False Nobility, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/true-and-false-nobility.html, id L27825.
Form and metre
True and False Nobility is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 --A-BAABCDECED nobility · increase · theseA · gentility · beB · qualitiesA · diseaseA · seeB · typeC · stillD · perceivesE · ripeC · leavesE · illD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Valour and mind form real nobility, | 10 | /˘····˘/˘˘ |
| The which bears fruit and shows a fair increase | 10 | ········˘/ |
| By doughty actions: these and nought but these | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Confer true patents of gentility. | 10 | ˘/·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Money is false and light unless it be | 10 | /˘········ |
| Bought by a man's own worthy qualities; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| And blood is such that its corrupt disease | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| And ignorant pretence are foul to see. | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Honours that ought to yield more true a type, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Europe, thou measurest by fortune still, | 10 | /˘·/˘˘·/˘· |
| To thy great hurt; and this thy foe perceives: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| He rates the tree by fruits mature and ripe, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Not by mere shadows, roots, and verdant leaves:-- | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Why then neglect so grave a cause of ill? | 10 | ··˘/······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.