Quote #47265
His helmet now shall make a hive for bees,
And lovers’ sonnets turned to holy psalms,
A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,
And feed on prayers, which are age his alms.
And lovers’ sonnets turned to holy psalms,
A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,
And feed on prayers, which are age his alms.
George Peele
About This Quote
This quote needs no introduction—at least for now. We're working on adding more context soon.
Interpretation
The lines imagine the conversion of a martial, courtly life into one of religious devotion and withdrawal. A helmet becoming a beehive suggests abandonment and disuse of war-gear; “lovers’ sonnets” turning into “holy psalms” signals a redirection of desire from secular love-poetry to sacred song. The “man-at-arms” who once served standing and armed must now “serve on his knees,” exchanging physical combat for prayer, and living on “alms” understood as the spiritual sustenance of devotion in old age. The passage participates in a common Renaissance moral topos: the vanity of youthful pursuits and the late-life turn toward penitence and piety.
