Laudator Temporis Acti

A sonnet by Lodovico della Vernaccia, in Italian Poets Chiefly Before Dante: The Italian Text with Translation by D.G. Rossetti (Stratford-on-Avon: The Shakespeare Head Press, 1908), pp. 28-29:

He exhorts the State to vigilance.

Think a brief while on the most marvellous arts
    Of our high-purposed labour, citizens;
    And having thought, draw clear conclusion thence;
And say, do not ours seem but childish parts?
Also on these intestine sores and smarts
    Ponder advisedly; and the deep sense
    Thereof shall bow your heads in penitence,
And like a thorn shall grow into your hearts.
If, of our foreign foes, some prince or lord
    Is now, perchance, some whit less troublesome,
        Shall the sword therefore drop into the sheath?
        Nay, grasp it as the friend that warranteth:
    For unto this vile rout, our foes at home,
Nothing is high or awful save the sword.

Se 'l subietto preclaro, o Cittadini,
    Dell'atto nostro ambizioso e onesto
    Volete immaginar, chiosando il testo,
    Non vi parrà che noi siamo fantini?
S'alli nostri accidenti ed intestini
    Casi ripenserete, con modesto
    Aspetto inchinerete il cor molesto;
    Fien radicati al cor in duri spini.
Quando ragion corregge li difetti
    Del diverso inimico; e lor conturba
    Non della spada il trionfar posarse,
Ma imbratta con forza e' sensi eretti,
    Se vuole usar contra la falsa turba,
    Solo la spada vuol magnificarse.

"A literal rendering" by Richard Francis Burton in The Academy, vol. 24, no. 590 (August 25, 1883) 129:

If you, O Citizens! theme so high; so digne
    As our ambitious deeds aimed honestly,
    Glossing the text would test by phantasy
Seemeth it not some pastime infantine?
If on our accidents and intestine
    Troubles you ponder with due modesty,
    You will incline your stubborn souls and see
Deep rooted in your hearts the horny spine.
When lief would Reason punish all offences
    Of divers foemen and debel the proud
    Ne'er must the triumph of the Sword be shent:
But, an by violence spoiled and high pretences
    It must be used on the losel crowd,
    Sole shall the Sword be held magnificent.

debel = subdue, vanquish ("debel the proud" is an echo of Vergil, Aeneid 6.853: "debellare superbos"); shent = disgraced; losel = good-for-nothing, worthless.