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Confessio Amantis: Book 4

The marginal Latin glosses, identified by a capital L in the left margin next to the text, are transcribed and translated in the notes and can be accessed by clicking on (see note) at the corresponding line.

JOHN GOWER, CONFESSIO AMANTIS, BOOK 4: FOOTNOTES



1 They say that Sloth is the nurse of the vices, and, tardy and sluggish, she is torpid in all good matters. What might be done today she transfers, indolent, to tomorrow, and after the horse is stolen she closes the doors. Cupid denies his rewards to the one asking tardily, but Venus plays at merry love for the one who is prompt.

2 How I-Showed-Up-Too-Late came to the distribution of alms

3 He who tries nothing accomplishes nothing, and a man rarely collects the reward of Friendship with a silent mouth. There is moderation in words; but no love favors the man who is stingy in the words he utters to his love.

4 The forgetful one, whom Sloth reveals not to remember himself, slips from others' minds. Thus negligent love, which is not mindful of time passing, loses and offends what it cannot obtain.

5 When it is the proper time to plant, let the farmer who neglects the garden hold himself responsible if fruit is lacking. The right moment will have passed, nor is a later one efficacious; the man tardy in his love lacks this teaching.

6 I know not what good this present life will be to the useless man, drifting far from any labor and weaving his idlenesses. Love does not thrive in such a wretch; rather, Love claims as his own those who do deeds of valor.

7 Venus approves the man whom prowess in arms proves worthy; and the reprobate man whom torpor possesses she disapproves. Mad sluggishness does not recognize the banners of love, for, lazy, he arrives too slowly at the victory prize.

8 Labor with the hands is productive, so that in daily life and actions a man might be able to live. But he who bears labors in the mind for the sake of wisdom prevails, obtaining perpetual merit.

9 A man yielding to sleep his rights loses his case, and his side wins, as it were, but a half-death. Venus is a sentry guard in love, and, awakened, she carries to her bed that service which she keeps for the wakeful.

10 Lines 3259-65: Without the sleep of sluggardiness, / Whom Venus from her companionship / Has exiled on the grounds that he is the very one who has often miserably treated those / Who [are] pleasureless, far from any playfulness, / In bed in their chamber where it happens / That love should have been expected

11 No fortune is pleasing when despair has delivered its wound; where moisture has dried up, the ground will not green up. But greathearted love deposits hope and therefore achieves deliverance, since good fortunes then favor him.

JOHN GOWER, CONFESSIO AMANTIS, BOOK 4: EXPLANATORY NOTES

Abbreviations

AG
Anel.
BD
CA
Civ. Dei
CT
Fab.
Gest Hyst.The
HF
KJV
LGW
MED
Metam.
MO
OED
PF
PL
Rom.
RR
TC
Vat. Myth.
VC
Andrew Galloway
Anelida and Arcite
Book of the Duchess
Confessio Amantis
De Civitate Dei (Augustine)
Canterbury Tales
Hygini Fabvlae (Hyginus)
"Gest Hystoriale" of the Destruction of Troy
House of Fame
King James Version (Bible)
Legend of Good Women
Middle English Dictionary
Metamorphoses (Ovid)
Mirour de l'Omme
Oxford English Dictionary
Parliament of Fowls
Patrologia Latina, ed. Migne
Romaunt of the Rose (Chaucer)
Le Roman de La Rose
Troilus and Criseyde
Vatican Mythographers
Vox Clamantis


*For MS abbreviations, see head of textual notes.


Latin Verses i (before line 1). Line 1: Dicunt accidiam fore nutricem viciorum ("They say that sloth is the nurse of the vices"). Proverbial. See Whiting S392. Gower's source could be Distichs of Cato. He plays variations on the adage in MO 5266-68 and CA 4.3380-82 and 7.4384-86. Line 4: Furatoque prius ostia claudit equo ("After the horse is stolen [Sloth] closes the doors"). Proverbial. See Whiting S697. Compare CA 4.901-03. Bennett suggests that gnomic phrases such as this lend credit to the idea that the Latin rubrics are Gower's (Gower's Middle English, p. 414).

4 Lachesce, and is the chief of all. Compare Langland, Piers Plowman A 9.25-47, the parable of the man in a boat amidst a storm who is "lost for laccheise of hymselve" (A 9.32).

8 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic in quarto libro loquitur Confessor de speciebus Accidie, quarum primam Tardacionem vocat, cuius condicionem pertractans Amanti super hoc consequenter opponit. [Here in the fourth book the Confessor speaks about the species of Sloth, the first of whom he calls Tarrying, and, elaborating its nature to the Lover, he then inquires regarding this.]

9 Tomorwe. Macaulay (2.501) notes the borrowing from MO, line 5606: "Lachesce dist, 'Demein, demein.'"

77-312 Gower bases his adaptation of Dido's story on Ovid's Heroides 7, or some version of Ovid's story with commentary. He also may make use Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Naturale. See Schmitz, "Gower, Chaucer, and the Classics," for discussion of Gower's use of source materials in composing this account of Dido's response to Aeneas' betrayal. Other medieval retellings of Dido's grief, like Gower's mostly based on Ovid's Heroides rather than the original account by Virgil, may be found in Chaucer's HF, lines 219-432; LGW, lines 924-1367; Jean de Meun's RR, lines 13173 ff., and Pynson's "Letter of Dydo to Eneas" (242 lines with a 63-line prologue and 14-line Envoy), in his Boke of Fame Made by Geffrey Chaucer with dyverse other of his works, 1526?, STC 5088, a poem independent of Gower, Chaucer, and Heroides, though pleasantly affiliated.

On the yoking of Dido and Aeneas, Penelope and Ulysses, Grosseteste, and the Foolish Virgins to exemplify Lachesce, Burrow (Ricardian Poetry, pp. 84-85) observes:

Gower creates a primary effect of wit and ingeniousness. What, the riddle might run, do Aeneas, Ulysses, Bishop Grosseteste, and the Foolish Virgins have in common? But there is also humour, in the relation of the two Ovidian examples to the lover's case. Aeneas and Ulysses each enjoyed the devotion of his lady, and any "lachesse" in such circumstances is unimaginable to Amans. He would not delay for a moment . . . if only his mistress would take the slightest notice of him . . . . Beyond this humour, again, lie possibilities of irony. Both Aeneas and Ulysses were "delayed." . . . [Perhaps] "lachesse in loves cas" is not a vice at all.

See also Peck ("Problematics of Irony," pp. 216-18) for a more detailed analysis of irony in Book 4.

80 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic ponit Confessor exemplum contra istos qui in amoris causa tardantes delinquunt. Et narrat qualiter Dido Regina Cartaginis Eneam ab incendiis Troie fugitiuum in amorem suum gauisa suscepit: qui cum postea in partes Ytalie a Cartagine bellaturum se transtulit, nimiamque ibidem moram faciens tempus reditus sui ad Didonem vltra modum tardauit, ipsa intollerabili dolore concussa sui cordis intima mortali gladio transfodit. [Here the Confessor presents an instructive example against those who are delinquent in the cause of love by tarrying. And he narrates how Dido the queen of Carthage, rejoicing, wrapped in her love Eneas fleeing from the fires of Troy. When he afterwards betook himself from Carthage to battles in the regions of Italy and, making there too great a delay, unreasonably extended the time of his return to Dido, she, stricken by an unbearable sorrow, stabbed the innermost regions of her heart with a lethal sword.]

99 ff. On Gower's dialogic craftsmanship in shaping the ethical ironies of sloth in Dido's busy letter writing with its swan example, see Peck (1993), pp. 216-18.

104 ff. "This picture seems to be constructed partly from a misreading or misunderstanding of Ovid, Her. Ep. vii.1.f., 'Sic ubi fata vocant, udis, abiectus in herbis / Ad vada Mæandri concinit albus olor.' ["Thus, at the summons of fate, casting himself down amid the watery grasses by the shallows of Maeander, sings the white swan" - trans. Showerman.] It is difficult to see how our author translated these lines, but the result, which must have been chiefly due to his imagination, is rather creditable to him. Chaucer gives the true sense in LGW, lines 1355 ff.: 'Ryght so,' quod she, 'as that the white swan / Ayenst his deth begynneth for to synge: / Ryght so to yow I make my compleynynge'" (Mac 2:502).

147-234 Gower's version of Ulysses' return vaguely follows Heroides 1, though the story is so common and here so brief that he probably wrote from memory.

152 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur super eodem qualiter Penolope Vlixem maritum suum, in obsidione Troie diucius morantem, ob ipsius ibidem tardacionem Epistola sua redarguit. [Here he speaks about the same thing, how Penelope complained in her letter against her husband Ulysses on account of his tardiness, since he was delaying too long at the siege of Troy.]

153 his trewe wif. Bakalian (Aspects of Love, pp. 35-44) sees the Tale of Penelope as part of Gower's celebration of true marriage and "deep and caring love," which the poet characterizes as "honeste" love. It is reciprocal  love, as she reminds Ulysses (4.195), showing her "friskey side" as she "wolde his love aquite" as soon as he gets home. Bakalian draws parallels between Gower's views on marriage here and in the tales of Alceone, Alcestis, and Lucrece: all four good wives have strong affinities with the poet's attitude toward marriage in his Traitié.

204-06 On the kinship of imagination, ingenium, the gentil herte (line 206), and "resonable entencion" (4.2270) on the peripheries of sloth, see Olsson ("Aspects of Gentilesse," pp. 242-45). On the loose ties of gentilesse with ingenium, see pp. 253-54. Amans' busyness leads to many forms of invention but without full engagement of his "wittes alle" (4.2387); nor is Genius much help in his sorting out the distinctions. Olsson's essay is quite fine in its relating of matters of idleness and gentilesse of a self-indulgent kind in the tales of Ulysses, Pygmalion, and Araxarathen.

234 ff. Latin marginalia: Nota adhuc super eodem de quodam Astrologo, qui quoddam opus ingeniosum quasi ad complementum septennio perducens, vnius momenti tardacione omnem sui operis diligenciam penitus frustrauit. [Note moreover about the same matter, concerning a certain astrologer who, pursuing for seven years a certain most cunning labor almost to its completion, totally negated all the diligence of his work by the delay of a single moment.] Many apocryphal stories of magic grew up around the reputations of Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon and their experiments. See, e.g., Robert Greene's play, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, which offers a more elaborate version of the story of the talking head of brass: as in Gower, the head talked, but the experimenter slept through his success.

250 ff. The source for the story of the Foolish Virgins is Matthew 25:1-13.

Latin marginalia: Nota adhuc contra tardacionem de v. virginibus fatuis, que nimiam moram facientes intrante sponso ad nupcias cum ipso non introierunt. [Note moreover the example against delay of the account of the five foolish virgins, who taking too much of a delay did not enter the wedding ceremony with the groom when he arrived.]

271 Me was nevere assigned place. Amans' "problem is not in keeping his appointments but getting them" (Pearsall, 1966, p. 476).

317 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur Confessor de quadam specie Accidie, que pusillanimitas dicta est, cuius ymaginatiua formido neque virtutes aggredi neque vicia fugere audet; sicque vtriusque vite, tam actiue quam contemplatiue, premium non attingit. [Here the Confessor speaks about a certain type of Sloth which is called Cowardice, whose imaginary fear does not dare to embrace virtues or flee vices. And thus it does not attain the reward of either kind of life, the active or the contemplative.]

365-69 Simpson (1995, pp. 160-61) compares Genius' advocacy of boldness in love to Ovid's Ars Amatoria 1.607-08, where the rustic lover is advised by the praeceptor amoris to go for it, that Chance and Venus help the brave. See also 4.723-25 and 4.1776-85, where Genius' advice is "stickingly close" to that of Ovid's teacher (p. 161).

371 ff. The Tale of Pygmalion and the Statue could be based on Ovid, Met. 10.243-97, or Jean de Meun, RR, lines 20817-21210. The tale was well known, though Genius embellishes it nicely. See Peck ("Problematics of Irony," pp. 222-23). Kuczynski ("Gower's Metaethics," pp. 201-05) offers an analysis of the dangerous role of fantasy in the tale. See also explanatory note to line 1155.

Latin marginalia: Hic in amoris causa loquitur contra pusillanimes, et dicit quod Amans pre timore verbis obmutescere non debet, set continuando preces sui amoris expedicionem tucius prosequatur. Et ponit Confessor exemplum, qualiter Pigmaleon, pro eo quod preces continuauit, quandam ymaginem ebvrneam, cuius pulcritudinis concupiscencia illaqueatus extitit, in carnem et sanguinem ad latus suum transformatam senciit. [Here he speaks against cowards in the cause of love, and he says that the Lover ought not to keep muted his words because of fear, but by continuing his prayers would more securely pursue the fulfillment of his love. And the Confessor presents an instructive example concerning how Pigmaleon, because of the fact that he continued his prayers, perceived that a certain ivory statue - by the lust of whose beauty he was ensnared - was transformed by his side into flesh and blood.]

448 solein. The gloss "lonely (strange)" is Macaulay's, based on Gower's recurrent use of the term solein/soulein in MO in the sense of "alone, lonely." Macaulay challenges Pauli's reading of "solempne," which "gives neither sense nor metre" (2.503).

451ff. The story of Iphis is from Ovid, Met. 9.666-797. The account of the ring of oblivion, which follows, is perhaps based on Peter Comestor's commentary on Exodus 6 (PL 198, col. 1144). The story also appears (from Comestor) in Ranulf Higden's popular Polychronicon 2:322-25.

451ff. Latin marginalia: Hic ponit exemplum super eodem, qualiter Rex Ligdus vxori sue Thelacuse pregnanti minabatur, quod si filiam pareret, infans occideretur: que tamen postea cum filiam ediderat, Isis dea partus tunc presens filiam nomine filii Yphim appellari ipsamque more masculi educari admonuit: quam pater filium credens, ipsam in maritagium filie cuiusdam principis etate solita copulauit. Set cum Yphis debitum sue coniugi vnde soluere non habuit, deos in sui adiutorium interpellabat; qui super hoc miserti femininum genus in masculinum ob affectum nature in Yphe per omnia transmutarunt. [Here he presents an instructive example about the same thing, how King Ligdus threatened his pregnant wife Thelacuse, that if she bore a daughter he would kill the baby. But nonetheless later, when she had issued forth a baby girl, Isis the goddess of birth, then being present, instructed her to call her daughter Yphis by name and to raise her in the manner of a son. The father, believing he had a son, joined her at the usual age in marriage to the daughter of a certain prince. But when Yphis did not possess the wherewithal to render her debt to her bride, she called upon the gods for help; and these, taking pity on this on account of what nature desires, entirely transformed Yphis' gender from feminine to masculine.]

461 of childinge is the goddesse. In Ovid Isis is identified as Io, in her transformed state. She is the one who reassures Thelacuse that her child will be safe and who, when the time comes, changes her into a male. Gower gives the power of transformation to Cupid (4.488), but here specifies that Isis is goddess of childbirth. In Ovid, she only says she is a goddess who will bring help to those who call upon her (Metam. 9.699-701). The Assembly of Gods (ed. Jane Chance [Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1999]) comes closer to Genius' interpretation by observing that "[o]f all maner frute she had the governaunce" (line 335).

475 ten yer age. In Ovid the two are married at age thirteen. See Watt on Gower's having them marry before they are sexually active (pp. 542-46), but also the culture's different attitudes toward females with females and men with men. Female sodomy "seems to have been more or less invisible in Gower's own society; there is little or no surviving evidence in England or Wales of women being examined about sexual misconduct with women" (pp. 543-44).

478-505 The story of Iphis and Iante raises the question of potential homosexuality. White (Nature, Sex, and Goodness, p. 193) suggests that "Nature may be so intent on sexual activity that she is even prepared to operate against her own arrangements for its channelling. The presentation hints that at the bottom of the human psyche lies a naked, unconditioned, undifferentiating sexual impulse - and that suggests something morally anarchic at the bottom of the totality one calls Nature." That is, Nature is reassuringly moral and simultaneously troublingly unreliable. Compare MO, lines 8629-40 and 17185-91, and also the Tale of Canacee and Machaire (3.143-336).

488 Cupide. See note to line 461. By giving the agency of transformation to Cupid, rather than Isis, Genius shifts the emphasis to the power of love rather than women among women, where (in Ovid) Isis remembers her life as Io and argues that if she could be protected by transformation, so too can Thelacuse. Whenever she speaks to Thelacuse the signs of her intention are figured in her horns (recalling the cow, but also the moon, another figure for childing and change).

501 Transformeth Iphe into a man. Trevisa/Higden suggests that such a transformation might be possible within the jurisdiction of nature. After commenting on hermaphrodites and androgony he observes: "we haueþ i-seie and i-herde þat some haueþ i-chaunged hir schap; for we sighe in Affrica a mayde þe same day þat sche scholde haue be i-wedded, i-chaunged and i-torned into a man, and was i-berded anon, and anoon hadde alle lymes as a man schulde haue, and wedded a wyf with inne a schort tyme after. Also Seynte Austyn de civitate Dei, libro 3, capitulo 29, toucheþ þat A. Gellius [libro] Atticarum noctium seiþ þat wommen beeþ somtyme i-torned into men: hit is no made tale, but hit is sooþ as þe lettre is i-write" (Polychronicon 2:195). I have not been able to find the passage in Augustine to which Higden alludes. See also Watt, who observes that according to medieval medical theory "the transformation from female to male was not in itself contrary to nature" ("Sins of Omission," p. 544), citing Thomas Laquer, Making Sex, especially pp. 134-42; and also Joan Cadden, Meaning of Sex Difference, p. 3.

544 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic tractat Confessor de vicio Obliuionis, quam mater eius Accidia ad omnes virtutum memorias necnon et in amoris causa immemorem constituit. [Here the Confessor treats about the vice of Forgetfulness, whose mother, Sloth, makes her forgetful of every memory of virtue even in the cause of love.]

626 betwen tuo stoles. Proverbial. See Whiting S794. Compare CA Prol.336.

629 Betwen forgetelnesse and drede. Juxtaposition of opposites, "Betwen the tuo extremites" (5.7641), is a common feature of gnomic observation. Compare TC 3.1315: "bitwixen drede and sikernesse." In Gower, e.g., "Betwen the vertu and the vice" (Prol.79, 7.2739); "betwen ernest and game" (Prol.462 - commonplace in Chaucer); "lif and deth" (1.289, 5.5466); "dai and nyht" (4.2994); "the corps and the spirit" (4.2499); "whyt and red" (5.3016); "to moche and lyte" (5.7689); "angel and man" (6.1531); "wel or wo" (4.639, 7.1441, 8.1028); "the trouthe and the falshode" (7.1533); "more and lesse" (7.2015); and "Betwen the reddour and pité" (7.3919, 7.4171), to cite a few.

647 ff. Macaulay notes (2:503):

For the Ring of Forgetfulness here spoken of see Petrus Comestor, Exodus vi., where it is related that Moses in command of the Egyptians captured the chief city of the Ethiopians by the help of Tarbis, daughter of their king, and married her in recompense of her services. Then, wishing to return to Egypt and being detained by his wife, "tanquam vir peritus astrorum duas imagines sculpsit in gemmis huius efficaciae, ut altera memoriam, altera oblivionem conferret. Cumque paribus anulis eas inseruisset, alterum, scilicet oblivionis anulum, uxori praebuit, alterum ipse tulit; ut sic pari amore sic paribus anulis insignirentur. Coepit ergo mulier amoris viri oblivisci, et tandem libere in Aegyptum regressus est" (Migne, Patrol. vol. 198, p. 1144). ["as a man most learned about the stars, he carved gemstones into two images with the following powers: namely that one would produce memory, the other forgetfulness. And when he had inserted these into two similar rings, he offered the ring of forgetfulness to his wife and took the other himself, so that thus they would be engraved with an equal love by equal rings. The woman therefore proceeded to forget her love of her husband, and he finally departed freely into Egypt," trans. Galloway.] Compare Godfr. Viterb., Pantheon, v. (p. 155).

731 ff. The Tale of Demephon and Phyllis was well known. See RR, lines 13211 ff., and Chaucer, LGW, lines 2394-2561. Gower's version seems to be derived from Ovid, Heroides 2, and Remedia Amoris, lines 591-604, though he might also have consulted works such as Hyg. 59; Vat. Myth. I 156 or II 258, or Boccaccio, Genealogie Deorum Gentilium Libri 10.52 and 11.25. Gower alters several details (for example, he reverses Demephon's itinerary so that he is on his way to Troy instead of returning). Gower may have been the first to translate "amygdalus" as "fillibert," thereby creating the pun. Lydgate follows Gower's suggestion in The Temple of Glas, line 88, and The Complaint of the Black Knight, lines 68-70.

733 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic in amoris causa contra obliuiosos ponit Confessor exemplum, qualiter Demephon versus bellum Troianum itinerando a Phillide Rodopeie Regina non tantum in hospicium, set eciam in amorem, gaudio magno susceptus est: qui postea ab ipsa Troie discendens rediturum infra certum tempus fidelissime se compromisit. Set quia huiusmodi promissionis diem statutum postmodum oblitus est, Phillis obliuionem Demephontis lacrimis primo deplangens, tandem cordula collo suo circumligata in quadam corulo pre dolore se mortuam suspendit. [Here the Confessor presents an instructive example against Forgetfulness in the cause of love, telling how Demephon in traveling toward the Trojan War was received with great joy by Phillis, queen of Rodopeia, taken not only in hospitality but also in love, and who subsequently departing from her for Troy faithfully promised that he would return within a certain time. But because he later forgot the established day of this promise, Phillis, at first bewailing tearfully Demephon's forgetfulness, finally, wrapping a rope around her neck, for sorrow hanged herself to death on a hazel tree.]

823-26 Remarking on the constancy of Phillis' vigil, and in reference to Gower's tender regard for Canacee, Medea, and Lucrese, Pearsall observes: "It is . . . women who draw forth Gower's largest humanity and his most deeply effective expressions of that humanity" (1966, p. 481).

Latin verses iv (before line 887). Sowing and bearing fruit are common metaphors for sexual relations and bearing offspring; see, e.g., RR, lines 19701-35.

892 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic tractat Confessor de vicio Necgligencie, cuius condicio Accidiam amplectens omnes artes sciencie, tam in amoris causa quam aliter, ignominiosa pretermittens, cum nullum poterit eminere remedium, sui ministerii diligenciam expostfacto in vacuum attemptare presumit. [Here the Confessor discourses about the vice of Negligence, whose nature it is to embrace Sloth and ignominiously neglect all the skills of knowledge, both in love's case and elsewhere. Then, when no remedy is found in his case, he attacks groundlessly and after the fact assails the courtroom officer's diligence.] Note: remedium, minister, and expostfacto are all legal terms, in keeping with the metaphor of a badly handled court case.

901-03 grete stiede . . . stable dore fast. Proverbial. See Whiting S697.

979-1034 The story of Phaeton was well known. See Ovid, Metam. 2.1-328; Hyginus, Fab. CLIV; Vat. Myth II (57); and Boccaccio, Genealogie Deorum Gentilium Libri 7.41. Macaulay notes (2.504): "The moral drawn by Gower from the story of Phaeton is against going too low, that is abandoning the higher concerns of love owing to slothful negligence. The next story is against aiming too high and neglecting the due claims of service."

982 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic contra vicium necgligencie ponit Confessor exemplum; et narrat quod cum Pheton filius Solis currum patris sui per aera regere debuerat, admonitus a patre vt equos ne deviarent equa manu diligencius refrenaret, ipse consilium patris sua negligencia preteriens, equos cum curru nimis basse errare permisit; vnde non solum incendio orbem inflammauit, set et seipsum de curru cadentem in quoddam fluuium demergi ad interitum causauit. [Here the Confessor presents an instructive example against the vice of Negligence; and he narrates that when Phaeton, the son of the Sun, was about to steer his father's chariot through the air, he was admonished by his father that, lest he misguide his horses, he should rein them in with an equal hand. But he ignored his father's counsel by his negligence, and allowed the horses and the chariot to wander too far down; whence not only did he burn the earth with fire, but he also caused his own demise by falling from the chariot into a certain river.]

1035-71 For the story of Icarus see Ovid, Metam. 8.183-259, though the story was common, e.g., Vat. Myth. II (61). See CA 4.5286.

1039 ff. Latin marginalia: Exemplum super eodem de Icharo Dedali filio in carcere Minotauri existente, cui Dedalus, vt inde euolaret, alas componens, firmiter iniunxit ne nimis alte propter Solis ardorem ascenderet: quod Icharus sua negligencia postponens, cum alcius sublimatus fuisset, subito ad terram corruens expirauit. [An instructive example on the same thing, concerning Icarus, the son of Daedalus: while they were in the Minotaur's prison, Daedalus, fashioning wings that he might escape, firmly enjoined Icarus not to rise too high on account of the sun's heat. But Icarus dismissed this because of his negligence, and when he had risen up too high, he plummeted suddenly to the earth and died.]

1087 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur Confessor super illa specie Accidie, que Ocium dicitur, cuius condicio in virtutum cultura nullius occupacionis diligenciam admittens, cuiuscumque expedicionem cause non attingit. [Here the Confessor speaks about that species of Sloth which is called Idleness, whose condition it is to take on no diligence of any labor in the cultivation of virtues, and not to attain to the fulfillment of any cause whatsoever.]

1155 besinesse. See Kuczynski, "Gower's Metaethics," on Gower's double-valenced use of the term besinesse here and elsewhere in Book 4 as part of his discussion of the Tale of Pygmalion and the Statue and its relationship to the ethics of choice.

1167 nede hath no lawe. Proverbial, and (apparently) a legal maxim. See Whiting N51. See also CA 8.75, and Piers Plowman B.20.10 ff.

1180 mi contienance I pike. Macaulay (2.505) glosses the sense to be: "thus I keep up a pretence (for staying)," comparing the line to 1.698, "And many a contenance he piketh." Certainly he is concerned with such a pretense, but his means seems to be preparing an agreeable countenance to meet the occasion with his best face on.

1196 mi busi whiel. An image of playing Fortune's game, but also of the busy circumnavigation of his gaze, as she is the hub that he watches from all angles.

1245 ff. No specific source is known for the Tale of Rosiphilee, though stories of punishment for aloof ladies are common in medieval literature. See Neilson, "Purgatory of Cruel Beauties." The plot is somewhat akin to that of Dame Sirith, where a woman is frightened by a terrifying alternative into becoming sexually active, though here the moral is more gentle. The tale has been regarded by many as among Gower's best-told stories. See Nicholson (Annotated Index, pp. 274-79).

1249 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic ponit Confessor exemplum contra istos qui amoris occupacionem omittentes, grauioris infortunii casus expectant. Et narrat de quadam Armenie Regis filia, que huiusmodi condicionis in principio iuuentutis ociosa persistens, mirabili postea visione castigata in amoris obsequium pre ceteris diligencior efficitur. [Here the Confessor presents an instructive example against those who, omitting attention to love, have in store a fall of graver misfortune. And he narrates about a daughter of the king of Armenia, who, persisting lazily in this condition in early youth, and then chastised by a miraculous vision, is made more diligent than anyone in servility to love.]

1301 madle. From Anglo-Norman madl(e), a variant of "mâle." Gower uses the word again in CA 7.4215: "The madle is mad for the femele." See also "Femelle et madle en un enfant" (MO, line 1029); and "la mort depose / Son madle, soule se dispose" (MO, line 17884-85).

1321-22 J offers the following couplet instead of the lines in F: The beaute of hire face schon / Wel brihter þen þe cristel ston, an attractive alternative followed in some other manuscripts.

1396-402 Kendall, in his discussion of women as household exchange notes that the groom's princess laments the "loss of status" (Lordship and Literature, p. 144) due to her refusal to love/marry thus warning Rosiphilee of the cost of her "independent agency. . . . To serve household interests with her own will is to write herself out of household activity after marriage. Rosiphelee's vision instructs her to decide to become a sign of the bond by which patrimonies are transferred and men achieve lordship" (p. 145). She will join the adorned procession of exemplary ladies who "appear as personally empty signs of marriage" (p. 145).

1452-54 Love is an occupacion . . . . Love, gentilesse, and idleness all seem to be ambiguously linked here, pointing to a subversion of aristocratic notions of ease and the games surrounding demandes d'amour, as Genius argues both sides of the questions. See Olsson (1989), pp. 230-41. The model behind these subjective courtly equivocations is RR and the courtesies of Oiseuse (Idleness) and the Garden of Deduit (Pleasure). See Fleming (pp. 78-80) on idleness, otium, and luxuria.

1454 ff. Latin marginalia: Non quia sic se habet veritas, set opinio Amantum. [For the truth is not thus, but this is the opinion of Lovers.]

1467-84 In exploring Genius' cultural relationship with Venus, White amusingly suggests: "One might try to see Genius as priest-in-charge of a very difficult parish: he can legitimately lament Venus' moral shortcomings and still be determined to serve her, perhaps to bring her into a more satisfactory moral state"; nevertheless, "telling evidence that Genius finds his double loyalty unsustainable comes with [his] final recommendation that Amans should abandon love . . . his double status . . . seems to suggest that while his priesthood presses him toward nature, his association with love is an association with vice" ("Division and Failure," p. 609). See 8.2075-88.

1495-96 Whyl sche the charge myhte bere / Of children. Genius suggests that the woman who is "slow to marry" might have children in the meantime anyway, and he notes that marriage would impose onto her the full burden of supporting them. Although the passage strays increasingly far from the initial point of the tale of Rosiphelee, Genius addresses a pressing economic reason for marriage from an unmarried mother's point of view. Women were apparently marrying much later or not at all in the later fourteenth century, evidently in part because of attractive wages after the population decline from the Black Death. Many women in late fourteenth century England kept working (as servants or others) into their mid-twenties, and perhaps up to 17 percent never did marry: see Goldberg (Women, Work and Life Cycle, e.g., pp. 20, 329). Goldberg's evidence suggests that sexual involvement was assumed in many of the disputes about marriage contracts that reached law courts (p. 329), implying that illegitimate children might be common; but Goldberg also hypothesizes (in contrast to Genius) that one reason women did delay marriage in this period was precisely to put off the burden of many children that an early marriage would more likely impose (p. 352). Goldberg argues that, by the late fifteenth century, the drop in procreation was severe enough that English culture began emphasizing women as wives and mothers and disparaging them as workers, a pattern of social prejudice against working women that, with periods of exception, obtained for centuries (see e.g., p. 352). Yet this prejudice against women who married late or never is already apparent in Genius' comments here. (See Galloway, "Literature of 1388.")

1505 The Tale of Jephthah's Daughter is based on Judges 11. The story is also briefly retold in Chaucer's Physician's Tale, though with a reversal of the moral as Virginia offers prayers of gratitude for preserving her virginity. Genius' account adheres more closely to the Vulgate.

1508 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic ponit exemplum super eodem: Et narrat de filia Iepte, que cum ex sui patris voto in holocaustum deo occidi et offerri deberet, ipsa pro eo quod virgo fuit et prolem ad augmentacionem populi dei nondum genuisset, xl dierum spacium vt cum suis sodalibus virginibus suam defleret virginitatem, priusquam moreretur, in exemplum aliarum a patre postulauit. [Here he presents an instructive example about the same thing, and he narrates about Jephthah's daughter, who, when by her father's vow she ought to have been offered in a sacrifice to God and killed, besought from her father a span of forty days to lament with her companions her virginity, as an example for other women - because she was a virgin and had not yet given birth for the augmentation of the people of God - before she would die.]

1524 Mai no man lette that schal falle. Proverbial and ancient, evidently predating Christian ethics (compare Beowulf, line 455, "Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel!" [fate always proceeds as it must]).

1562-89 In his discussion of "bourgeois didactisism" in Gower, Galloway ("Gower's Quarrel") writes: "By framing [Jephtha's daughter's] death in terms of lost productivity and situating it with other economic morals in the book of Sloth, Gower emphasizes an ethic in which material and population gain is the selfless goal of community, by which the people might be encressed." . . . Such an ethic is obviously alienated from the immediate self-interest of survival. She acquieses in her death  . . . without complaint about that" (p. 249). Galloway then contrasts Chaucer's adaptation of the story in The Physician's Tale, which converts the sense from common profit to one of proper governance (pp. 249-562).

1619 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur quod in amoris causa milicie probitas ad armorum laboris excercicium nullatenus torpescat. [Here he declares that in the cause of love, probity of military service for the exertion of labor in arms should by no means become lax.]

1633 lo, wher he goth! The line has resonances of Troilus' fame as he passes Criseyde's window in Chaucer's poem, while the people exclaim over his valor (TC 2.610-58); certainly his fame serves him well in the busy-ness of love. As he passes the window a second time, Pandarus asserts, "Lo, yond he rit!" (TC 2.1284), to which Criseyde replies, "Ye, so he doth!"

1650-55 Amans' sheepish faintheartedness (see 5.6945) derives more from fourteenth-century French dits amoreux than from the heartier RR. See Burrow (1983), especially pp. 6-11.

1682 Bot nou ho ther, I seie no more. The Lover's ideas have drifted close to a topic of great controversy in the 1380s and 1390s: clerics on crusade. Most dangerously, his views echo the complaints of the heretical and pacifist Lollards concerning crusades. On the broader topic of Gower's pacifism see explanatory note to 3.2342-60. Many orthodox writers and intellectuals as well as Lollards were incensed by the "crusade" mounted by bishop Henry Despenser of Norwich in 1383 against the "schismatic" (French-supported) Pope Clement VII, on behalf of the English-supported Pope Urban VI. For good reason, the endeavor was controversial in the English parliament and court, before, during, and after its miserable failure. Bishop Despenser took five months to be utterly defeated in the battle on behalf of the pope, fighting Flemish supporters of Clement even though most of the Flemish supported Urban. For discussion and listing of the Lollard writings against this, see Hudson and Gradon, English Wycliffite Sermons, pp. 146-51. (See also Galloway, "Literature of 1388.")

1693 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic allegat Amans in sui excusacionem, qualiter Achilles apud Troiam propter amorem Polexenen arma sua per aliquod tempus dimisit. [Here the Lover alleges in his excuse, how Achilles at Troy on account of love for Polyxena put away his arms for a certain time.]

1710 To winne chaf and lese whete. An inversion of the proverb "Taketh the fruyt, and lat the chaf be stille" (CT VII[B2]3443). See Whiting W205. The metaphor is biblical; see Jeremiah 23:28, Matthew 3:12, and Luke 3:17, but also Paul, 2 Corinthians 3:6. Compare also CT II(B1)701-02, X(I)35-36, and LGW G.312, G.529. See Robertson, A Preface to Chaucer, pp. 58, 316-17, and Peck, "St. Paul and the Canterbury Tales" (Mediaevalia 7 [1981], 92-96).

1757-60 besinesse. See Kuczynski on besinesse as a metaphysical concept reaching back to Abelard. See also Gower's treatment of the idea in his Tale of Pygmalion.

1815-95 The story of Nauplus and Ulysses is referred to in Ovid, Metam. 8.39, and Hyginus, Fab. XCV, though both name Palamedes, son of Nauplius, as the exposer of Ulysses. Gower also adds the foxes to pull the plow instead of the horse and oxen, as in Hyginus.

1818 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic dicit quod amoris delectamento postposito miles arma sua preferre debet: Et ponit exemplum de Vlixe, cum ipse a bello Troiano propter amorem Penolope remanere domi voluisset, Nauplus pater Palamades eum tantis sermonibus allocutus est, quod Vlixes thoro sue coniugis relicto labores armorum vna cum aliis Troie magnanimus subibat. [Here he says that, postponing the pleasure of love, a knight ought to prefer taking up arms; and he presents an instructive example about when Ulysses wanted to remain at home from the Trojan war on account of his love for Penelope, that Nauplus the father of Palamades spoke to him with such speeches that Ulysses, leaving behind the bed of his wife, magnanimously took up the labors of arms, along with the others to Troy.]

1901-34 The worth of King Protesilaus is recorded in Ovid, Heroides 13.

1901 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic narrat super eodem qualiter Laodomia Regis Protheselai vxor, volens ipsum a bello Troiano secum retinere, fatatam sibi mortem in portu Troie prenunciauit: set ipse miliciam pocius quam ocia affectans, Troiam adiit, vbi sue mortis precio perpetue laudis Cronicam ademit. [Here he narrates about the same thing, how Laodomia, the wife of King Protesilaus, wishing to keep him away from the Trojan War and with her, prognosticated his destined death in the port of Troy. But he, desiring militarism over idleness, went to Troy, where he purchased a historical record of perpetual fame for himself, at the price of his life.]

1935 ff. The account of Saul is based on 1 Kings 27-31 (1 Samuel 27-31, KJV).

Latin marginalia: Adhuc super eodem, qualiter Rex Saul, non obstante quod per Samuelem a Phitonissa suscitatum et coniuratum responsum, quod ipse in bello moreretur, accepisset, hostes tamen suos aggrediens milicie famam cunctis huius vite blandimentis preposuit. [Moreover on the same thing: how King Saul, even though he had received the response from Samuel (raised from the dead by Phitonissa and conjured to answer) that he would die in war, nonetheless, he attacked his enemies, putting the fame of military achievement before all pleasures of this life.]

1963-2013. The education of Achilles by Chiron is based upon Statius is based upon Statius, Achilleid 2.110-28. See note to 3.1923-81 on the violence of chivalric education. N.b., Wtherbee, "Rome, Troy, and Culture" (pp. 29-31), on Gower's subsequent modifications of Statius in the Tale of Achilles and Deidamia (5.2961-2301), as Achilles, withdrawn from the context of the male chivalry he learned from Chiron, "adapts to life as a girl with remarkable and wholly uncanonical ease" that is quite apart from chivalry. He is "both graceful and . . . innocent" in his new role and so convincingly assimilated into the feminine virtues of "honour, servise and reverence" that even Ulysses is unable to recognize him.

Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur quod miles in suis primordiis ad audaciam prouocari debet. Et narrat qualiter Chiro Centaurus Achillem, quem secum ab infancia in monte Pileon educauit, vt audax efficeretur, primitus edocuit, quod cum ipse venacionibus ibidem insisteret, leones et tigrides huiusmodique animalia sibi resistencia et nulla alia fugitiua agitaret. Et sic Achilles in iuuentute animatus famosissime milicie probitatem postmodum adoptauit. [Here he states that a knight in his beginning years ought to be stirred to valor. And he tells how Chiron the centaur, who had taken Achilles unto himself from infancy to educate him to be bold, from the beginning taught him, when he was in pursuit of game, to attack lions and tigers and other animals of that sort which offered resistance to him, and not any others that fled him. And Achilles thus disposed from youth later most famously acquired his excellence in arms.]

2014-2134 The story of Hercules and Achelous may be found in Ovid, Met. 9.1-97, though Gower relies on other sources for making Mercury his father (elsewhere in classical sources it is Jupiter) and for mention of the pillars of Hercules. The latter were well known in the fourteenth century; see, e.g., Higden, Polychronicon 1, cap. 11, pp. 302-05; and Chaucer, The Monk's Tale, CT VII(B2)2117-18. Gower is apparently unique in naming Achelous "Achelons" (a form repeated in the Traitié 7 where the same story is found [Mac 1:383-84]). Gower's misreading of u as n in the Latin sources he used for the name was a common sort of error in some medieval scripts; "textura" script, for example (often used for elegant Latin), makes u and n nearly indistinguishable (Galloway, "Literature of 1388").

2045-2131 The author of Chaucer's Ghoast (1672) adopts these lines as his own in Arg. 6 on Hercules, Achilous and Deianire.

2048 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic dicit, quod Miles priusquam amoris amplexu dignus efficiatur, euentus bellicos victoriosus amplectere debet. Et narrat qualiter Hercules et Achelons propter Deianiram Calidoinie Regis filiam singulare duellum adinuicem inierunt, cuius victor Hercules existens armorum meritis amorem virginis laudabiliter conquestauit. [Here he says that before a knight may be made worthy for the embrace of love, he ought to grasp military actions most victoriously. And he tells how Hercules and Achelon entered into single combat with one another on account of Deianira, daughter of the king of Calidonia, and as the victor in this by merit of arms Hercules most praiseworthily conquered the virgin's love.]

2135 ff. The accounts of Penthesilea and Philemenis derive from Benoît, Roman de Troie, lines 24309 ff. and 25767 ff.

Latin marginalia: Nota de Pantasilea, Amazonie Regina, que Hectoris amore colligata contra Pirrum Achillis filium apud Troiam arma ferre eciam personaliter non recusauit. [Note concerning Penthesilea, queen of Amazonia, who, bound to love of Hector, did not excuse herself from personally bearing arms at Troy against Pirrus the son of Achilles.]

2148 ff. Latin marginalia: Nota qualiter Philemenis propter milicie famam a finibus terre in defensionem Troie veniens tres puellas a Regno Amazonie quolibet anno percipiendas sibi et heredibus suis imperpetuum ea de causa habere promeruit. [Note how Philemenis, for the fame of military glory, came from the boundaries of his own land in defense of Troy; and for that reason he merited having three young women provided each year in perpetuity from the kingdom of Amazonia, to be possessed by himself and his heirs.]

2183 ff. Latin marginalia: Nota pro eo quod Eneas Regem Turnum in bello deuicit, non solum amorem Lavine, set et regnum Ytalie sibi subiugatum obtinuit. [Note that since Aeneas conquered King Turnus in battle, he obtained not only Lavinia's love but also the kingdom of Italy, now subjugated to himself.]

2199 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic dicit, quod generosi in amoris causa sepius preferuntur. Super quo querit Amans, Quid sit generositas: cuius veritatem questionis Confessor per singula dissoluit. [Here he states that nobles are more often preferable in the cause of love. Regarding this, the Lover asks what nobility is; the truth of the matter the Confessor elaborates point by point.]

2204-2319 Genius' discussion of gentilesse is Boethian in origin (see especially Consolation of Philosophy 3.pr.6 and m.6) and bears many details in common with Chaucer's views. See Chaucer's "Gentilesse," as well as the discussion of the subject in The Wife of Bath's Tale (CT III[D]1109-64) and The Franklin's Tale. Gower first expressed the ideas in MO, lines 23389 ff. See also Dante, Convivio 4.10 ff., and Jean de Meun's RR, lines 18607-946, both of whom draw upon Boethius. For discussion of Gower's debate on gentilesse as an ambiguous courtly virtue see Olsson (Structures of Conversion, pp. 119-46). Also see note to 4.2270, below.

2209-11 long time is falle in age . . . hih lignage / After the forme. Compare Chaucer's "Gentilesse," where the lineage of the virtue is traced back to the "firste stok" (line 1), that is to Christ ("the firste fader in magestee" - line 19), in whose "forme" (to borrow Gower's term), rather than in public offices such as pope, king, or cardinal ("Al were he mytre, croune, or diademe" - lines 7, 14, 21), the "traces" of the virtue may be found (line 3).

2226 Al was aliche gentil tho. Compare the popular adage: "Whan Adam delve and Eve span, / Who was then the gentleman?" The couplet was used in the Rising of 1381 but had a long lineage before that time. See Albert Friedman, "'Whan Adam Delved . . .': Contexts of a Historical Proverb," in Larry Benson, ed., Learned and the Lewed, pp. 213-30.

2245 ff. Latin marginalia: Omnes quidem ad vnum finem tendimus, set diuerso tramite. [We all are indeed headed to one end, though by diverse pathways.]

2269-70 after the condicion / Of resonable entencion. Olsson (Structures of Conversion, p. 131), cites Dante's Purgatorio to exemplify the inner workings of gentilesse, apprehension, and intentionality in these lines. As Dante puts it: "Each one apprehends vaguely a good wherein the mind may find rest, and this it desires" (Purgatorio 17.127-28), and "Your faculty of apprehension draws an image from a real existence and displays it within you, so that it makes the mind turn to it; and if, thus turned, the mind inclines toward it, that inclination is love" (18.22-26; Singleton trans. as cited by Olsson). J. D. Burnley's discussion of medieval cognitive psychology is useful in understanding what Gower means by the condicion (Chaucer's Language, pp. 103-06).

2312-15 no beste, / . . . with love scholde aqueinte, / . . . make it queinte / . . . while that it laste. Genius engages in wordplay of a courtly/sexual kind that is well suited to the refined sensibility of gentilesse he wishes to convey. Compare Chaucer's HF, lines 239-52, where, in describing the initial lovemaking of Dido and Aeneas, the narrator gets caught up to the point of embarrassment in his "queynte" words describing "[h]ow they aqueynteden in fere" (lines 245, 250; with a pun on "that faculte" [line 248] as well) to conclude, somewhat self-righteously: "Hyt were a long proces to telle, / And over-long for yow to dwelle" (lines 251-52). Gower's remarks on the effects of love as beasts with love scholde aqueinte ("become intimate with" each other - MED aqueinten v. 1 [a]) and make it queinte (i.e., behave charmingly, or, perhaps, friskily) share in this playful idea of sex. For Genius, as a force of nature, the sexual connotations of courtesy are positive; but as he presents them, they are also noble, appropriate to gentilesse and fin amour. [W]hile that it laste acknowledges the transience of such physical love and emotional highs.

2321 ff. Latin marginalia: Nota de amore caritatis, vbi dicit, Qui non diligit, manet in morte. [Note concerning the love of charity, where it says, "Who does not love remains in death."] See explanatory note to line 2325.

2325 1 John 3:14: "He that loveth not, abideth in death."

2342-44 Job 5:7.

2348 ff. Latin marginalia: Apostolus: Quecumque scripta sunt, ad nostram doctrinam scripta sunt. [Apostle: "Whatever things are written, they are written for our wisdom." See Romans 15:4. Compare Chaucer's Nun's Priest: "For Seint Paul seith that al that writen is, / To oure doctrine it is ywrite, ywis; / Taketh the fruyt, and lat the chaf be stille" (CT VII[B2] 3441-43).

2363 ff. That man must labor is one of the primary conditions of postlapsarian existence (Gen. 3:17-19). In Gower's scheme, each man must reclaim Paradise for himself, and that effort involves mental as well as physical cultivation. (Compare Chaucer's PF, lines 15-18, and his Canon's Yeoman's philosophy of labor.) Many of the founders of the various arts, industries, and sciences which Genius enumerates are found in Godfrey of Viterbo's Pantheon, though not all occur there. See Macaulay (2:508-11). Hugh of St. Victor, Didascalicon, ch. 3, also has such a passage.

2377 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur contra ociosos quoscumque, et maxime contra istos, qui excellentis prudencie ingenium habentes absque fructu operum torpescunt. Et ponit exemplum de diligencia predecessorum, qui ad tocius humani generis doctrinam et auxilium suis continuis laboribus et studiis, gracia mediante diuina, artes et sciencias primitus inuenerunt. [Here he speaks against idle men of whatever sort, and particularly against those who, possessing an intellect of excellent power, grow languid without gaining the fruit of any labor. And he presents an instructive example concerning the diligence of those who have come before, who originally discovered the arts and sciences for the wisdom and assistance of the entire human race, by their continual labors and inquiries, and with the assistance of divine grace.]

2396-98 Cham . . . wrot in Hebreu. Cham was the first and oldest son of Noah. St. Augustine, Civ. Dei 16.11, identifies Heber, a descendent of the fifth generation of Cham (Sem, Ham) as the one through whom Hebrew survives (thus the name Hebrew, called after him). Augustine argues that after the flood, when the languages were divided, Hebrew survived only with Cham and his descendents. Augustine does not provide Gower's specific source for the idea, however, and different sources give different inventors for the Hebrew alphabet. According to Hugh of St. Victor (Hugh, Didascalicon 2.3), "The letters of the Hebrews are believed to have taken start with Moses through the written Law" (trans. Taylor, p. 85). Higden/Trevisa's Polychronicon gives the credit to Enoch (2:223).

2399-2400 Of naturel philosophie / He (Cham) fond ferst also the clergie. Remigius' commentary on Donatus' Ars Minor gives Cham credit for erecting two columns that preserve the arts (see Didascalicon 3.2, trans. Taylor, p. 210, note to line 34). The idea is given more full treatment in Godfrey of Viterbo's Pantheon:

Temporibus Nini legitur Cham, sistere uita.
Abstulit et regnum sibi Ninus rex Niniuita,
Primus in astrologis Cham sua scripta tulit,
Ninus eum pepulit, ne rex foret ipse rebellis,
Omnibur exustis quos scripserat ipse libellis,
Nam timet arte sua, ne sua regna ruant.
Septem quas legimus, Cham, primus scripserat artes
Philosophos docuit per sydera noscere partes,
Quas iterum reliqui, post didicere uiri.
Has artes, longis Cham scripserat ipse columnis,
Ne uel ab igne simul pereant, uel hiantibus undis
Aerea uel lateris, quaeque columha fuit.

[Cham is said to have passed his life in Ninus' time: Ninus, king of the Ninevites, took his kingdom from him. Cham first undertook to write about astrology, and Ninus expelled him, lest Cham become a king to rebels, and caused all the writings Cham had produced to be burned; for Ninus feared his art, lest his kingdom be destroyed. Cham first wrote down the seven arts that we learn, and through them he had taught philosophers to know the parts of the heavens and to leave them again to others, and after for men to teach them. These arts Cham had written onto long columns, lest they perish either by fire or the engulfing waves; each column was of bronze or brick.] Pantheon 3, col. 105 (trans. Galloway).

2401 Cadmus. On Cadmus as inventor of the Greek alphabet, see Godfrey of Viterbo, Pantheon 6, col. 157: "Tunc Cadmus Graecas literas sedecim fecit. Apollo etiam cytharam condidit, et artem medicinalem inuenit. Eo tempore orti sunt Theologi, qui de dijs falsis carmina composuerunt, ut Orpheus, Museus, Linus . . ." ["Then Cadmus made the 16 Greek letters; Apollo invented the harp, and the art of medicine; at that time theologians arose who composed songs about false gods, such as Orpheus, Museus, Linus . . . "], trans. AG. See also Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae 1.3.5-6, as adapted by Hugh of St. Victor, which tells how "Cadmus brought the alphabet from Phoenicia into Greece" (Hugh, Didascalicon 3.2, trans. Taylor, p. 86).

2403 Theges. For Tages on augury see Hugh of St. Victor: "Mercury is reported the first discoverer of illusions; the Phrygians discovered auguries; Tages first gave soothsaying to the Etruscans; hydromancy first came from the Persians" (Hugh, Didascalicon, ed. Charles Henry Buttimer, vi.xv, as cited in trans. Taylor, p. 155).

2405 Philemon be the visage. On Philemon, inventor of physiognomy, see Secretum Secretorum, under the heading "Certeyne rewles of phisnomy, to knowe by onely thoght when men lokes on any man, of what condicions he es," where we learn that "Aristotal sais howe þat in tyme of Ypocras þer was a philosopher hight Philomon, þat was chefe mayster and hyest doctur of þis science." The passage goes on to discuss Philomon's disquisition on "þe complexion" pertaining to people who are "lucherus, deceitus, auarus, and lyfyng liccherie" and such "thynges filthy and reprouable" (British Library MS Sloane 213, fol. 118, Secretum Secretorum, ed. Manzalaoui, pp. 10-11).

2407 Cladyns. Claudian, an Alexandrian writer who came to Italy c. 395 A.D. and was admired as the last representative of the classical tradition in Latin poetry by such writers as Orosius and Augustine. In the later Middle Ages he is known mainly through the De raptu Proserpinae (The Rape of Proserpine), which was a common school-text for learning Latin.

Esdras. "After the Law had been burned by the Chaldeans and when the Jews had returned to Jerusalem, Esdras the scribe, inspired by the Divine Spirit, restored the books of the Old Testament, corrected all the volumes of the Law and the Prophets which had been corrupted by the gentiles, and arranged the whole of the Old Testament into twenty-two books, so that there might be just as many books of the Law as there were letters in the alphabet" (Isidore, Etymologiae 6.3.1-2, as quoted by Hugh, Didascalicon 4.4, trans. Taylor, p. 105).

Sulpices. Possibly Sulpicius Servius, author of love poems, mentioned by Horace and Ovid, or Sulpicius Camerinus, an epic poet mentioned by Ovid; though more likely Sulpicius Apollinaris, scholar, teacher of Aulus Gellius, author of learned letters, and verse summaries of the Aeneid and the plays of Terence. (See Oxford Classical Dictionary, p. 1023.) Recueil de Textes sur Saint Martin (Épinal, MS 73, fol.1) has an early twelfth-century illumination of Sulpitius dictating to Abbot Richer. Jean Porcher (French Miniatures, pl. 13) identifies the figure as Sulpicius Severus.

2407-12 Lists of authors, whether chroniclers or inditers, often appear in medieval works for edification. E.g., see Machaut's Le Livre dou Voir Dit, lines 5709-42, on inventors and lawgivers; 5743-60 on the seven wise men of Rome; and 5779-94, where the king instructs the lover through a list of writers on the difficulty that even the wisest men have in dealing with women who drive them mad with love and flirtation. Or TC 5.1792, where Chaucer sends his "litel bok" (5.1786) to kiss the steps of writers he would emulate. Here, in lines 2407 ff., Gower instructs his audience in the names of diverse early writers, without specifying their kinds of writing or intentions.

2408 Termegis. Macaulay (2.508) suggests that Termegis refers to Termegistus (i.e., Hermes Trismegistus) and is disyllabic with the stress on the final syllable. In his translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De Proprietatibus Rerum Trevisa cites Trismegistus variously as an authority on the soul, alchemy, and the geometry of God.

Pandulf. Curial historian, author of Liber Pontificalis, a collection of biographies of popes, beginning with St. Peter and continuing to the early twelfth century. Pandulf was nephew to Hugo of Alatari.

Frigidilles. I have not been able to establish who he might be. Dares of Phrygia, author of De Excidio Troiae Historia, on the fall of Troy, might be a possibility.

2409 Menander. The most famous Greek poet of the New Comedy, which prevailed after the death of Alexander the Great. Though he wrote over one hundred plays, only one survives. He was quoted by writers as diverse as Propertius and St. Paul. Most of the plays of Terence are avowedly derived from him. In the Middle Ages his name became synonymous with the writing of comedy, though no one in England would have seen a copy or read a translation. It is just a name with which to conjure.

Ephiloquorus. Hamilton suggests that "the name of Eutropius may be hidden under 'Ephiloquerius,'" a chronicler of "the stories of Romanes" mentioned in Jofroi's version of the Secreta Secretorum (pp. 340-41), a "chronique" Gower appears to have drawn upon repeatedly in Books 4 and 7. For Eutropius in lists of various medieval authorities see Hamilton, p. 341n3.

2410 Solins. Probably refers to Solinus rather than Solon, the sixth-century (B.C.) Athenian lawmaker, though Machaut cites "Solons dathennes" (Solon of Athens) in his list of the seven wise men of Rome (Machaut's Le Livre dou Voir Dit, lines 5751-52). But in CA 3.2600 ff., he is cited as a wise man of natural science, which suggests Solinus, the author of Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium, with all its curiosities of the natural world.

Pandas. I have been unable to identify this writer.

Josephus. First-century author of history of the Jews, often cited by early Christian commentators. He is frequently referred to by Higden and Trevisa (Polychronicon). He is mentioned by Chaucer, HF: "The Ebrayk Josephus the olde, / That of Jewes gestes tolde; / And he bar on hys shuldres hye / The fame up of the Jewerye" (lines 1433-36).

2413 Heredot. Herodotus, ancient Greek historian, called by some the "father of history," who recorded cultural events through observations of place and the construction of heroes, like Solon, Croesus, or Cleomenes. He was admired by Cicero, Lucius, and Quintillian for his sweet and beauteous style as well as his grandeur and emotional power.

2418 Jubal. According to Genesis 4:21, Jubal, brother to Tubalcain, is the inventor of the art of harp and organ playing. His name was commonly confused with that of his brother in the Middle Ages, the distinction being between Tubal and Tubalcain. E.g., Chaucer, "Tubal, / That found out first the art of songe; / For as hys brothres hamers ronge / Upon hys anvelt up and doun, / Therof he took the firste soun" (BD 1162-66). Or as Lydgate puts it: "Tubal was fadyr & fynder of song, / Of consonantes, and of armony. . . . For Tubal came furst þe melody / Of sugryd musyk, and of mynstralsy" ("A Pageant of Knowledge," in Minor Poems of John Lydgate, pp. 724-38, lines 66-70). Cursor Mundi refers to them as Cubal and Cubaltain. (I, T, and C are not always easily distinguishable in medieval hands.) As far as Jubal is concerned, however, Gower has it right.

2420 Poulins. Macaulay is surely right in identifying Poulins as Apollo, citing Pantheon 6, col. 157: "Apollo etiam citharam condidit et artem medicinalem invenit" (2:508) [Apollo invented the harp and the art of medicine]. See also Pantheon 6, col. 133: "Illis temporibus, Moses erat orbe superstes, / Tunc et Apollo fuit remouens medicamine pestes. / In cunctis medicus primus Apollow fuit" ["In those days Moses was living on earth, and then Apollo was taking away disease with medicine: Apollo was first of all as a doctor"], trans. Galloway. Lydgate, in "A Pageant of Knowledge," a work directly influenced by Gower's discussion of discovers and inventors, writes: "Phebus fond furst craft of medicine, / By touche of pounce, veyne, & inspeccions" (in Minor Poems of John Lydgate, pp. 724-38, lines 108-09). The initial vowel in Gower's naming of him has simply been dropped by aphaeresis.

2421 Zenzis. Zeuxis is commonly cited as the founder of portrait painting. See RR, lines 16155-79, a passage often fittingly illuminated with pictures of him painting from diverse models.

2422 Promotheus the sculpture. Trevisa explains the matter this way: "Me[n] saiþ þat Prometheus, Raptus his sone, and Atlas þe astronomere, his broþer, made men; so seiþ Ouidius in Magno; naþeles þat is i-seide, for of men þat were vnkonnynge and boistrous as bestes he made konnynge [men] and wise. Isidorus 13o. Also for me[n] redeþ þat he made ymages of men goo and walke in þe grounde by a certeyn craft" (Polychronicon 2:311). Macaulay (2:508) cites Godfrey of Viterbo. The passage is Pantheon 5, col. 143: "Tunc et Prometheus, qui filius est Atlantis / Dat statuas hominis humano more meantis" ["And then Prometheus, who is Atlas' son, provides statues of a man moving in a human manner"], trans. Galloway.

2425 Tubal in iren and in stel. See explanatory note to 4.2418 on the confusion of Tubal with his brother Jubal. Tubalcain, according to Genesis 4:22, is the first artificer in brass and iron. Cursor Mundi calls him "þe formast smyth" (line 1518).

2427 Jadahel. Jabal, son of Ada (Genesis 4:20). Macaulay (2:508-09) notes that Godfrey of Viterbo (Pantheon 2 col. 91) "calls him by the same name and makes the same statement about his hunting and fishing: In mundo Iadahel posuit tentoria primus, / Venator prior ipse fuit, feritate ferinus, / Primus et invalidid retia mersit aquis" ["Jadahel first established tents on earth; savage in his brutality, he was the first hunter; and he first submerged nets into yielding waters"], trans. Galloway.

2433 Verconius. I have not been able to identify this reference.

2435 Minerve. Compare 5.1202-03. The tradition of Minerva as inventor of cloth-making is strong: "They tell that the practice of fabric making was first shown the Greeks by Minerva, and they believe too that she designed the first loom, dyed fleece, and was the inventress of olive-growing and of handicraft" - Isidore, Etymologiae 19.20.1-2, as adapted by Hugh, Didascalicon 3.2 (trans. Taylor, p. 85). Or, Trevisa, Polychronicon: "þis mayde Pallas, þat heet Mynerua also, fonde vp meny craftes, and specialliche wolcraft, and was the li3tloker i-trowed a goddes. For me (men) wiste litel whennes sche come" (2:297). Compare Lydgate, "A Pageant of Knowledge" (in Minor Poems of John Lydgate, pp. 724-38), lines 87-88.

2437 Delbora made it of lyn. In CA 8.62 ff., she is identified as Adam and Eve's second daughter, who marries Abel. A prominent source for the idea is Methodius' Apocalypse, which is a principal source for Higden, in Polychronicon (2:221). Trevisa picks up on the idea in "Methodius: 'þe Bygynnyng of þe World and þe Ende of Worldes'" ("Methodius: 'þe Bygynnyng," p. 95). According to Polychronicon (2:221), Delbora and Abel were born in the thirtieth year (Brunetto, Tresor 1.20.2 says thirty-second year) of Adam's life and Seth in the hundred and thirtieth year. In Cursor Mundi, "Seth spoused his sister delbora" (line 1449), an idea that is repeated in line 1502, the idea being that after her first husband's death, she marries the brother, according to Hebrew law. I have found no precedent for her discovering how to make linen, though Lydgate follows Gower in declaring that "Delbora of lynen cloþe makyng / The practyke sought, bokes bere wytnesse" ("A Pageant of Knowledge," in Minor Poems of John Lydgate, pp. 724-38, lines 89-90). Given the purity of Seth's line in the ancestry of Christ, it makes sense to give the invention of linen to Delbora, since it is regarded as the purest of cloths, one not made from animals. See Gilroy (History of Silk), who cites Apuleius, Jerome, and Plutarch on the purity of the fabric and its use in religious vestments. Machaut's Le Livre dou Voir Dit says that Noema (a child of Lamech, see Genesis 4:22) invented linen-making and in her name fabric and cloth are fashioned (lines 5727-30). On the history of linen-making and its uses see Pliny, Naturalis historiae, 19.i-vi.

2439-56 Saturn is usually portrayed as cold, cruel, and malicious. See CA 7.935-41. Compare Chaucer's Knight's Tale CA 1(A)2443-78; or The Assembly of Gods, lines 279-87. But, under the governance of Jupiter he also has a gentle, benevolent side which Genius alludes to here. Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De Proprietatibus Rerum (trans. Trevisa, 8, cap. 12) begins: "Saturnus haþ þat name of saturando 'makynge fulness and plente: His wif hatte Opis of opulencia 'fulnes and plente' þat sche 3eueþ to man and beest, as Isidir seiþ and Marcianus also" (1.478). Given his affinity for opulence, mining and thus coin-making (lines 2448-55) are under his jurisdiction. See also Godfrey's Pantheon 6, cols. 117-18, cited in part by Macaulay (2:509):

Saturnus statuit super aequora vela moueri,
Denarios posuit commercia rite mereri.
Ipse prior clypeos mulitiis ante gerit.
Navibus Italiam prior hic ornasse putatur.
Aedificans Sutrium, dum vivit ibi dominatur,
Triticeum semen primus in urbe serens.
Saturnus natum latuisse Iovem recitatur.
In Sutrio latuit, Latium locus ille vocatur.

[Saturn established that sails would be moved across the waters; he established that commerce would properly merit using money. He first carried forward the shields of a soldier. He is thought to have first ornamented Italy with ships. Building Sutrium, he was lord there as long as he lived, first sowing wheat seed in the city. Saturn is said to have hidden his son Jupiter: in Sutrium he lay hidden; he calls the place "Latium"] (trans. Galloway).

 


2457 Latin marginalia: Nota de Alconomia. [Note concerning Alchemy.]

2468-78 In alchemy each of the seven planets is affiliated with a metal whose properties it shares. Compare Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman:

 

Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe,
Mars iren, Mercurie quyksilver we clepe,
Saturnus leed, and Juppiter is tyn,
And Venus coper, by my fader kyn! (CT VIII[G]826-29)
assert


And, as in Gower, the planets and their metals are affiliated with four spirits - quicksilver, orpyment, sal ammoniac, and brimstone. See CT VIII[G]820-24, and John Reidy's note to VIII[G]820 (The Riverside Chaucer, p. 950) along with his introduction to the tale (pp. 946-48), delineating possible sources (mainly translations from Arabic) for passages such as these in Chaucer and Gower, especially sources such as Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Naturale and Arnaldus de Villanova.

2472 Jupiter the bras bestoweth. Usually Jupiter is linked with tin. (See note to 4.2468-78, where Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman says tin and also the Lydgatian Assemblie of Gods, lines 269-71, where Jupiter has a crown of tin upon his head.) Bronze is an alloy of tin and copper. Perhaps the idea is that Jupiter is in one of his amorous or delicate moods, copper being "set . . . to Venus" (4.2473). This characterization of Jupiter is unusual. The only other instance linking Jupiter with bronze that I have been able to locate is in Christian de Pisan's Epistle of Othea (fable 6), which was written about a decade after Gower composed the line in CA. Chaucer uses double metals - "tynned yron" or "led and yron" in HF (lines 1482 and 1431) - to comment on Virgil (guided by Jupiter and Mars) and Josephus (under the influence of Saturn and Mars), though use of alloys in which the primary affiliation is hidden is less common.

2501 sevene formes. The seven are enumerated in lines 2513-18.

2533 Thre stones. Compare Lydgate, Secrees of Old Philisoffres, lines 530-34: "And of stoonys / Specially of three - / Oon myneral / Another vegatatyff . . . [and] Oon / was Callyd anymal." Steele suggests that "stoonys" here does not mean "stone," but rather "compound" and that these were three compounds used in medicine. He cites the Rosarium Philosophorum as a parallel text: "Tres sunt lapides, et tres sales sunt, exquibus totum magisterium consistis: Scilicet mineralis, plantalis, & animalis" (p. 93). [There are three stones, and three salts, from which all teaching is set firm: namely mineral, plant, and animal.] Some argued that there is only one potent stone, the philosopher's stone, called the Elixir, a three-in-one stone, with powers to cure the sick.

2534 ff. Latin marginalia: Nota de tribus lapidibus, quos philosophi composuerunt, quorum primus dicitur lapis vegetabilis, qui sanitatem conseruat, secundus dicitur lapis animalis, qui membra et virtutes sencibiles fortificat, tercius dicitur lapis mineralis, qui omnia metalla purificat et in suum perfectum naturali potencia deducit. [Note concerning the three stones that philosophers created, the first of which is called the vegetative stone, which preserves health; the second the animal stone, which fortifies the limbs and the senses; the third the mineral stone, which purifies all metals and leads them into its own perfection by its natural power.]

2571 to the rede and to the whyte. The final stages in alchemical transformation, to red gold or to white silver. In the most elaborate alchemical schemes, a "marriage" must occur between the Red Man and the White Woman-two forms of the philosopher's stone-to transform a base metal into gold or silver. It is not clear that Gower understands the more arcane symbolism of this science; for a late fifteenth-century effort to make it all clear to "lay-men" (line 2, p. 5), see Thomas Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy: e.g., "Then is the faire white woman / Mariede to the rodie mane" (5.2663-64). Gower's syntax shows that here rede is (as often in nonalchemical contexts) simply gold itself, and whyte is (as also in nonalchemical contexts) simply silver, in respect to both of which the philosopher's stone has "pouer to profite" (line 2572) (Galloway "Literature of 1388").

2606 Hermes. Presumably Hermes Trismegistus, the "inventer of alchemy," to whom many thirteenth and fourteenth century alchemal treatises such as the Emerald Tablet are attributed.

2608 Geber. Of the early Islamic alchemists, Geber is the most often cited, with over five hundred works attributed to him. One tenth-century Arab alchemist claimed he never existed; others have attempted to link him with Jabir (Abu Musa Dschabir Ben Hayan Ben Abdullah el-Sufi el-Tarsusi el-Kufi, an alchemist from the ancient city of Kufa, now in present-day Iraq), though some have attempted to place him in eighth-century Spain. Others say he traveled a lot, fearing to be in one place too long because of his skills in the arts. The work most often linked with his name in the fourteenth century is the Summa Perfectionis, a work M. P. E. Berthelot says is thoroughly Latin in origin and derives from the thirteenth century ("Géber et ses œvres alchimiques," 1:336-50). Macaulay (2:510) cites Super Artem Alkemie, a work on the refining of gold and silver, attributed to Geber in Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 1384 (SC 7578-87).

2609 Ortolan and Morien. Ortolan (also cited in alchemical treatises as Hortolanus) is a name sometimes used for John Garland, who was primarily a rhetorician. A treatise on alchemy, Compendium Alchimiae, was often attributed to him, though it was actually by one Martin Ortolan. Garland, it seems, gained not only an item for his bibliography but a new name as well. See Thorndike (History of Magic, vol. 3 [1934], ch. 11), on Ortolanus and his influence.

Morien "is said to have been a hermit in the mountains near Jerusalem. The two 'books of Morien' in the form of dialogues between him and Kalid the son of Gesid may be read in Latin (translated from Arabic) in MS. Digby 162" (Mac 2:510). See also Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 1416 (SC 7609-11), fols. 90r and 91r. Hermes, Geber, Ortolon, Morien, and Avicenna are frequently cited together in popular early to mid-fourteenth-century alchemical treatises such as Arnald of Villanova's various Rosaries, the Desiderabile Desiderium, attributed to John Dastin (mid-fourteenth century), and Petrus Bonus' Pretiosa Margarita Novella (c. 1330). See Thorndike (History of Magic, vol. 3, chs. 3-5).

2610 Avicen. Avicenna (980-1037) lived in Persia, the district of Bokhara. A great deal is known about his childhood and latter life. About one hundred treatises are attributed to him, many of which circulated in England in the fourteenth century. His best-known and most-copied work is his Canon of Medicine. Macaulay notes that a "short treatise of Avicen on Alchemy may be found in MS. Ashmole 1420" (2:510).

2624 the parfite medicine. The perfect medicine is that which has the capacity to transform the imperfect to completeness. As an alchemical idea it pertains to the "elixir" with its capacity to "werk to be parfit" (4.2576-77), the power to change base metals or alloys to silver or gold; it may also be affiliated with the philosopher's stone that can transmute metals or be medicine to restore (refine) health or life, whether to metals or creatures.

2637 Carmente. Evander's wife, a prophetess, and, according to Hyg. 278, the mother of Cadmus. She brought an alphabet of fifteen letters, based on Cadmus' Greek alphabet, to the Latins. See Godfrey of Viterbo, Pantheon 6, col. 159: "Post [Faunum] regnavit Latinus, cuius mater nomine Carmentis, nympha, literas Latinas invenit" ["after Faunus Latinus reigned, whose mother was the nymph Carmentis, who invented Latin letters"], trans. Galloway. See also Tacitus, Annales 11.14, and Isidore, Etymologiae 1.4.l, 5.39.1. Martianus Capella derives her name from carmen (a song or prophetic chant) because she "got her name from the songs she poured out as prophesies" (vol. 2, p. 53). Gower referred to Carmente earlier in the CA Prologue, Latin verses i, line 4; see explanatory note, vol. 1, p. 284.

2640 Aristarchus. Aristarchus of Samothrace, head of the library at Alexandria, was reputed to be "extremely scholarly," the one with whom scientific scholarship began (Oxford Classical Dictionary, p. 159). He wrote commentaries on Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and Greek dramatists. He was viewed by medieval writers as a great schoolman.

2641 Donat and Dindimus. Aelius Donatus, fourth-century teacher of St. Jerome, was the most influential grammarian. His Ars Minor introduces beginning students of Latin to the eight parts of speech and grammatical functions; the Ars Maior is more advanced and includes sections on flaws and virtues of speech. He also wrote commentaries on Terence and Virgil (Oxford Classical Dictionary, pp. 494-95). Dindimus is Didymus (first century B.C.), a student of Aristarchus at Alexandria, who is said to have written between thirty-five and four thousand works - redactions, commentaries, lexicography, grammar studies on orthography and inflections, synopses of Solon, and others (Oxford Classical Dictionary, pp. 467-68).

2648 Tullius with Cithero. Gower seems to consider Tully and Cicero to be two different people. See Macaulay's note (2:510). Compare CA 7.1588-1606, where Tullius is a rhetorician and watchman over rules of order, and Cithero a Roman consul in debate over the execution of Catiline and his coconspirators.

2654 Jerom. The translator of the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate). He was a student of Donatus.

2668-69 in poesie / To the lovers Ovide wrot. The allusion is to such works in general as Amores, Ars Amatoria, and the Remedia Amoris, though love lies at the heart of the Heroides and many of the tales in the Metamorphosis, Gower's two most favored sources.

2669-71 To the lovers Ovide wrote / . . . if love be to hot, / In what manere it scholde akiele. Ovid's Remedium Amoris parodically sets itself to disenchant lovers; it was much revered in medieval culture as an indication that Ovid at some point had transformed his licentious morality, evident in such works as the Ars Amatoria, into a more nearly Christian morality (AG).

2675-79 See Simpson (1995, pp. 150-51) on reading and consent. "Amans's reply insists on the connection between desire and literary understanding . . . Amans, then, as desire, desires only the fulfillment of his very self" (p. 151). Genius, as "enformer" (see 2.2496-500), must find the means whereby he can "enforme" him.

2676 I wolde his bokes rede. See Simpson (Sciences and the Self, pp. 230-71) on issues of reading as a key factor in Gower's poetic, a poetic rooted in imagination: "What else is the Confessio Amantis than, at one level, an extended and extremely subtle account of the psychology of reading?" (p. 254). See also 4.875-88 as an account of the components of reading, and 7.5411-19 on Amans' difficulty in being an attentive reader/listener. "The end of the play . . . reveals the way in which the imagination plays an intricate part in the process of psychic reintegration" (p. 269).

2706 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur de Sompnolencia, que Accidie Cameraria dicta est, cuius natura semimortua alicuius negocii vigilias obseruare soporifero torpore recusat: vnde quatenus amorem concernit Confessor Amanti diligencius opponit. [Here he speaks concerning Somnolence, which is called the chamberlain of Sloth, whose half-dead nature it is to excuse itself by sleepy torpor from observing the vigils of any business. Wherefore the Confessor very diligently questions the Lover as far as this concerns love.] The phrasing "observing the vigils" metaphorically invokes an evening religious service that Somnolence has missed by falling asleep.

2795 rede and here of Troilus. Lovers are often presented as wishful readers where the subject of their text offers an unheeded warning. E.g., in Dante's Inferno 5, lines 127-38, where Paolo and Francesca are reading the romance of Lancelot ("Galeotto fu l'libro e chi lo scrisse" - "A pimp was the book and he who wrote it") when they are caught and murdered by her husband. In Chaucer's TC Criseyde is reading the ominous "romaunce . . . of Thebes" (2.100) when Pandarus approaches her with his "uncle" proposition. In a felicitous touch Gower has Amans' fantasy feasting on the story of Troilus (presumably from Chaucer's text, which was dedicated to Gower), as the lover panders his imagination with happy love thoughts, heedless of the poem's dark conclusion.

2855 Ha, whi ne were it day? Gower gives Amans' alba a comic twist. In most auroral complaints, lovers are conventionally happily in bed together, lamenting the approach of dawn. E.g., the Prayer of Cephalus (CA 4.3187-3252), which fulfills the conventions exactly, as Cephalus literally lies in bed with Aurora, beseeching Apollo to hold back the sun. See also TC 3.1450-63, where Troilus bemoans the coming of "cruel day" (3.1450) that will separate him from his Criseyde; or The Reeve's Tale, where Aleyn laments "Fare weel, Malyne, sweete wight! / The day is come; I may no lenger byde" (CT I[A]4236-37); or where Romeo and Juliet, in Shakespeare's play (3.5), try to convince themselves that the lark is a nightingale so that the night might last. Here the poor solitary Amans laments the duration of night, yearning for day, though also thinking, in his restless frustration "upon the nyhtingale" (4.2872).

2876-83 See Olsson ("Love, Intimacy, and Gower," pp. 73-77) on Amans' fantasies of stolen love, his fear of opposition, and the marketplace conception of his desires, which are intimate and secure for him only insofar as they remain mental, fictive, and private. In their "world of unsecured truths and shape-shifting fictions, the only constant is an unstable carnal appetite that willy-nilly fosters physical intimacy" (p. 78).

2903 Danger is left behinde. Loss of inhibition is often a feature of the psychology of medieval literary dreams. See RR, lines 2411-35, where the lover, in his dreams, holds his beloved quite naked in his arms; or the condition where, in his mind, he does all that he desires to do, with no constraint from the woman (lines 21553-750).

2927 ff. The story of Ceïx and Alceone is based on Ovid, Met. 11.266-748. Compare Chaucer's retelling of the tale in Book of the Duchess, lines 62-220, especially the descent into the cave of sleep, and also the storm scene in VC 1.1663-94. Gower may be working from Chaucer here, but that does not inhibit his own powers of invention.

Latin marginalia: Hic ponit exemplum, qualiter Sompnia prenostice veritatis quandoque certitudinem figurant. Et narrat quod, cum Ceix Rex Trocinie pro reformacione fratris sui Dedalionis in Ancipitrem transmutati peregre proficiscens in mari longius a patria dimersus fuerat, Ivno mittens Yridem nunciam suam in partes Chymerie ad domum Sompni, iussit quod ipse Alceone dicti Regis vxori huius rei euentum per Sompnia certificaret. Quo facto Alceona rem perscrutans corpus mariti sui, vbi super fluctus mortuus iactabatur, inuenit; que pre dolore angustiata cupiens corpus amplectere, in altum mare super ipsum prosiliit. Vnde dii miserti amborum corpora in aues, que adhuc Alceones dicte sunt, subito conuerterunt. [Here he presents an instructive example concerning how dreams sometimes represent the certainty of truth, prognosticatively. And he narrates that when Ceix, king of Trocinia, was drowned on behalf of his brother Dedalion, who had been transformed into a hawk while traveling by sea very far from his country, Juno, sending Yris her messenger into the regions of Chymeria to the house of Sleep, ordered that her messenger should certify the outcome of this matter through dreams to Alceona, the king's wife. When this was done, Alceona, investigating the matter, discovered her husband's body where it had been tossed up dead on the waves; and she, longing to embrace the body, in wrenching grief threw herself into the deep sea after it. Wherefore the gods, pitying them, immediately transformed both their bodies into birds, which to this day are called "halcyons."]

2930 hire oghne hertes lif. Bakalian reiterates her proposition that this tale, like those of Penelope, Alcestis, and Lucrece, emphasizes the virtues of true marriage - the authority, dignity, holiness, and honor. Neither Ceix nor Alceone are guilty of Sloth, but, rather, they embody its remedy (Aspects of Love, p. 46). Indeed, we might turn to the Mirour de L'Omme to understand the virtuous behavior they embody that cures Sloth - their Prouesce (MO, lines 14101-15180) and her children: Alceone in her diligence stands "Vigile, contre le vice de Sompnolence" (MO, lines 14101-10); she is magnanimous rather than indolent (Peresce, MO, lines 14197-98) as she pursues her lost husband through prayers and vision; and her love is constant, rather than lazy (Lacheté, MO, lines 14318-19), and solicitous rather than idle (Oedivesce, MO, lines 14401-06), as she flies over the water to reach him. In sum, her/their behavior is knowing and wise (Science), rather than negligent, full of conscience and intelligence, reason and remembrance (MO, lines 14592-604).

2979-81 Bennett points out that Caxton, in his translation of Ovid, follows Gower's account of Iris' visit to the cave of Morpheus, borrowing such descriptive phrases as reyny cope (line 2979) and colours of diverse hewe (line 2981) in his "And dyde on his rayne cope" and description of the bend of the rainbow "dyversly colowred" ("Caxton and Gower," p. 216). See also note to 4.3014b-19.

3009-14a The soporific effects of the running stream of Lethe Gower takes from Ovid, Met. 2.602-04: "muta quies habitat; saxo tamen exit ab imo / rivus aquae Lethes, per quem cum murmure labens" [ "There mute silence dwells. But from the bottom of the cave there flows the stream of Lethe, whose waves gently murmuring over the gravelly bed, invite to slumber"], 4.163.

3014b-19 Again, the details follow Ovid, Met. 11.610-12:

at medio torus est ebano sublimis in antro,
plumeus, atricolor, pullo velmine tectus,
quo cubat ipse deus membris languore solutis.
[But in the cavern's central space there is a high couch of ebony, downy soft, black-hued, spread with a dusky coverlet] (trans. Miller, 4.163).

Gower's hebenus that slepi tree (line 3017) is a felicitous touch, as if, besides its soft, black, nighttime properties, it has a medicinal slepi quality. Trevisa/Bartolomaeus, De Proprietatibus Rerum 17.52, says that ebenus makes a soft, sweet-smelling smoke and that it is good as a purge and for "comforte"; in a salve (collirium), it "helpeþ yhen" (2.944), but no mention is made of its being a soporific. Caxton admired the line and borrowed from it in his "The cowche was made of Hebenus that sleepy tree" (Bennett, "Caxton and Gower," p. 216). Henry Bradley ("'Cursed Hebenon,'" pp. 85-86) suggests Gower's line as source for Marlowe's "jouyce of Hebon" (Jew of Malta 3.4.103), which in turn lies behind Shakespeare's potent juice of hebona that Claudius pours in old Hamlet's ear. Spenser may also have hebonus that slepi tree in mind in Faerie Queene 2.7.52, where the tree of "Heben sad" grew in the Garden of Proserpina, surrounded by "a blacke flood which . . . is the river of Cocytus deepe." All three Renaissance writers could have, of course, been drawing upon Caxton, without knowing the original source of the phrase.

3020-21 fethrebed alofte . . . with many a pilwe of doun. Compare Chaucer's BD, lines 248-55, where the narrator offers gifts of a featherbed, black satin coverlet, pillows, and striped pillowcases to the gods if they will grant him sleep. Apparently Gower's Iris made her journey after Chaucer's narrator fulfilled his pledge! Ovid mentions no featherbed or pillows, though the ebony bed is "plumeus" and has a dark coverlet (Met. 2.611).

3059-62 In liknesse of hir housebonde . . . / These othre tuo it schewen al. The orchestration of the dream, with Morpheus' different helpers playing different roles and maneuvering stage-scenery, resembles a courtly "Disguising" or "Interlude," various names for brief plays. For brief descriptions and further references, see Wickham (Medieval Theatre, pp. 159-66, 169-75.) (See also Galloway, "Literature of 1388.")

3088 double harm. A grief two times over. Compare TC 1.1: "The double sorwe of Troilus."

3114 Hir will stod as it was tofore. Pearsall contrasts Ovid's transformations with Gower's, where though her body changes to "briddes forme" (line 3109), Alcyone's will remains unchanged, "an affirmation of the pathetic endurance of wifely fidelity" (1966, p. 480).

3187 ff. Amans' Prayer of Cephalus is based, perhaps, on Ovid's Amores, 1.13.39-40, though there the situation is reversed, with Aurora invoking the steeds of night. The lover's aubade is apparently original for the most part with Gower. Saturn's metal is lead; it is thus associated with dullness and slowness. Cephalus would have the sun residing under Saturn's influence in order that it might be slow getting up. See Specht on the rhetorical prescriptions of adlocutio (dramatic soliloquy that impersonates an appeal for pity).

3190 ff. Latin Marginalia. Hic dicit quod vigilia in Amantibus et non Sompnolencia laudanda est. Et ponit exemplum de Cephalo filio Phebi, qui nocturno cilencio Auroram amicam suam diligencius amplectens, Solem et lunam interpellabat, videlicet quod Sol in circulo ab oriente distanciori currum cum luce sua retardaret, et quod luna spera sua longissima orbem circuiens noctem continuaret; ita vt ipsum Cephalum amplexibus Aurore volutum, priusquam dies illa illucesceret, suis deliciis adquiescere diucius permittere dignarentur. [Here he says that wakefulness, not Somnolence, should be praised among lovers. And he presents an instructive example concerning Cephalus the son of Phebus, who, in the silence of night embracing his girlfriend Aurora most amorously, called out to the sun and moon, asking, namely, that the sun might slow down its chariot with his light in making an orbit more distant from the east, and that the moon, traveling an orbit with a very long trajectory, might prolong the night, so that they might deign to permit Cephalus, wrapped in the embraces of Aurora, to enjoy his pleasures longer before the day arrived.]

3240-42 nyhtes mone and the goddesse . . . in Cancro thin oghne hous. Luna (moon, Diana) is at home only in Cancer, the fourth mansion, the house of treasures and terminations. If Luna and Venus share Cancer in gladness (4.3245), it is a happy and profitable time for lovers (Walter Clyde Curry, Chaucer and the Medieval Sciences [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926], pp. 173-75).

3269 Of all his dette he paieth non. The "conjugal debt" is sex, as the common medieval interpretation of 1 Corinthians 7:3 asserted; for contemporary literary comments, see, e.g., The Wife of Bath's Prologue, CT III(D)129-30, and The Parson's Tale CT X(I)375.

3317 ff. For the story of Mercury and Argus see Ovid, Metam. 1.588-721. The author of Chaucer's Ghoast (1672) uses lines 3317-52 as the basis of his "translation" of Ovid's story of Io and Argus.

Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur in amoris causa contra istos qui Sompnolencie dediti ea que seruare tenentur amittunt. Et narrat quod, cum Yo puella pulcherima a Iunone in vaccam transformata et in Argi custodiam sic deposita fuisset, superueniens Mercurius Argum dormientem occidit, et ipsam vaccam a pastura rapiens, quo voluit secum perduxit. [Here he speaks in the cause of love against those who, having given themselves over to Somnolence, lose those things which they are held to preserve. And he narrates that, when Io, a very beautiful young woman, was transformed into a cow by Juno and had been thus deposited in the custody of Argus, Mercury intervened, killing Argus while he was asleep, and snatching the cow from the pasture, leading her with him where he wanted.]

3321 the goddesse. In Ovid, Jupiter turns Io into a cow to hide her from Juno. In Gower Juno turns her into a cow, setting up Argus as watchman, as a punishment for infidelity.

3354 mochel Slep doth ofte wo. Genius' aptitude for gnomic statements serves well to conclude the narrative in terms of his particular goals. The tale becomes a survey of sleepy choices in which its folk lose themselves through somnolence.

3390 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur super vltima specie Accidie, que Tristicia siue Desperacio dicitur, cuius obstinata condicio tocius consolacionis spem deponens, alicuius remedii, quo liberari poterit, fortunam sibi euenire impossibile credit. [Here he speaks against the last species of Sloth, which is called Sadness or Despair, whose obstinate character it is to put away the hope of any consolation, and to believe that the good fortune of any remedy, by which it might be freed, could not possibly come to it.]

3396 Tristesce. "Gower's addition of Despair as a seventh child of Envy is a master stroke. It provides fitting conclusion to the first half of the Confessio . . . . Amans shares more than he would like to see with Dido and Phyllis, those lovers strung up between hope and suicide" (Peck, Kingship and Common Profit, p. 96). N.b., the variety of terms Genius uses to define this sin: obstinacie (4.3434), wanhope (4.3443), desesperance (4.3499), despeire (4.3541), which he twice rhymes with empeire (4.3505, 4.3542), to get at the potent impairment of dwindling effects caused by tristesce, as it leans toward suicide.

3434 ff. Latin marginalia: Obstinacio est contradiccio veritatis agnite. [Obstinacy is the rejection of recognizing the truth.]

3489-95 David Allen, remarking on the analogy of Amans' love of his lady, who offers him no hope, and the penitent Christian's hope for divine grace, suggests that Amans makes a stride forward by intuiting "the flaw in the analogy between earthly and heavenly love upon which his entire confession is based" ("God's Faithfulness," p. 210).

3498-99 I am in Tristesce al amidde / And fulfild of Desesperance. "Genius ends the book with the tale of Iphis' suicide outside the gate of his would-be mistress, Araxarathen, who refuses to recognize him. It is a fit emblem of the lover of fantasy's fate. Though Genius may not have a very full understanding of the moral implications of this tale of self-destruction through indulgence of willful fantasy, his example at least shows Amans the futility of despondency. That is in itself some consolation" (Peck 1978, p. 97).

3515 ff. See Ovid, Met. 14.698-761. Gower reverses the social rank of the lover and his mistress. In Ovid, Anaxarete is highborn while the youth is lowborn. Ovid's lady feels no remorse; she is simply turned into a stone as she sees the funeral pass by her window. See Macaulay's discussion (2:513), but, especially that of David Allen, who argues thoughtfully that Gower uses the tale in its altered form to introduce theological considerations on the efficacy of God's volition. The Tale of Iphis at the beginning of Book 4 suggested that the god of love is favorable to those stable in love (see 4.443-44). The opposite seems to be the case here, as nothing this Iphis does can move Araxarathen. By reversing the social rank of the lover and mistress Gower ties the story more directly into the debate over God's potential and absolute powers. (See explanatory note to 4.3577-80.) "Amans has given himself over to a being . . . of absolute power" who rejects him absolutely; but all the while he imagines that "the lady has ordained a way for him to win her favors," according to the ordination of the Christian God ("God's Faithfulness," p. 218). Amans thus stands "in a state of complete contradiction" (p. 219), his labor being sloth rather than true "busynesse." See also Burke ("Women in John Gower's Confessio," pp. 248-50).

3518 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic narrat qualiter Iphis, Regis Theucri filius, ob amorem cuiusdam puelle nomine Araxarathen, quam neque donis aut precibus vincere potuit, desperans ante patris ipsius puelle ianuas noctanter se suspendit. Vnde dii commoti dictam puellam in lapidem durissimum transmutarunt, quam Rex Theucer vna cum filio suo apud Ciuitatem Salamynam in templo Veneris pro perpetua memoria sepeliri et locari fecit. [Here he narrates how Iphis, the son of King Theucer, on account of love for a certain girl, Araxarathen by name, whom he was not able to conquer by gifts or pleas, in despair hanged himself one night before the doors of the father of the said girl. Wherefore, the gods, moved, transmuted the said girl into a most hard stone, which King Theucer caused to be located and buried along with his son in the temple of Venus in the city of Salamyna, in perpetual memory.]

3577-80 David Allen links the wording here to the death of another king's son, Christ, who dies "showing his love for an inferior, humanity" ("God's Faithfulness," p. 213). Similar readings of the story are found in the Ovide Moralisé, especially 14.5601-05; whereas William Donald Reynolds points out that the reader is instructed to "say allegorically that this girl is the soul, this young man Christ who was hung on the gibbet of the cross for love of her" ("Ovidius Moralizatus," p. 414).

3627-28 And as I dede, do to me. / For I ne dede no pité. In Ovid, Anaxarete is "unmoved by her lover's fate." In Gower, "stricken with remorse" over her lack of pity, Araxarathen follows the golden rule and begs for punishment. "She behaves, in fact, like a lady" (Pearsall, "Gower's Narrative Art," pp. 480-81).

3648-66 See Lynch's discussion of this vivid description with which Genius concludes his tale. The descriptive technique differs from the rest of the tale, written in a plain style, with little pictorial material (pp. 173-76). Lynch calls the tale an epitome of the way Gower points his narratives.

JOHN GOWER, CONFESSIO AMANTIS, BOOK 4: TEXTUAL NOTES

Abbreviations: A = Bodleian Library MS Bodley 902 (SC 27573), fols. 2r-183r; B = Bodleian Library MS Bodley 294 (SC 2449), fols. 1r-197r; C = Oxford, Corpus Christi College MS 67, fols. 1r-209r; F = Bodleian Library MS Fairfax 3 (SC 3883; copy-text for this edition), fols. 2r-186r; J = Cambridge, St. John's College MS B.12 (34), fols. 1r-214r; Mac = G. C. Macaulay; S = Stafford, now Ellesmere 26, fols. 1r-169v; T = Cambridge, Trinity College MS R.3.2 (581), fols. 1r-147v.


65 Lachesse. So F, S, and B; Mac: lachesce.

86 remembrance. So in S; F: remebrance; J and B: remembraunce.

138 mihte. So in F and A. Mac emends to miht as in J and S.

170 Hath. F: Had. Mac's emendation on the basis of other good MSS.

187 Lachesce. So in F, S, and B; Mac: Lachesse.

269 Althogh. So in J and S; F: All thogh, followed by Mac; B: Al þough.

317 Latin marginalia, line 2: ymaginatiua. F: ymaginatitiua; B: ymaginatiue.

514 mihte. So in F, A, and S; Mac: miht; J: myht; B: might.

584 out. So in B and Mac; F: ouht; S: out fro.

586 al. So in F, S, and B; Mac: all.

684 To. So in F; J, S, B, and Mac: That.

708 what. So in J, S, B, and Mac; F: whatt.

833 al. So in F, J, S, and B; Mac: all.

1031 necligent. So in F and B; S and Mac: necgligent.

1222 Mi. So in F and S; Mac: my, as in B. Also in line 2675.

1224 Mac omits the speech marker.

1321 faye. Several good MSS read: faire. See Mac 2.337.

1321-22 J reads: The beaute of hir face shon / Wel brihtur þen þe cristel ston.

1336 thei. So in F, S, and B; Mac: they.

1568 hir. So in F, S, and B; Mac: her.

1592 mai. So in F and S; Mac and B: may. So too in lines 2308 and 3176.

1619 ff. Latin marginalia, line 2: torpescat. F: nultenus. Mac's emendation.

1805 knyhthode. So in S and Mac; F: knyhode; J: knyghthode; S: knighthode.

1838 Bot. So in S; Mac and B: But; J: Bote. So too in line 3266.

1875 to the(e) (two words). So in J, C, and B; F, A, and Mac: tothe.

1893 lust. So in J, S, B, A, and Mac; F: luste.

1944 be slain. So in J, S, B, and Mac; F: beslain.

2010 made. So in F and B. Mac emends to mad, as in A, J, C, and T.

2183ff. Latin marginalia, line 1: Turnum. So in B; F: Turnuum. Mac emends silently.

2251 eldemoder. Several good MSS read eldirmodor, or some variant. J: elde modor; S: eldemoder; B: olde moder. See Mac 2.362.

2324 a wise. So in J, S, B, and Mac; F: awise.

2503 remenant. So in B and Mac; F: rememant.

2512 left. So in J, B, and Mac; F: lefte.

2534 ferst. So in F, J, and A. Mac emends to ferste, with support from S.

2534 ff. Latin marginalia, line 3: qui membra. So in B and Mac; F: que membra.

2642 and. Mac emends to as, following S and B.

2743 schal. So in J, B, and Mac; F: shal.

2867 him. So in J and Mac; F and B: hem.

3233 Thi. So in J, S, B, and Mac; F: This.

3427 grete. So in F and A. Mac emends to gret, with support from J, C, and B.

3437 resoun. So in F and B; Mac: reson.

3445 Til. So in F, J, and B; Mac: Till.

3515 Whilom. So in S, B, and Mac; J: Somtyme.

3560 mannes. So in S, B, and Mac; F: manes; J: monnes.

3576 slepest. So in J, S, B, and Mac; F: sleplest.

3596 syh. Mac emends to syhe, in accord with A, J, S, and B.

3607-08 vengance/chance. So in S; F and Mac: vengance/chaunce; B: vengaunce/chaunce.

3678 a man. So in J, B, and Mac; F: aman.

 

 

 

        
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Confessio Amantis: Book 4

by: John Gower (Author) , Russell A. Peck (Editor) , Andrew Galloway (Translator)

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Incipit Liber Quartus

Dicunt accidiam fore nutricem viciorum,
   Torpet et in cunctis tarda que lenta bonis:
Que fieri possent hodie transfert piger in cras,
   Furatoque prius ostia claudit equo.
Poscenti tardo negat emolumenta Cupido,
   Set Venus in celeri ludit amore viri.1

"Upon the vices to procede
After the cause of mannes dede,
The ferste point of Slowthe I calle
Lachesce, and is the chief of all,
And hath this propreliche of kinde,
To leven alle thing behinde.
Of that he mihte do now hier
He tarieth al the longe yer,
And everemore he seith, 'Tomorwe';
And so he wol his time borwe,
And wissheth after 'God me sende,'
That whan he weneth have an ende,
Thanne is he ferthest to beginne.
Thus bringth he many a meschief inne
Unwar, til that he be meschieved,
And may noght thanne be relieved.
   And riht so nowther mor ne lesse
It stant of love and of lachesce.
Somtime he slowtheth in a day
That he nevere after gete mai.
Now, sone, as of this ilke thing,
If thou have eny knowleching
That thou to love hast don er this,
Tell on."
       "Mi goode fader, yis.
As of lachesce I am beknowe
That I mai stonde upon his rowe,
As I that am clad of his suite.
For whanne I thoghte mi poursuite
To make, and therto sette a day
To speke unto the swete May,
Lachesce bad abide yit
And bar on hond it was no wit
Ne time for to speke as tho.
Thus with his tales to and fro
Mi time in tariinge he drowh.
Whan ther was time good ynowh,
He seide, 'Another time is bettre;
Thou schalt mowe senden hire a lettre,
And per cas wryte more plein
Than thou be mowthe durstest sein.'
Thus have I lete time slyde
For Slowthe, and kepte noght my tide,
So that Lachesce with his vice
Fulofte hath mad my wit so nyce,
That what I thoghte speke or do
With tariinge he hield me so,
Til whanne I wolde and mihte noght.
I not what thing was in my thoght,
Or it was drede, or it was schame;
Bot evere in ernest and in game
I wot ther is long time passed.
Bot yit is noght the love lassed
Which I unto mi ladi have;
For thogh my tunge is slowh to crave
At alle time, as I have bede,
Min herte stant evere in o stede
And axeth besiliche grace,
The which I mai noght yit embrace.
And God wot that is malgré myn;
For this I wot riht wel a fin,
Mi grace comth so selde aboute,
That is the Slowthe of which I doute
Mor than of al the remenant
Which is to love appourtenant.
And thus as touchende of Lachesse,
As I have told, I me confesse
To you, mi fader, and beseche
That furthermor ye wol me teche;
And if ther be to this matiere
Som goodly tale for to liere
How I mai do Lachesce aweie,
That ye it wolden telle I preie."
    "To wisse thee, my sone, and rede,
Among the tales whiche I rede,
An old ensample therupon
Now herkne, and I wol tellen on.

[The Tale of Aeneas and Dido]

   Agein Lachesce in loves cas
I finde how whilom Eneas,
Whom Anchises to sone hadde,
With gret navie, which he ladde
Fro Troie, aryveth at Cartage,
Wher for a while his herbergage
He tok; and it betidde so,
With hire which was qweene tho
Of the cité his aqueintance
He wan, whos name in remembrance
Is yit, and Dido sche was hote,
Which loveth Eneas so hote
Upon the wordes whiche he seide,
That al hire herte on him sche leide
And dede al holi what he wolde.
   Bot after that, as it be scholde,
Fro thenne he goth toward Ytaile
Be schipe, and there his arivaile
Hath take, and schop him for to ryde.
Bot sche, which mai noght longe abide
The hote peine of loves throwe,
Anon withinne a litel throwe
A lettre unto hir kniht hath write,
And dede him pleinly for to wite,
If he made eny tariinge,
To drecche of his ageincomynge,
That sche ne mihte him fiele and se,
Sche scholde stonde in such degré
As whilom stod a swan tofore,
Of that sche hadde hire make lore;
For sorwe a fethere into hire brain
She schof and hath hireselve slain:
As king Menander in a lay
The sothe hath founde, wher sche lay
Sprantlende with hire wynges tweie,
As sche which scholde thanne deie
For love of him which was hire make.
    'And so schal I do for thi sake,'
This qweene seide, 'wel I wot.'
Lo, to Enee thus sche wrot
With many another word of pleinte.
Bot he, which hadde hise thoghtes feinte
Towardes love and full of Slowthe,
His time lette, and that was rowthe.
For sche, which loveth him tofore,
Desireth evere more and more,
And whan sche sih him tarie so,
Hire herte was so full of wo,
That compleignende manyfold
Sche hath hire oghne tale told
Unto hirself, and thus sche spak:
'Ha, who fond evere such a lak
Of Slowthe in eny worthi kniht?
Now wot I wel my deth is diht
Thurgh him which scholde have be mi lif.'
Bot for to stinten al this strif,
Thus whan sche sih non other bote,
Riht evene unto hire herte rote
A naked swerd anon sche threste,
And thus sche gat hireselve reste
In remembrance of alle slowe.

   Wherof, my sone, thou mihte knowe
How tariinge upon the nede
In loves cause is for to drede;
And that hath Dido sore aboght,
Whos deth schal evere be bethoght.
And overmore if I schal seche
In this matiere another spieche,
In a cronique I finde write
A tale which is good to wite.

[The Tale of Ulysses and Penelope]

   At Troie whan king Ulixes
Upon the siege among the pres
Of hem that worthi knihtes were
Abod long time stille there,
In thilke time a man mai se
How goodli that Penolope,
Which was to him his trewe wif,
Of his Lachesce was pleintif;
Wherof to Troie sche him sende
Hire will be lettre, thus spekende:
    'Mi worthi love and lord also,
It is and hath ben evere so,
That wher a womman is alone,
It makth a man in his persone
The more hardi for to wowe,
In hope that sche wolde bowe
To such thing as his wille were,
Whil that hire lord were elleswhere.
And of miself I telle this:
For it so longe passed is,
Sithe ferst than ye fro home wente,
That welnyh every man his wente
To there I am, whil ye ben oute,
Hath mad, and ech of hem aboute,
Which love can, my love secheth,
With gret preiere and me besecheth.
And some maken gret manace,
That if thei mihten come in place
Wher that thei mihte here wille have,
Ther is nothing me scholde save,
That thei ne wolde werche thinges;
And some tellen me tidynges
That ye ben ded, and some sein
That certeinly ye ben besein
To love a newe and leve me.
Bot hou as evere that it be,
I thonke unto the goddes alle,
As yit for oght that is befalle
Mai no man do my chekes rede.
Bot natheles it is to drede,
That Lachesce in continuance
Fortune mihte such a chance,
Which no man after scholde amende.'
Lo, thus this ladi compleignende
A lettre unto hire lord hath write,
And preyde him that he wolde wite
And thenke hou that sche was al his,
And that he tarie noght in this,
Bot that he wolde his love aquite,
To hire ageinward and noght wryte
Bot come himself in alle haste,
That he non other paper waste,
So that he kepe and holde his trowthe
Withoute lette of eny Slowthe.
   Unto hire lord and love liege
To Troie, wher the grete siege
Was leid, this lettre was conveied.
And he, which wisdom hath pourveied
Of al that to reson belongeth,
With gentil herte it underfongeth.
And whan he hath it overrad,
In part he was riht inly glad,
And ek in part he was desesed.
Bot love his herte hath so thorghsesed
With pure ymaginacioun,
That for non occupacioun
Which he can take on other side,
He mai noght flitt his herte aside
Fro that his wif him hadde enformed;
Wherof he hath himself conformed
With al the wille of his corage
To schape and take the viage
Homward, what time that he mai,
So that him thenketh of a day
A thousand yer, til he mai se
The visage of Penolope,
Which he desireth most of alle.
And whan the time is so befalle
That Troie was destruid and brent,
He made non delaiement,
Bot goth him home in alle hihe,
Wher that he fond tofore his yhe
His worthi wif in good astat.
And thus was cessed the debat
Of love, and Slowthe was excused,
Which doth gret harm, where it is used,
And hindreth many a cause honeste.
   
[The Great Clerk Grosseteste]

   For of the grete clerc Grossteste

I rede how besy that he was
Upon clergie an hed of bras
To forge, and make it for to telle
Of suche thinges as befelle.
And sevene yeres besinesse
He leyde, bot for the Lachesse,
Of half a minut of an houre,
Fro ferst that he began laboure
He loste all that he hadde do.
   And otherwhile it fareth so,
In loves cause who is slow,
That he withoute under the wow
Be nyhte stant fulofte acold,
Which mihte if that he hadde wold
His time kept, have be withinne.

[The Foolish Virgins]

   Bot Slowthe mai no profit winne,

Bot he mai singe in his karole
How Latewar cam to the dole,2
Wher he no good receive mihte.
And that was proved wel be nyhte
Whilom of the maidenes fyve,
Whan thilke lord cam for to wyve.
For that here oyle was aweie
To lihte here lampes in his weie,
Here Slowthe broghte it so aboute,
Fro him that thei ben schet withoute.
   Wherof, my sone, be thou war,
Als ferforth as I telle dar.
For love moste ben awaited.
And if thou be noght wel affaited
In love to eschuie Slowthe,
Mi sone, for to telle trowthe,
Thou miht noght of thiself ben able
To winne love or make it stable,
Althogh thou mihtest love achieve."
    "Mi fader, that I mai wel lieve.
Bot me was nevere assigned place,
Wher yit to geten eny grace,
Ne me was non such time apointed;
For thanne I wolde I were unjoynted
Of every lime that I have,
If I ne scholde kepe and save
Min houre bothe and ek my stede,
If my ladi it hadde bede.
Bot sche is otherwise avised
Than grante such a time assised;
And natheles of mi lachesse
Ther hath be no defalte I gesse
Of time lost, if that I mihte.
Bot yit hire liketh noght alyhte
Upon no lure which I caste;
For ay the more I crie faste,
The lasse hire liketh for to hiere.
So for to speke of this matiere,
I seche that I mai noght finde,
I haste, and evere I am behinde,
And wot noght what it mai amounte.
Bot, fader, upon myn acompte,
Which ye be sett to examine
Of schrifte after the discipline,
Sey what your beste conseil is."
    "Mi sone, my conseil is this:
How so it stonde of time go,
Do forth thi besinesse so,
That no Lachesce in thee be founde.
For Slowthe is mihti to confounde
The spied of every mannes werk.
For many a vice, as seith the clerk,
Ther hongen upon Slowthes lappe
Of suche as make a man mishappe,
To pleigne and telle of 'hadde I wist.'
And therupon if that thee list
To knowe of Slowthes cause more,
In special yit overmore
Ther is a vice full grevable
To him which is therof coupable,
And stant of alle vertu bare,
Hierafter as I schal declare."

Qui nichil attemptat, nichil expedit, oreque muto
   Munus Amicicie vir sibi raro capit.
Est modus in verbis, set ei qui parcit amori
   Verba referre sua, non fauet vllus amor.3

"Touchende of Slowthe in his degré,
Ther is yit Pusillamité,
Which is to seie in this langage,
He that hath litel of corage
And dar no mannes werk beginne.
So mai he noght be resoun winne;
For who that noght dar undertake,
Be riht he schal no profit take.
Bot of this vice the nature
Dar nothing sette in aventure,
Him lacketh bothe word and dede,
Wherof he scholde his cause spede.
He woll no manhed understonde,
For evere he hath drede upon honde.
Al is peril that he schal seie,
Him thenkth the wolf is in the weie,
And of ymaginacioun
He makth his excusacioun
And feigneth cause of pure drede,
And evere he faileth ate nede,
Til al be spilt that he with deleth.
He hath the sor which no man heleth,
The which is cleped lack of herte.
Thogh every grace aboute him sterte,
He wol noght ones stere his fot;
So that be resoun lese he mot,
That wol noght auntre for to winne.
   And so forth, sone, if we beginne
To speke of love and his servise,
Ther ben truantz in such a wise
That lacken herte, whan best were
To speke of love, and riht for fere
Thei wexen doumb and dar noght telle,
Withoute soun as doth the belle
Which hath no claper for to chyme.
And riht so thei as for the tyme
Ben herteles withoute speche,
Of love and dar nothing beseche;
And thus thei lese and winne noght.
Forthi, my sone, if thou art oght
Coupable as touchende of this Slowthe,
Schrif thee therof and tell me trowthe."
    "Mi fader, I am al beknowe
That I have ben on of tho slowe,
As for to telle in loves cas.
Min herte is yit and evere was,
As thogh the world scholde al tobreke,
So ferful, that I dar noght speke
Of what pourpos that I have nome,
Whan I toward mi ladi come,
Bot let it passe and overgo."
    "Mi sone, do no more so!
For after that a man poursuieth
To love, so fortune suieth
Fulofte and gifth hire happi chance
To him which makth continuance
To preie love and to beseche;
As be ensample I schal thee teche.

[Pygmalion and his Statue]

   I finde hou whilom ther was on,
Whos name was Pymaleon,
Which was a lusti man of yowthe.
The werkes of entaile he cowthe
Above alle othre men as tho;
And thurgh fortune it fell him so,
As he whom love schal travaile,
He made an ymage of entaile
Lich to a womman in semblance
Of feture and of contienance,
So fair yit nevere was figure.
Riht as a lyves creature
Sche semeth, for of yvor whyt
He hath hire wroght of such delit,
That sche was rody on the cheke
And red on bohe hire lippes eke;
Wherof that he himself beguileth.
For with a goodly lok sche smyleth,
So that thurgh pure impression
Of his ymaginacion
With al the herte of his corage
His love upon this faire ymage
He sette, and hire of love preide;
Bot sche no word ageinward seide.
The longe day, what thing he dede,
This ymage in the same stede
Was evere bi, that ate mete
He wolde hire serve and preide hire ete,
And putte unto hire mowth the cuppe.
And whan the bord was taken uppe,
He hath hire into chambre nome,
And after, whan the nyht was come,
He leide hire in his bed al nakid.
He was forwept, he was forwakid,
He keste hire colde lippes ofte,
And wissheth that thei weren softe,
And ofte he rouneth in hire ere,
And ofte his arm now hier now there
He leide, as he hir wolde embrace,
And evere among he axeth grace,
As thogh sche wiste what he mente.
And thus himself he gan tormente
With such desese of loves peine,
That no man mihte him more peine.
Bot how it were, of his penance
He made such continuance
Fro dai to nyht, and preith so longe,
That his preiere is underfonge,
Which Venus of hire grace herde;
By nyhte and whan that he worst ferde,
And it lay in his nakede arm,
The colde ymage he fieleth warm
Of fleissh and bon and full of lif.
   Lo, thus he wan a lusti wif,
Which obeissant was at his wille;
And if he wolde have holde him stille
And nothing spoke, he scholde have failed.
Bot for he hath his word travailed
And dorste speke, his love he spedde,
And hadde al that he wolde abedde.
For er thei wente thanne atwo,
A knave child betwen hem two
Thei gete, which was after hote
Paphus, of whom yit hath the note
A certein yle, which Paphos
Men clepe, and of his name it ros.
   Be this ensample thou miht finde
That word mai worche above kinde.
Forthi, my sone, if that thou spare
To speke, lost is al thi fare,
For Slowthe bringth in alle wo.
And over this to loke also,
The god of love is favorable
To hem that ben of love stable,
And many a wonder hath befalle.
Wherof to speke amonges alle,
If that thee list to taken hede,
Therof a solein tale I rede,
Which I schal telle in remembraunce
Upon the sort of loves chaunce.

[The Tale of Iphis and Iante]

The king Ligdus upon a strif
Spak unto Thelacuse his wif,
Which thanne was with childe grete;
He swor it scholde noght be lete
That if sche have a dowhter bore
That it ne scholde be forlore
And slain, wherof sche sory was.
So it befell upon this cas,
Whan sche delivered scholde be,
Isis be nyhte in priveté,
Which of childinge is the goddesse,
Cam for to helpe in that destresse,
Til that this lady was al smal,
And hadde a dowhter forthwithal;
Which the goddesse in alle weie
Bad kepe, and that thei scholden seie
It were a sone: and thus Iphis
Thei namede him, and upon this
The fader was mad so to wene.
And thus in chambre with the qweene
This Iphis was forthdrawe tho,
And clothed and arraied so
Riht as a kinges sone scholde.
Til after, as fortune it wolde,
Whan it was of a ten yer age,
Him was betake in mariage
A duckes dowhter for to wedde,
Which Iante hihte, and ofte abedde
These children leien, sche and sche,
Which of on age bothe be.
So that withinne time of yeeres,
Togedre as thei ben pleiefieres,
Liggende abedde upon a nyht,
Nature, which doth every wiht
Upon hire lawe for to muse,
Constreigneth hem, so that thei use
Thing which to hem was al unknowe;
Wherof Cupide thilke throwe
Tok pité for the grete love,
And let do sette kinde above,
So that hir lawe mai ben used,
And thei upon here lust excused.
For love hateth nothing more
Than thing which stant agein the lore
Of that nature in kinde hath sett.
Forthi Cupide hath so besett
His grace upon this aventure,
That he acordant to nature,
Whan that he syh the time best,
That ech of hem hath other kest,
Transformeth Iphe into a man,
Wherof the kinde love he wan
Of lusti yonge Iante his wif;
And tho thei ladde a merie lif,
Which was to kinde non offence.
   And thus to take an evidence,
It semeth love is welwillende
To hem that ben continuende
With besy herte to poursuie
Thing which that is to love due.
Wherof, my sone, in this matiere
Thou miht ensample taken hiere,
That with thi grete besinesse
Thou mihte atteigne the richesse
Of love, if that ther be no Slowthe."
    "I dar wel seie be mi trowthe,
Als fer as I my witt can seche,
Mi fader, as for lacke of speche,
Bot so as I me schrof tofore,
Ther is non other time lore,
Wherof ther mihte ben obstacle
To lette love of his miracle,
Which I beseche day and nyht.
Bot, fader, so as it is riht
In forme of schrifte to beknowe
What thing belongeth to the slowe,
Your faderhode I wolde preie,
If ther be forthere eny weie
Touchende unto this ilke vice."
    "Mi sone, ye, of this office
Ther serveth on in special,
Which lost hath his memorial,
So that he can no wit withholde
In thing which he to kepe is holde,
Wherof fulofte himself he grieveth:
And who that most upon him lieveth,
Whan that hise wittes ben so weyved,
He mai full lihtly be deceived."

Mentibus oblitus alienis labitur ille,
   Quem probat accidia non meminisse sui.
Sic amor incautus, qui non memoratur ad horas,
   Perdit et offendit, quod cuperare nequit.4

"To serve Accidie in his office,
Ther is of Slowthe an other vice,
Which cleped is Forgetelnesse;
That noght mai in his herte impresse
Of vertu which reson hath sett,
So clene his wittes he forget.
For in the tellinge of his tale
No more his herte thanne his male
Hath remembrance of thilke forme
Wherof he scholde his wit enforme
As thanne, and yit ne wot he why.
Thus is his pourpos noght forthi
Forlore of that he wolde bidde,
And skarsly if he seith the thridde
To love of that he hadde ment.
Thus many a lovere hath be schent.
Tell on therfore, hast thou be oon
Of hem that Slowthe hath so begon?"
    "Ye, fader, ofte it hath be so,
That whanne I am mi ladi fro
And thenke untoward hire drawe,
Than cast I many a newe lawe
And al the world torne up so doun,
And so recorde I mi lecoun
And wryte in my memorial
What I to hire telle schal,
Riht al the matiere of mi tale.
Bot al nys worth a note schale;
For whanne I come ther sche is,
I have it al forgete ywiss;
Of that I thoghte for to telle
I can noght thanne unethes spelle
That I wende altherbest have rad,
So sore I am of hire adrad.
For as a man that sodeinli
A gost behelde, so fare I;
So that for feere I can noght gete
Mi witt, bot I miself forgete,
That I wot nevere what I am,
Ne whider I schal, ne whenne I cam,
Bot muse as he that were amased.
Lich to the bok in which is rased
The lettre, and mai nothing be rad,
So ben my wittes overlad,
That what as evere I thoghte have spoken,
It is out fro myn herte stoken,
And stonde, as who seith, doumb and def,
That al nys worth an yvy lef,
Of that I wende wel have seid.
And ate laste I make abreid,
Caste up myn hed and loke aboute,
Riht as a man that were in doute
And wot noght wher he schal become.
Thus am I ofte al overcome,
Ther as I wende best to stonde.
Bot after, whanne I understonde,
And am in other place alone,
I make many a wofull mone
Unto miself, and speke so:
'Ha fol, wher was thin herte tho,
Whan thou thi worthi ladi syhe?
Were thou afered of hire yhe?
For of hire hand ther is no drede.
So wel I knowe hir wommanhede,
That in hire is no more oultrage
Than in a child of thre yeer age.
Whi hast thou drede of so good on,
Whom alle vertu hath begon,
That in hire is no violence
Bot goodlihiede and innocence
Withouten spot of eny blame?
Ha, nyce herte, fy for schame!
Ha, couard herte of love unlered,
Wherof art thou so sore afered,
That thou thi tunge soffrest frese,
And wolt thi goode wordes lese,
Whan thou hast founde time and space?
How scholdest thou deserve grace,
Whan thou thiself darst axe non,
Bot al thou hast forgete anon?'
And thus despute I loves lore,
Bot help ne finde I noght the more,
Bot stomble upon myn oghne treine
And make an ekinge of my peine.
For evere whan I thenke among
How al is on miself along,
I seie, 'O fol of alle foles,
Thou farst as he betwen tuo stoles
That wolde sitte and goth to grounde.
It was ne nevere schal be founde,
Betwen forgetelnesse and drede
That man scholde any cause spede.'
And thus, myn holi fader diere,
Toward miself, as ye mai hiere,
I pleigne of my forgetelnesse.
Bot elles al the besinesse
That mai be take of mannes thoght,
Min herte takth, and is thorghsoght
To thenken evere upon that swete
Withoute Slowthe, I you behete.
For what so falle, or wel or wo,
That thoght forgete I neveremo,
Wher so I lawhe or so I loure,
Noght half the minut of an houre
Ne mihte I lete out of my mende,
Bot if I thoghte upon that hende.
Therof me schal no Slowthe lette
Til deth out of this world me fette,
Althogh I hadde on such a ring
As Moises thurgh his enchanting
Somtime in Ethiope made,
Whan that he Tharbis weddid hade.
Which ring bar of Oblivion
The name, and that was be resoun
That where it on a finger sat,
Anon his love he so forgat,
As thogh he hadde it nevere knowe.
And so it fell that ilke throwe,
Whan Tharbis hadde it on hire hond,
No knowlechinge of him sche fond,
Bot al was clene out of memoire,
As men mai rede in his histoire.
And thus he wente quit away,
That nevere after that ilke day
Sche thoghte that ther was such on;
Al was forgete and overgon.
Bot in good feith so mai noght I,
For sche is evere faste by,
So nyh that sche myn herte toucheth,
That for nothing that Slowthe voucheth
I mai forgete hire, lief ne loth.
For overal, where as sche goth,
Min herte folwith hire aboute.
Thus mai I seie withoute doute,
For bet for wers, for oght for noght,
Sche passeth nevere fro my thoght.
Bot whanne I am ther as sche is,
Min herte, as I you saide er this,
Somtime of hire is sore adrad,
And somtime it is overglad,
Al out of reule and out of space.
For whan I se hire goodli face
And thenke upon hire hihe pris,
As thogh I were in Paradis,
I am so ravisht of the syhte,
To speke unto hire I ne myhte
As for the time, thogh I wolde.
For I ne mai my wit unfolde
To finde o word of that I mene,
Bot al it is forgete clene;
And thogh I stonde there a myle,
Al is forgete for the while:
A tunge I have and wordes none.
And thus I stonde and thenke alone
Of thing that helpeth ofte noght;
Bot what I hadde afore thoght
To speke, whanne I come there
It is forgete, as noght ne were,
And stonde amased and assoted,
That of nothing which I have noted
I can noght thanne a note singe,
Bot al is out of knowlechinge.
Thus, what for joie and what for drede,
Al is forgeten ate nede.
So that, mi fader, of this Slowthe
I have you said the pleine trowthe;
Ye mai it as you list redresce.
For thus stant my forgetelnesse
And ek my pusillamité.
Sey now forth what you list to me,
For I wol only do be you."
    "Mi sone, I have wel herd how thou
Hast seid, and that thou most amende:
For love his grace wol noght sende
To that man which dar axe non.
For this we knowen everichon,
A mannes thoght withoute speche
God wot, and yit that men beseche
His will is; for withoute bedes
He doth His grace in fewe stedes:
And what man that forget himselve,
Among a thousand be noght tuelve
That wol Him take in remembraunce,
Bot lete him falle and take his chaunce.
Forthi pull up a besi herte,
Mi sone, and let nothing asterte
Of love fro thi besinesse.
For touchinge of Forgetelnesse,
Which many a love hath set behinde,
A tale of gret ensample I finde,
Wherof it is pité to wite
In the manere as it is write.

[Tale of Demophon and Phyllis]

   King Demephon, whan he be schipe
To Troieward with felaschipe
Sailende goth, upon his weie
It hapneth him at Rodopeie,
As Eolus him hadde blowe,
To londe, and rested for a throwe.
And fell that ilke time thus,
The dowhter of Ligurgius,
Which qweene was of the contré,
Was sojournende in that cité
Withinne a castell nyh the stronde,
Wher Demephon cam up to londe.
Phillis sche hihte, and of yong age
And of stature and of visage
Sche hadde al that hire best besemeth.
Of Demephon riht wel hire qwemeth,
Whan he was come, and made him chiere;
And he, that was of his manere
A lusti knyht, ne myhte asterte
That he ne sette on hire his herte;
So that withinne a day or tuo
He thoghte, howevere that it go,
He wolde assaie the fortune,
And gan his herte to commune
With goodly wordes in hire ere;
And for to put hire out of fere,
He swor and hath his trowthe pliht
To be forevere hire oghne knyht.
And thus with hire he stille abod,
Ther while his schip on anker rod,
And hadde ynowh of time and space
To speke of love and seche grace.
   This ladi herde al that he seide,
And hou he swor and hou he preide,
Which was as an enchantement
To hire, that was innocent.
As thogh it were trowthe and feith
Sche lieveth al that evere he seith,
And as hire infortune scholde,
Sche granteth him al that he wolde.
Thus was he for the time in joie,
Til that he scholde go to Troie.
Bot tho sche made mochel sorwe,
And he his trowthe leith to borwe
To come, if that he live may,
Agein withinne a monthe day,
And therupon thei kisten bothe.
Bot were hem lieve or were hem lothe,
To schipe he goth and forth he wente
To Troie, as was his ferste entente.
   The daies gon, the monthe passeth,
Hire love encresceth and his lasseth,
For him sche lefte slep and mete.
And he his time hath al forgete,
So that this wofull yonge qweene,
Which wot noght what it mihte meene,
A lettre sende and preide him come,
And seith how sche is overcome
With strengthe of love in such a wise
That sche noght longe mai suffise
To liven out of his presence;
And putte upon his conscience
The trowthe which he hath behote,
Wherof sche loveth him so hote,
Sche seith, that if he lengere lette
Of such a day as sche him sette,
Sche scholde sterven in his Slowthe,
Which were a schame unto his trowthe.
This lettre is forth upon hire sonde,
Wherof somdiel confort on honde
Sche tok, as sche that wolde abide
And waite upon that ilke tyde
Which sche hath in hire lettre write.
   Bot now is pité for to wite,
As he dede erst, so he forgat
His time eftsone and oversat.
Bot sche, which mihte noght do so,
The tyde awayteth everemo,
And caste hire yhe upon the see.
Somtime nay, somtime yee,
Somtime he cam, somtime noght,
Thus sche desputeth in hire thoght
And wot noght what sche thenke mai.
Bot fastende al the longe day
Sche was into the derke nyht,
And tho sche hath do set up lyht
In a lanterne on hih alofte
Upon a tour, wher sche goth ofte,
In hope that in his cominge
He scholde se the liht brenninge,
Wherof he mihte his weies rihte
To come wher sche was be nyhte.
Bot al for noght, sche was deceived,
For Venus hath hire hope weyved,
And schewede hire upon the sky
How that the day was faste by,
So that withinne a litel throwe
The daies lyht sche mihte knowe.
Tho sche behield the see at large,
And whan sche sih ther was no barge
Ne schip, als ferr as sche may kenne,
Doun fro the tour sche gan to renne
Into an herber al hire one,
Wher many a wonder woful mone
Sche made, that no lif it wiste,
As sche which al hire joie miste,
That now sche swouneth, now sche pleigneth,
And al hire face sche desteigneth
With teres, whiche, as of a welle
The stremes from hire yhen felle;
So as sche mihte and evere in on
Sche clepede upon Demephon,
And seide, 'Helas, thou slowe wiht,
Wher was ther evere such a knyht,
That so thurgh his ungentilesce
Of Slowthe and of Forgetelnesce
Agein his trowthe brak his stevene?'
And tho hire yhe up to the hevene
Sche caste, and seide, 'O thou unkinde,
Hier schalt thou thurgh thi Slowthe finde,
If that thee list to come and se,
A ladi ded for love of thee,
So as I schal myselve spille;
Whom, if it hadde be thi wille,
Thou mihtest save wel ynowh.'
With that upon a grene bowh
A ceinte of selk, which sche ther hadde,
Sche knette, and so hireself sche ladde,
That sche aboute hire whyte swere
It dede, and hyng hirselven there.
Wherof the goddes were amoeved,
And Demephon was so reproeved,
That of the goddes providence
Was schape such an evidence
Evere afterward agein the slowe,
That Phillis in the same throwe
Was schape into a notetre,
That alle men it mihte se,
And after Phillis philliberd
This tre was cleped in the yerd,
And yit for Demephon to schame
Into this dai it berth the name.
This wofull chance how that it ferde
Anon as Demephon it herde,
And every man it hadde in speche,
His sorwe was noght tho to seche;
He gan his Slowthe for to banne,
Bot it was al to late thanne.
   Lo thus, my sone, miht thou wite
Agein this vice how it is write;
For no man mai the harmes gesse,
That fallen thurgh Forgetelnesse,
Wherof that I thi schrifte have herd.
Bot yit of Slowthe hou it hath ferd
In other wise I thenke oppose,
If thou have gult, as I suppose."

Dum plantare licet, cultor qui necgligit ortum,
   Si desint fructus, imputet ipse sibi.
Preterit ista dies bona, nec valet illa secunda,
   Hoc caret exemplo lentus amore suo.5

"Fulfild of Slowthes essamplaire
Ther is yit on, his secretaire,
And he is cleped Negligence,
Which wol noght loke his evidence,
Wherof he mai be war tofore;
Bot whanne he hath his cause lore,
Thanne is he wys after the hond,
Whanne helpe may no maner bond.
Thanne ate ferste wolde he binde:
Thus everemore he stant behinde.
Whanne he the thing mai noght amende,
Thanne is he war, and seith at ende,
'Ha, wolde God I hadde knowe!'
Wherof bejaped with a mowe
He goth, for whan the grete stiede
Is stole, thanne he taketh hiede,
And makth the stable dore fast.
Thus evere he pleith an aftercast
Of al that he schal seie or do.
He hath a manere eke also,
Him list noght lerne to be wys,
For he set of no vertu pris
Bot as him liketh for the while;
So fieleth he fulofte guile,
Whan that he weneth siker stonde.
And thus thou miht wel understonde,
Mi sone, if thou art such in love,
Thou miht noght come at thin above
Of that thou woldest wel achieve."
    "Mi holi fader, as I lieve,
I mai wel with sauf conscience
Excuse me of necgligence
Towardes love in alle wise.
For thogh I be non of the wise,
I am so trewly amerous,
That I am evere curious
Of hem that conne best enforme
To knowe and witen al the forme
What falleth unto loves craft.
Bot yit ne fond I noght the haft
Which mihte unto that bladd acorde;
For nevere herde I man recorde
What thing it is that myhte availe
To winne love withoute faile.
Yit so fer cowthe I nevere finde
Man that be resoun ne be kinde
Me cowthe teche such an art,
That he ne failede of a part;
And as toward myn oghne wit,
Controeve cowthe I nevere yit
To finden eny sikernesse
That me myhte outher more or lesse
Of love make for to spede.
For lieveth wel withoute drede,
If that ther were such a weie,
As certeinliche as I schal deie
I hadde it lerned longe ago.
Bot I wot wel ther is non so.
And natheles it may wel be,
I am so rude in my degree
And ek mi wittes ben so dulle,
That I ne mai noght to the fulle
Atteigne to so hih a lore.
Bot this I dar seie overmore,
Althogh mi Wit ne be noght strong,
It is noght on mi Will along,
For that is besi nyht and day
To lerne al that he lerne may
How that I mihte love winne.
Bot yit I am as to beginne
Of that I wolde make an ende,
And for I not how it schal wende,
That is to me mi moste sorwe.
Bot I dar take God to borwe,
As after min entendement,
Non other wise necgligent
Thanne I yow seie have I noght be.
Forthi, per seinte charité,
Tell me, mi fader, what you semeth."
    "In good feith, sone, wel me qwemeth,
That thou thiself hast thus aquit
Toward this vice, in which no wit
Abide mai, for in an houre
He lest al that he mai laboure
The longe yer, so that men sein,
Whatevere he doth it is in vein.
For thurgh the Slowthe of Negligence
Ther was yit nevere such science
Ne vertu, which was bodely,
That nys destruid and lost therby.
Ensample that it hath be so
In boke I finde write also.

[The Tale of Phaeton]

Phebus, which is the sonne hote,
That schyneth upon erthe hote
And causeth every lyves helthe,
He hadde a sone in al his welthe,
Which Pheton hihte, and he desireth
And with his moder he conspireth,
The which was cleped Clemenee,
For help and conseil, so that he
His fader carte lede myhte
Upon the faire daies brihte.
And for this thing thei bothe preide
Unto the fader, and he seide
He wolde wel, bot forth withal
Thre pointz he bad in special
Unto his sone in alle wise,
That he him scholde wel avise
And take it as be weie of lore.
Ferst was, that he his hors to sore
Ne prike, and over that he tolde
That he the renes faste holde;
And also that he be riht war
In what manere he lede his charr,
That he mistake noght his gate,
Bot up avisement algate
He scholde bere a siker yhe
That he to lowe ne to hyhe
His carte dryve at eny throwe,
Wherof that he mihte overthrowe.
And thus be Phebus ordinance
Tok Pheton into governance
The sonnes carte, which he ladde.
Bot he such veine gloire hadde
Of that he was set upon hyh,
That he his oghne astat ne syh
Thurgh negligence and tok non hiede;
So mihte he wel noght longe spede.
For he the hors withoute lawe
The carte let aboute drawe
Wher as hem liketh wantounly.
That ate laste sodeinly,
For he no reson wolde knowe,
This fyri carte he drof to lowe,
And fyreth al the world aboute;
Wherof thei weren alle in doubte,
And to the god for helpe criden
Of suche unhappes as betyden.
Phebus, which syh the necgligence,
How Pheton agein his defence
His charr hath drive out of the weie,
Ordeigneth that he fell aweie
Out of the carte into a flod
And dreynte. Lo now, hou it stod
With him that was so necligent,
That fro the hyhe firmament,
For that he wolde go to lowe,
He was anon doun overthrowe.

[The Tale of Icarus]

   In hih astat it is a vice
To go to lowe, and in service
It grieveth for to go to hye,
Wherof a tale in poesie
I finde, how whilom Dedalus,
Which hadde a sone, and Icharus
He hihte, and thogh hem thoghte lothe,
In such prison thei weren bothe
With Minotaurus, that aboute
Thei mihten nawher wenden oute;
So thei begonne for to schape
How thei the prison mihte ascape.
This Dedalus, which fro his yowthe
Was tawht and manye craftes cowthe,
Of fetheres and of othre thinges
Hath mad to fle diverse wynges
For him and for his sone also;
To whom he gaf in charge tho
And bad him thenke therupon,
How that his wynges ben set on
With wex, and if he toke his flyhte
To hyhe, al sodeinliche he mihte
Make it to melte with the sonne.
And thus thei have her flyht begonne
Out of the prison faire and softe;
And whan thei weren bothe alofte,
This Icharus began to monte,
And of the conseil non accompte
He sette, which his fader tawhte,
Til that the sonne his wynges cawhte,
Wherof it malt, and fro the heihte
Withouten help of eny sleihte
He fell to his destruccion.
And lich to that condicion
Ther fallen ofte times fele
For lacke of governance in wele,
Als wel in love as other weie."

    "Now goode fader, I you preie,
If ther be more in the matiere
Of Slowthe, that I mihte it hiere."
    "Mi sone, and for thi diligence,
Which every mannes conscience
Be resoun scholde reule and kepe,
If that thee list to taken kepe,
I wol thee telle, aboven alle
In whom no vertu mai befalle,
Which gifth unto the vices reste
And is of slowe the sloweste."

Absque labore vagus vir inutilis ocia plectens,
   Nescio quid presens vita valebit ei.
Non amor in tali misero viget, immo valoris
   Qui faciunt opera clamat habere suos.6

"Among these othre of Slowthes kinde,
Which alle labour set behinde,
And hateth alle besinesse,
Ther is yit on, which Ydelnesse
Is cleped, and is the norrice
In mannes kinde of every vice,
Which secheth eases manyfold.
In wynter doth he noght for cold,
In somer mai he noght for hete;
So whether that he frese or swete,
Or he be inne, or he be oute,
He wol ben ydel al aboute,
Bot if he pleie oght ate dees.
For who as evere take fees
And thenkth worschipe to deserve,
Ther is no lord whom he wol serve,
As for to duelle in his servise,
Bot if it were in such a wise,
Of that he seth per aventure
That be lordschipe and coverture
He mai the more stonde stille,
And use his ydelnesse at wille.
For he ne wol no travail take
To ryde for his ladi sake,
Bot liveth al upon his wisshes;
And as a cat wolde ete fisshes
Withoute wetinge of his cles,
So wolde he do, bot natheles
He faileth ofte of that he wolde.
   Mi sone, if thou of such a molde
Art mad, now tell me plein thi schrifte."
    "Nay, fader, God I give a gifte,
That toward love, as be mi wit,
Al ydel was I nevere yit,
Ne nevere schal, whil I mai go."
    "Now, sone, tell me thanne so,
What hast thou don of besischipe
To love and to the ladischipe
Of hire which thi ladi is?"
    "Mi fader, evere yit er this
In every place, in every stede,
What so mi lady hath me bede,
With al myn herte obedient
I have therto be diligent.
And if so is sche bidde noght,
What thing that thanne into my thoght
Comth ferst of that I mai suffise,
I bowe and profre my servise,
Somtime in chambre, somtime in halle,
Riht as I se the times falle.
And whan sche goth to hiere masse,
That time schal noght overpasse,
That I naproche hir ladihede,
In aunter if I mai hire lede
Unto the chapelle and agein.
Thanne is noght al mi weie in vein:
Somdiel I mai the betre fare,
Whan I, that mai noght fiele hir bare,
Mai lede hire clothed in myn arm.
Bot afterward it doth me harm
Of pure ymaginacioun;
For thanne this collacioun
I make unto miselven ofte,
And seie, 'Ha lord, hou sche is softe,
How sche is round, hou sche is smal!
Now wolde God I hadde hire al
Withoute danger at mi wille!'
And thanne I sike and sitte stille,
Of that I se mi besi thoght
Is torned ydel into noght.
Bot for al that lete I ne mai,
Whanne I se time another dai,
That I ne do my besinesse
Unto mi ladi worthinesse.
For I therto mi wit afaite
To se the times and awaite
What is to done and what to leve.
And so, whan time is, be hir leve,
What thing sche bit me don, I do,
And wher sche bidt me gon, I go,
And whanne hir list to clepe, I come.
Thus hath sche fulliche overcome
Min ydelnesse til I sterve,
So that I mot hire nedes serve,
For as men sein, nede hath no lawe.
Thus mot I nedly to hire drawe,
I serve, I bowe, I loke, I loute,
Min yhe folweth hire aboute,
What so sche wole so wol I,
Whan sche wol sitte, I knele by,
And whan sche stant, than wol I stonde.
Bot whan sche takth hir werk on honde
Of wevinge or enbrouderie,
Than can I noght bot muse and prie
Upon hir fingres longe and smale,
And now I thenke, and now I tale,
And now I singe, and now I sike,
And thus mi contienance I pike.
And if it falle, as for a time
Hir liketh noght abide bi me,
Bot besien hire on other thinges,
Than make I othre tariinges
To dreche forth the longe dai,
For me is loth departe away.
And thanne I am so simple of port,
That for to feigne som desport
I pleie with hire litel hound
Now on the bedd, now on the ground,
Now with hir briddes in the cage;
For ther is non so litel page,
Ne yit so simple a chamberere,
That I ne make hem alle chere,
Al for thei scholde speke wel.
Thus mow ye sen mi besi whiel,
That goth noght ydeliche aboute.
And if hir list to riden oute
On pelrinage or other stede,
I come, thogh I be noght bede,
And take hire in min arm alofte
And sette hire in hire sadel softe,
And so forth lede hire be the bridel,
For that I wolde noght ben ydel.
And if hire list to ride in char,
And thanne I mai therof be war,
Anon I schape me to ryde
Riht evene be the chares side;
And as I mai, I speke among,
And otherwhile I singe a song,
Which Ovide in his bokes made,
And seide, 'O whiche sorwes glade,
O which wofull prosperité
Belongeth to the propreté
Of love, whoso wole him serve!
And yit therfro mai no man swerve,
That he ne mot his lawe obeie.'
And thus I ryde forth mi weie,
And am riht besi overal
With herte and with mi body al,
As I have said you hiertofore.
Mi goode fader, tell therfore,
Of Ydelnesse if I have gilt."
    "Mi sone, bot thou telle wilt
Oght elles than I mai now hiere,
Thou schalt have no penance hiere.
And natheles a man mai se,
How now adayes that ther be
Ful manye of suche hertes slowe,
That wol noght besien hem to knowe
What thing love is til, ate laste,
That he with strengthe hem overcaste,
That malgré hem thei mote obeie
And don al ydelschipe aweie,
To serve wel and besiliche.
Bot, sone, thou art non of swiche,
For love schal thee wel excuse.
Bot otherwise, if thou refuse
To love, thou miht so per cas
Ben ydel, as somtime was
A kinges dowhter unavised,
Til that Cupide hire hath chastised,
Wherof thou schalt a tale hiere
Acordant unto this matiere.

[The Tale of Rosiphelee]

   Of Armenye, I rede thus,
Ther was a king, which Herupus
Was hote, and he a lusti maide
To dowhter hadde and, as men saide,
Hire name was Rosiphelee,
Which tho was of gret renomee,
For sche was bothe wys and fair
And scholde ben hire fader hair.
Bot sche hadde o defalte of Slowthe
Towardes love, and that was rowthe;
For so wel cowde no man seie,
Which mihte sette hire in the weie
Of loves occupacion
Thurgh non ymaginacion;
That scole wolde sche noght knowe.
And thus sche was on of the slowe
As of such hertes besinesse,
Til whanne Venus the goddesse,
Which loves court hath for to reule,
Hath broght hire into betre reule
Forth, with Cupide and with his miht.
For thei merveille how such a wiht,
Which tho was in hir lusti age,
Desireth nother mariage
Ne yit the love of paramours,
Which evere hath be the comun cours
Amonges hem that lusti were.
So was it schewed after there,
For he that hihe hertes loweth
With fyri dartes whiche he throweth,
Cupide, which of love is godd,
In chastisinge hath mad a rodd
To dryve awei hir wantounesse;
So that withinne a while, I gesse,
Sche hadde on such a chance sporned,
That al hire mod was overtorned,
Which ferst sche hadde of slow manere.
For thus it fell, as thou schalt hiere,
Whan come was the monthe of Maii,
Sche wolde walke upon a dai,
And that was er the sonne ariste;
Of wommen bot a fewe it wiste,
And forth sche wente prively
Unto the park was faste by,
Al softe walkende on the gras,
Til sche cam ther the launde was
Thurgh which ther ran a gret rivere.
It thoghte hir fair, and seide, 'Here
I wole abide under the schawe,'
And bad hire wommen to withdrawe,
And ther sche stod alone stille,
To thenke what was in hir wille.
Sche sih the swote floures springe,
Sche herde glade foules singe,
Sche sih the bestes in her kinde,
The buck, the do, the hert, the hinde,
The madle go with the femele.
And so began ther a querele
Betwen love and hir oghne herte,
Fro which sche couthe noght asterte.
And as sche caste hire yhe aboute,
Sche syh clad in o suite a route
Of ladis, wher thei comen ryde
Along under the wodes syde.
On faire amblende hors thei sete,
That were al whyte, fatte, and grete,
And everichon thei ride on side.
The sadles were of such a pride,
With perle and gold so wel begon,
So riche syh sche nevere non;
In kertles and in copes riche
Thei weren clothed, alle liche,
Departed evene of whyt and blew;
With alle lustes that sche knew
Thei were enbrouded overal.
Here bodies weren long and smal,
The beauté faye upon her face
Non erthly thing it may desface;
Corones on here hed thei beere,
As ech of hem a qweene weere,
That al the gold of Cresus halle
The leste coronal of alle
Ne mihte have boght after the worth.
Thus come thei ridende forth.
   The kinges dowhter, which this syh,
For pure abaissht drowh hire adryh
And hield hire clos under the bowh,
And let hem passen stille ynowh.
For as hire thoghte in hire avis,
To hem that were of such a pris
Sche was noght worthi axen there,
Fro when thei come or what thei were.
Bot levere than this worldes good
Sche wolde have wist hou that it stod,
And putte hire hed a litel oute.
And as sche lokede hire aboute,
Sche syh comende under the linde
A womman up an hors behinde.
The hors on which sche rod was blak,
Al lene and galled on the back,
And haltede, as he were encluyed,
Wherof the womman was annuied.
Thus was the hors in sori plit,
Bot for al that a sterre whit
Amiddes in the front he hadde.
Hir sadel ek was wonder badde,
In which the wofull womman sat,
And natheles ther was with that
A riche bridel for the nones
Of gold and preciouse stones.
Hire cote was somdiel totore;
Aboute hir middel twenty score
Of horse haltres and wel mo
Ther hyngen ate time tho.
   Thus whan sche cam the ladi nyh,
Than tok sche betre hiede and syh
This womman fair was of visage,
Freyssh, lusti, yong, and of tendre age.
And so this ladi, ther sche stod,
Bethoghte hire wel and understod
That this, which com ridende tho,
Tidinges couthe telle of tho
Which as sche sih tofore ryde;
And putte hir forth and preide 'Abide!'
And seide, 'Ha, suster, let me hiere,
What ben thei that now riden hiere,
And ben so richeliche arraied?'
   This womman, which com so esmaied,
Ansuerde with ful softe speche,
And seith, 'Ma dame, I schal you teche.
These ar of tho that whilom were
Servantz to love, and trowthe beere,
Ther as thei hadde here herte set.
Farewel, for I mai noght be let.
Ma dame, I go to mi servise,
So moste I haste in alle wise;
Forthi, ma dame, gif me leve,
I mai noght longe with you leve.'
    'Ha, goode soster, yit I preie,
Tell me whi ye ben so beseie
And with these haltres thus begon."
    "Ma dame, whilom I was on
That to mi fader hadde a king;
Bot I was slow, and for nothing
Me liste noght to love obeie,
And that I now ful sore abeie.
For I whilom no love hadde,
Min hors is now so fieble and badde,
And al totore is myn arai,
And every yeer this freisshe Maii
These lusti ladis ryde aboute,
And I mot nedes suie here route
In this manere as ye now se,
And trusse here haltres forth with me,
And am bot as here horse knave.
Non other office I ne have,
Hem thenkth I am worthi no more,
For I was slow in loves lore,
Whan I was able for to lere,
And wolde noght the tales hiere
Of hem that couthen love teche.'
    'Now tell me thanne, I you beseche,
Wherof that riche bridel serveth.'
   With that hire chere awei sche swerveth,
And gan to wepe, and thus sche tolde:
'This bridel, which ye nou beholde
So riche upon myn horse hed,
Ma dame, afore, er I was ded,
Whan I was in mi lusti lif,
Ther fel into myn herte a strif
Of love, which me overcom,
So that therafter hiede I nom
And thoghte I wolde love a kniht.
That laste wel a fourtenyht,
For it no lengere mihte laste,
So nyh my lif was ate laste.
Bot now, allas, to late war
That I ne hadde him loved ar.
For deth cam so in haste bi me,
Er I therto hadde eny time,
That it ne mihte ben achieved.
Bot for al that I am relieved,
Of that mi will was good therto,
That love soffreth it be so
That I schal swiche a bridel were.
Now have ye herd al myn ansuere.
To Godd, ma dame, I you betake,
And warneth alle, for mi sake,
Of love that thei ben noght ydel,
And bidd hem thenke upon mi brydel.'
And with that word al sodeinly
Sche passeth, as it were a sky,
Al clene out of this ladi sihte.
And tho for fere hire herte afflihte,
And seide to hirself, 'Helas!
I am riht in the same cas.
Bot if I live after this day,
I schal amende it, if I may.'
And thus homward this lady wente,
And changede al hire ferste entente,
Withinne hire herte and gan to swere
That sche none haltres wolde bere.
   Lo, sone, hier miht thou taken hiede,
How ydelnesse is for to drede,
Namliche of love, as I have write.
For thou miht understonde and wite,
Among the gentil nacion
Love is an occupacion
Which for to kepe hise lustes save
Scholde every gentil herte have.
For as the ladi was chastised,
Riht so the knyht mai ben avised,
Which ydel is and wol noght serve
To love, he mai per cas deserve
A grettere peine than sche hadde,
Whan sche aboute with hire ladde
The horse haltres; and forthi
Good is to be wel war therbi.
Bot for to loke aboven alle,
These maidens, hou so that it falle,
Thei scholden take ensample of this
Which I have told, for soth it is.
   Mi ladi Venus, whom I serve,
What womman wole hire thonk deserve,
Sche mai noght thilke love eschuie
Of paramours, bot sche mot suie
Cupides lawe; and natheles
Men sen such love sielde in pes,
That it nys evere upon aspie
Of janglinge and of fals envie,
Fulofte medlid with disese.
Bot thilke love is wel at ese,
Which set is upon mariage;
For that dar schewen the visage
In alle places openly.
A gret mervaile it is forthi
How that a maiden wolde lette,
That sche hir time ne besette
To haste unto that ilke feste,
Wherof the love is al honeste.
Men mai recovere lost of good,
Bot so wys man yit nevere stod
Which mai recovere time lore.
So mai a maiden wel therfore
Ensample take, of that sche strangeth
Hir love, and longe er that sche changeth
Hir herte upon hir lustes greene
To mariage, as it is seene.
For thus a yer or tuo or thre
Sche lest, er that sche wedded be,
Whyl sche the charge myhte bere
Of children, whiche the world forbere
Ne mai, bot if it scholde faile.
Bot what maiden hire esposaile
Wol tarie, whan sche take mai,
Sche schal per chance another dai
Be let, whan that hire lievest were.
Wherof a tale unto hire ere,
Which is coupable upon this dede
I thenke telle of that I rede.

[The Tale of Jephthah's Daughter]

   Among the Jewes, as men tolde
Ther was whilom be daies olde
A noble duck, which Jepté hihte.
And fell, he scholde go to fyhte
Agein Amon, the cruel king.
And for to speke upon this thing,
Withinne his herte he made avou
To God and seide, 'Ha Lord, if Thou
Wolt grante unto Thi man victoire,
I schal in tokne of Thi memoire
The ferste lif that I mai se,
Of man or womman wher it be,
Anon as I come hom agein,
To Thee, which art God sovereign,
Slen in Thi name and sacrifie.'
And thus with his chivalerie
He goth him forth, wher that he scholde,
And wan al that he winne wolde
And overcam his fomen alle.
   Mai no man lette that schal falle.
This duc a lusti dowhter hadde,
And fame, which the wordes spradde,
Hath broght unto this ladi ere
How that hire fader hath do there.
Sche waiteth upon his cominge
With dansinge and with carolinge,
As sche that wolde be tofore
Al othre, and so sche was therfore
In Masphat at hir fader gate
The ferste; and whan he com therate,
And sih his douhter, he tobreide
Hise clothes, and wepende he seide:
    'O mihti God among ous hiere,
Nou wot I that in no manere
This worldes joie mai be plein.
I hadde al that I coude sein
Agein mi fomen be Thi grace,
So whan I cam toward this place
Ther was non gladdere man than I.
But now, mi Lord, al sodeinli
Mi joie is torned into sorwe,
For I mi dowhter schal tomorwe
Tohewe and brenne in Thi servise
To loenge of Thi sacrifise
Thurgh min avou, so as it is.'
   The maiden, whan sche wiste of this,
And sih the sorwe hir fader made,
So as sche mai with wordes glade
Conforteth him, and bad him holde
The covenant which he is holde
Towardes God, as he behihte.
Bot natheles hire herte aflihte
Of that sche sih hire deth comende;
And thanne unto the ground knelende
Tofore hir fader sche is falle,
And seith, so as it is befalle
Upon this point that sche schal deie,
Of o thing ferst sche wolde him preie,
That fourty daies of respit
He wolde hir grante upon this plit,
That sche the whyle mai bewepe
Hir maidenhod, which sche to kepe
So longe hath had and noght beset;
Wherof hir lusti youthe is let,
That sche no children hath forthdrawe
In mariage after the lawe,
So that the poeple is noght encressed.
Bot that it mihte be relessed,
That sche hir time hath lore so,
Sche wolde be his leve go
With othre maidens to compleigne,
And afterward unto the peine
Of deth sche wolde come agein.
   The fader herde his douhter sein,
And therupon of on assent
The maidens were anon asent,
That scholden with this maiden wende.
So for to speke unto this ende,
Thei gon the dounes and the dales
With wepinge and with wofull tales,
And every wyht hire maidenhiede
Compleigneth upon thilke nede,
That sche no children hadde bore,
Wherof sche hath hir youthe lore,
Which nevere sche recovere mai.
For so fell that hir laste dai
Was come, in which sche scholde take
Hir deth, which sche mai noght forsake.
Lo, thus sche deiede a wofull maide
For thilke cause which I saide,
As thou hast understonde above."
    "Mi fader, as toward the love
Of maidens for to telle trowthe,
Ye have thilke vice of Slowthe,
Me thenkth, riht wonder wel declared,
That ye the wommen have noght spared
Of hem that tarien so behinde.
Bot yit it falleth in my minde,
Toward the men hou that ye spieke
Of hem that wole no travail sieke
In cause of love upon decerte.
To speke in wordes so coverte,
I not what travaill that ye mente."
    "Mi sone, and after min entente
I woll thee telle what I thoghte,
Hou whilom men here loves boghte
Thurgh gret travaill in strange londes,
Wher that thei wroghten with here hondes
Of armes many a worthi dede,
In sondri place, as men mai rede."

Quem probat armorum probitas Venus approbat, et quem
   Torpor habet reprobum reprobat illa virum.
Vecors segnicies insignia nescit amoris,
   Nam piger ad brauium tardius ipse venit.7

"That every love of pure kinde
Is ferst forthdrawe, wel I finde.
Bot natheles yit overthis
Decerte doth so that it is
The rather had in mani place.
Forthi who secheth loves grace,
Wher that these worthi wommen are,
He mai noght thanne himselve spare
Upon his travail for to serve,
Wherof that he mai thonk deserve,
There as these men of armes be,
Somtime over the grete se.
So that be londe and ek be schipe
He mot travaile for worschipe
And make manye hastyf rodes,
Somtime in Prus, somtime in Rodes,
And somtime into Tartarie;
So that these heraldz on him crie,
'Vailant, vailant, lo, wher he goth!'
And thanne he gifth hem gold and cloth,
So that his fame mihte springe,
And to his ladi ere bringe
Som tidinge of his worthinesse
So that sche mihte of his prouesce
Of that sche herde men recorde,
The betre unto his love acorde
And danger pute out of hire mod.
Whanne alle men recorden good,
And that sche wot wel, for hir sake
That he no travail wol forsake.
   Mi sone, of this travail I meene.
Nou schrif thee, for it schal be sene
If thou art ydel in this cas."
    "My fader, ye, and evere was.
For as me thenketh trewely
That every man doth mor than I
As of this point, and if so is
That I have oght so don er this,
It is so litel of acompte,
As who seith, it mai noght amonte
To winne of love his lusti gifte.
For this I telle you in schrifte,
That me were levere hir love winne
Than Kaire and al that is therinne.
And for to slen the hethen alle,
I not what good ther mihte falle,
So mochel blod thogh ther be schad.
This finde I writen, hou Crist bad
That no man other scholde sle.
What scholde I winne over the se,
If I mi ladi loste at hom?
Bot passe thei the salte fom,
To whom Crist bad thei scholden preche
To al the world and his feith teche.
Bot now thei rucken in here nest
And resten as hem liketh best
In all the swetnesse of delices.
Thus thei defenden ous the vices,
And sitte hemselven al amidde;
To slen and feihten thei ous bidde
Hem whom thei scholde, as the bok seith,
Converten unto Cristes feith.
Bot hierof have I gret mervaile,
Hou thei wol bidde me travaile:
A Sarazin if I sle schal,
I sle the soule forth withal,
And that was nevere Cristes lore.
Bot nou ho ther, I seie no more.
   Bot I wol speke upon mi schrifte;
And to Cupide I make a gifte,
That who as evere pris deserve
Of armes, I wol love serve;
And thogh I scholde hem bothe kepe,
Als wel yit wolde I take kepe
Whan it were time to abide,
As for to travaile and to ryde:
For how as evere a man laboure,
Cupide appointed hath his houre.
   For I have herd it telle also,
Achilles lefte hise armes so
Bothe of himself and of his men
At Troie for Polixenen,
Upon hire love whanne he fell,
That for no chance that befell
Among the Grecs or up or doun,
He wolde noght agein the toun
Ben armed, for the love of hire.
And so me thenketh, lieve sire,
A man of armes mai him reste
Somtime in hope for the beste,
If he mai finde a weie nerr.
What scholde I thanne go so ferr
In strange londes many a mile
To ryde, and lese at hom therwhile
Mi love? It were a schort begete
To winne chaf and lese whete.
Bot if mi ladi bidde wolde,
That I for hire love scholde
Travaile, me thenkth trewely
I mihte fle thurghout the sky,
And go thurghout the depe se,
For al ne sette I at a stre
What thonk that I mihte elles gete.
What helpeth it a man have mete,
Wher drinke lacketh on the bord?
What helpeth eny mannes word
To seie hou I travaile faste,
Wheras me faileth ate laste
That thing which I travaile fore?
O in good time were he bore,
That mihte atteigne such a mede.
Bot certes if I mihte spede
With eny maner besinesse
Of worldes travail, thane I gesse,
Ther scholde me non ydelschipe
Departen fro hir ladischipe.
Bot this I se, on daies nou
The blinde god, I wot noght hou,
Cupido, which of love is lord,
He set the thinges in discord,
That thei that lest to love entende
Fulofte he wole hem give and sende
Most of his grace; and thus I finde
That he that scholde go behinde,
Goth many a time ferr tofore.
So wot I noght riht wel therfore,
On whether bord that I schal seile.
Thus can I noght miself conseile,
Bot al I sette on aventure,
And am, as who seith, out of cure
For ought that I can seie or do.
Foreveremore I finde it so,
The more besinesse I leie -
The more that I knele and preie
With goode wordes and with softe -
The more I am refused ofte,
With besinesse and mai noght winne.
And in good feith that is gret sinne;
For I mai seie, of dede and thoght
That ydel man have I be noght.
For hou as evere I be deslaied,
Yit evermore I have assaied.
Bot thogh my besinesse laste,
Al is bot ydel ate laste,
For whan th'effect is ydelnesse,
I not what thing is besinesse.
Sei, what availeth al the dede,
Which nothing helpeth ate nede?
For the fortune of every fame
Schal of his ende bere a name.
And thus for oght is yit befalle,
An ydel man I wol me calle
As after myn entendement.
Bot upon youre amendement,
Min holi fader, as you semeth,
Mi reson and my cause demeth."
    "Mi sone, I have herd thi matiere,
Of that thou hast thee schriven hiere.
And for to speke of ydel fare,
Me semeth that thou tharst noght care,
Bot only that thou miht noght spede.
And therof, sone, I wol thee rede,
Abyd, and haste noght to faste;
Thi dees ben every dai to caste,
Thou nost what chance schal betyde.
Betre is to wayte upon the tyde
Than rowe agein the stremes stronge.
For thogh so be thee thenketh longe,
Per cas the revolucion
Of hevene and thi condicion
Ne be noght yit of on acord.
Bot I dar make this record
To Venus, whos prest that I am,
That sithen that I hidir cam
To hiere, as sche me bad, thi lif,
Wherof thou elles be gultif,
Thou miht hierof thi conscience
Excuse, and of gret diligence,
Which thou to love hast so despended,
Thou oghtest wel to be comended.
Bot if so be that ther oght faile,
Of that thou slowthest to travaile
In armes for to ben absent,
And for thou makst an argument
Of that thou seidest hiere above,
Hou Achilles thurgh strengthe of love
Hise armes lefte for a throwe,
Thou schalt another tale knowe,
Which is contraire, as thou schalt wite.
For this a man mai finde write,
Whan that knyhthode schal be werred,
Lust mai noght thanne be preferred;
The bedd mot thanne be forsake
And schield and spere on honde take,
Which thing schal make hem after glade,
Whan thei ben worthi knihtes made.
Wherof, so as it comth to honde,
A tale thou schalt understonde,
Hou that a kniht schal armes suie,
And for the while his ese eschuie.

[The Tale of Nauplus and Ulysses]

   Upon knyhthode I rede thus:
How whilom whan the king Nauplus,
The fader of Palamades,
Cam for to preien Ulixes
With othre Gregois ek also,
That he with hem to Troie go,
Wher that the siege scholde be,
Anon upon Penolope
His wif, whom that he loveth hote,
Thenkende, wolde hem noght behote.
Bot he schop thanne a wonder wyle,
How that he scholde hem best beguile,
So that he mihte duelle stille
At home and welde his love at wille.
Wherof erli the morwe day
Out of his bedd, wher that he lay,
Whan he was uppe, he gan to fare
Into the field and loke and stare,
As he which feigneth to be wod.
He tok a plowh, wher that it stod,
Wherinne anon in stede of oxes
He let do yoken grete foxes,
And with gret salt the lond he siew.
Bot Nauplus, which the cause kniew,
Agein the sleihte which he feigneth
Another sleihte anon ordeigneth.
And fell that time Ulixes hadde
A chyld to sone, and Nauplus radde
How men that sone taken scholde
And setten him upon the molde
Wher that his fader hield the plowh
In thilke furgh which he tho drowh.
For in such wise he thoghte assaie
Hou it Ulixes scholde paie,
If that he were wod or non.
   The knihtes for this child forthgon;
Thelamacus anon was fett,
Tofore the plowh and evene sett,
Wher that his fader scholde dryve.
Bot whan he sih his child, als blyve
He drof the plowh out of the weie,
And Nauplus tho began to seie,
And hath half in a jape cryd:
'O Ulixes, thou art aspyd;
What is al this thou woldest meene?
For openliche it is now seene
That thou hast feigned al this thing,
Which is gret schame to a king,
Whan that for lust of eny slowthe
Thou wolt in a querele of trowthe
Of armes thilke honour forsake,
And duelle at hom for loves sake.
For betre it were honour to winne
Than love, which likinge is inne.
Forthi tak worschipe upon honde,
And elles thou schalt understonde
These othre worthi kinges alle
Of Grece, which unto thee calle,
Towardes thee wol be riht wrothe,
And grieve thee per chance bothe.
Which schal be to thee double schame
Most for the hindrynge of thi name,
That thou for Slouthe of eny love
Schalt so thi lustes sette above
And leve of armes the knyhthode,
Which is the pris of thi manhode
And oghte ferst to be desired.'
Bot he, which hadde his herte fyred
Upon his wif, whan he this herde,
Noght o word theragein ansuerde,
Bot torneth hom halvinge aschamed,
And hath withinne himself so tamed
His herte, that al the sotie
Of love for chivalerie
He lefte, and be him lief or loth,
To Troie forth with hem he goth,
That he him mihte noght excuse.
Thus stant it, if a knyht refuse
The lust of armes to travaile,
Ther mai no worldes ese availe,
Bot if worschipe be withal.
And that hath schewed overal;
For it sit wel in alle wise
A kniht to ben of hih emprise
And puten alle drede aweie.
For in this wise, I have herd seie:
   
[Examples of Prowess: Protesilaus]

   The worthi king Protheselai

On his passage wher he lai
Towardes Troie thilke siege,
Sche which was al his oghne liege,
Laodomie his lusti wif,
Which for his love was pensif,
As he which al hire herte hadde,
Upon a thing wherof sche dradde
A lettre, for to make him duelle
Fro Troie, sende him, thus to telle,
Hou sche hath axed of the wyse,
Touchende of him in such a wise,
That thei have don hire understonde,
Towardes othre hou so it stonde,
The destiné it hath so schape
That he schal noght the deth ascape
In cas that he arryve at Troie.
Forthi as to hir worldes joie
With al hire herte sche him preide,
And many another cause alleide,
That he with hire at home abide.
Bot he hath cast hir lettre aside,
As he which tho no maner hiede
Tok of hire wommannysshe drede;
And forth he goth, as noght ne were,
To Troie, and was the ferste there
Which londeth, and tok arryvaile.
For him was levere in the bataille,
He seith, to deien as a knyht,
Than for to lyve in al his myht
And be reproeved of his name.
Lo, thus upon the worldes fame
Knyhthode hath evere yit be set,
Which with no couardie is let.
   
[Saul]

   Of king Saul also I finde,

Whan Samuel out of his kinde,
Thurgh that the Phitonesse hath lered
In Samarie was arered
Long time after that he was ded,
The king Saul him axeth red,
If that he schal go fyhte or non.
And Samuel him seide anon,
'The ferste day of the bataille
Thou schalt be slain withoute faile
And Jonathas thi sone also.'
Bot hou as evere it felle so,
This worthi kniht of his corage
Hath undertake the viage,
And wol noght his knyhthode lette
For no peril he couthe sette;
Wherof that bothe his sone and he
Upon the Montz of Gelboe
Assemblen with here enemys.
For thei knyhthode of such a pris
Be olde daies thanne hielden,
That thei non other thing behielden.
And thus the fader for worschipe
Forth with his sone of felaschipe
Thurgh lust of armes weren dede,
As men mai in the Bible rede,
The whos knyhthode is yit in mende,
And schal be to the worldes ende.

[The Education of Achilles]

   And for to loken overmore,
It hath and schal ben evermore
That of knihthode the prouesse
Is grounded upon hardinesse
Of him that dar wel undertake.
And who that wolde ensample take
Upon the forme of knyhtes lawe,
How that Achilles was forthdrawe
With Chiro, which Centaurus hihte,
Of many a wondre hiere he mihte.
For it stod thilke time thus,
That this Chiro, this Centaurus,
Withinne a large wildernesse,
Wher was leon and leonesse,
The lepard and the tigre also,
With hert and hynde, and buck and doo,
Hadde his duellinge, as tho befell,
Of Pileon upon the hel,
Wherof was thanne mochel speche.
Ther hath Chiro this chyld to teche,
What time he was of tuelve yer age;
Wher for to maken his corage
The more hardi be other weie,
In the forest to hunte and pleie
Whan that Achilles walke wolde,
Centaurus bad that he ne scholde
After no beste make his chace,
Which wolde flen out of his place,
As buck and doo, and hert and hynde,
With whiche he mai no werre finde;
Bot tho that wolden him withstonde,
Ther scholde he with his dart on honde
Upon the tigre and the leon
Pourchace and take his veneison,
As to a kniht is acordant.
And therupon a covenant
This Chiro with Achilles sette,
That every day withoute lette
He scholde such a cruel beste
Or slen or wounden ate leste,
So that he mihte a tokne bringe
Of blod upon his hom cominge.
And thus of that Chiro him tawhte
Achilles such an herte cawhte,
That he no more a leon dradde
Whan he his dart on honde hadde
Thanne if a leon were an asse.
And that hath made him for to passe
Alle othre knihtes of his dede
Whan it cam to the grete nede,
As it was afterward wel knowe.
   Lo, thus, my sone, thou miht knowe
That the corage of hardiesce
Is of knyhthode the prouesce,
Which is to love sufficant
Aboven al the remenant
That unto loves court poursuie.
Bot who that wol no Slowthe eschuie,
Upon knihthode and noght travaile,
I not what love him scholde availe;
Bot every labour axeth why
Of som reward, wherof that I
Ensamples couthe telle ynowe
Of hem that toward love drowe
Be olde daies, as thei scholde."
    "Mi fader, therof hiere I wolde."
    "Mi sone, it is wel resonable,
In place which is honorable
If that a man his herte sette,
That thanne he for no Slowthe lette
To do what longeth to manhede.
For if thou wolt the bokes rede
Of Lancelot and othre mo,
Ther miht thou sen hou it was tho
Of armes, for thei wolde atteigne
To love, which withoute peine
Mai noght be gete of ydelnesse.
And that I take to witnesse
An old cronique in special,
The which into memorial
Is write, for his loves sake,
Hou that a kniht schal undertake.

[The Tale of Hercules and Achelons]

   Ther was a king, which Oenes
Was hote, and he under his pes
Hield Calidoyne in his empire,
And hadde a dowhter Deianire.
Men wiste in thilke time non
So fair a wiht as sche was on;
And as sche was a lusti wiht,
Riht so was thanne a noble kniht,
To whom Mercurie fader was.
This kniht the tuo pilers of bras,
The whiche yit a man mai finde,
Sette up in the desert of Ynde;
That was the worthi Hercules,
Whos name schal ben endeles
For the merveilles whiche he wroghte.
This Hercules the love soghte
Of Deianire, and of this thing
Unto hir fader, which was king,
He spak touchende of mariage.
The king knowende his hih lignage,
And dradde also hise mihtes sterne,
To him ne dorste his dowhter werne;
And natheles this he him seide,
How Achelons er he ferst preide
To wedden hire, and in accord
Thei stode, as it was of record.
Bot for al that this he him granteth,
That which of hem that other daunteth
In armes, him sche scholde take,
And that the king hath undertake.
This Achelons was a geant,
A soubtil man, a deceivant,
Which thurgh magique and sorcerie
Couthe al the world of tricherie.
And whan that he this tale herde,
Hou upon that the king ansuerde
With Hercules he moste feighte,
He tristeth noght upon his sleighte
Al only, whan it comth to nede,
Bot that which voydeth alle drede
And every noble herte stereth,
The love, that no lif forbereth,
For his ladi, whom he desireth,
With hardiesse his herte fyreth,
And sende him word withoute faile
That he wol take the bataille.
Thei setten day, thei chosen field,
The knihtes coevered under schield
Togedre come at time set,
And echon is with other met.
It fell thei foghten bothe afote,
Ther was no ston, ther was no rote,
Which mihte letten hem the weie,
But al was voide and take aweie.
Thei smyten strokes bot a fewe,
For Hercules, which wolde schewe
His grete strengthe as for the nones,
He sterte upon him al at ones
And cawhte him in hise armes stronge.
This geant wot he mai noght longe
Endure under so harde bondes,
And thoghte he wolde out of hise hondes
Be sleyhte in som manere ascape.
And as he couthe himself forschape,
In liknesse of an eddre he slipte
Out of his hond, and forth he skipte;
And efte, as he that feighte wole,
He torneth him into a bole,
And gan to belwe of such a soun,
As thogh the world scholde al go doun.
The ground he sporneth and he tranceth,
Hise large hornes he avanceth
And caste hem here and there aboute.
Bot he, which stant of him no doute,
Awaiteth wel whan that he cam,
And him be bothe hornes nam
And al at ones he him caste
Unto the ground, and hield him faste,
That he ne mihte with no sleighte
Out of his hond gete upon heighte,
Til he was overcome and yolde,
And Hercules hath what he wolde.
The king him granteth to fulfille
His axinge at his oghne wille,
And sche for whom he hadde served,
Hire thoghte he hath hire wel deserved.
And thus with gret decerte of armes
He wan him for to ligge in armes,
As he which hath it dere aboght,
For otherwise scholde he noght.
   
[Penthesilea, Philemenis, Aeneas]

   And overthis if thou wolt hiere

Upon knihthode of this matiere,
Hou love and armes ben aqueinted,
A man mai se bothe write and peinted
So ferforth that Pantasilee,
Which was the queene of Feminee,
The love of Hector for to sieke
And for th'onour of armes eke,
To Troie cam with spere and schield,
And rod hirself into the field
With maidens armed al a route
In rescouss of the toun aboute,
Which with the Gregois was belein.
   Fro Pafagoine and as men sein,
Which stant upon the worldes ende,
That time it likede ek to wende
To Philemenis, which was king,
To Troie, and come upon this thing
In helpe of thilke noble toun;
And al was that for the renoun
Of worschipe and of worldes fame,
Of which he wolde bere a name.
And so he dede, and forthwithal
He wan of love in special
A fair tribut foreveremo.
For it fell thilke time so,
Pirrus the sone of Achilles
This worthi queene among the press
With dedli swerd soghte out and fond,
And slowh hire with his oghne hond;
Wherof this king of Pafagoine
Pantasilee of Amazoine,
Wher sche was queene, with him ladde,
With suche maidens as sche hadde
Of hem that were left alyve,
Forth in his schip, til thei aryve;
Wher that the body was begrave
With worschipe, and the wommen save.
And for the goodschipe of this dede
Thei granten him a lusti mede
That every yeer as for truage
To him and to his heritage
Of maidens faire he schal have thre.
And in this wise spedde he,
Which the fortune of armes soghte,
With his travail his ese he boghte;
For otherwise he scholde have failed,
If that he hadde noght travailed.
   Eneas ek withinne Ytaile,
Ne hadde he wonne the bataille
And don his miht so besily
Agein king Turne his enemy,
He hadde noght Lavine wonne;
Bot for he hath him overronne
And gete his pris, he gat hire love.
   
[Gentilesse]

   Be these ensamples here above,

Lo, now, mi sone, as I have told,
Thou miht wel se, who that is bold
And dar travaile and undertake
The cause of love, he schal be take
The rathere unto loves grace;
For comunliche in worthi place
The wommen loven worthinesse
Of manhode and of gentilesse,
For the gentils ben most desired."
    "Mi fader, bot I were enspired
Thurgh lore of you, I wot no weie
What gentilesce is for to seie,
Wherof to telle I you beseche."
"The ground, mi sone, for to seche
Upon this diffinicion,
The worldes constitucion
Hath set the name of gentilesse
Upon the fortune of richesse
Which of long time is falle in age.
Thanne is a man of hih lignage
After the forme, as thou miht hiere,
Bot nothing after the matiere.
For who that resoun understonde,
Upon richesse it mai noght stonde,
For that is thing which faileth ofte.
For he that stant today alofte
And al the world hath in hise wones,
Tomorwe he falleth al at ones
Out of richesse into poverte,
So that therof is no decerte
Which gentilesce makth abide.
And for to loke on other side
Hou that a gentil man is bore,
Adam, which alle was tofore
With Eve his wif, as of hem tuo,
Al was aliche gentil tho;
So that of generacion
To make declaracion,
Ther mai no gentilesce be.
For to the reson if we se,
Of mannes berthe the mesure,
It is so comun to nature,
That it gifth every man aliche,
Als wel to povere as to the riche;
For naked thei ben bore bothe,
The lord no more hath for to clothe
As of himself that ilke throwe,
Than hath the povereste of the rowe.
And whan thei schulle bothe passe,
I not of hem which hath the lasse
Of worldes good, bot as of charge
The lord is more for to charge,
Whan God schal his accompte hiere,
For he hath had hise lustes hiere.
Bot of the bodi, which schal deie,
Althogh ther be diverse weie
To deth, yit is ther bot on ende,
To which that every man schal wende,
Als wel the beggere as the lord,
Of o nature, of on acord.
Sche which oure eldemoder is,
The erthe, bothe that and this
Receiveth and alich devoureth,
That sche to nouther part favoureth.
So wot I nothing after kinde
Where I mai gentilesse finde.
   For lacke of vertu lacketh grace,
Wherof richesse in many place,
Whan men best wene for to stonde,
Al sodeinly goth out of honde.
Bot vertu set in the corage,
Ther mai no world be so salvage,
Which mihte it take and don aweie,
Til whanne that the bodi deie;
And thanne he schal be riched so,
That it mai faile neveremo.
So mai that wel be gentilesse,
Which gifth so gret a sikernesse:
For after the condicion
Of resonable entencion,
The which out of the soule groweth
And the vertu fro vice knoweth,
Wherof a man the vice eschuieth,
Withoute Slowthe and vertu suieth,
That is a verrai gentil man,
And nothing elles which he can,
Ne which he hath, ne which he mai.
Bot for al that yit nou aday,
In loves court to taken hiede,
The povere vertu schal noght spiede,
Wher that the riche vice woweth;
For sielde it is that love alloweth
The gentil man withoute good,
Thogh his condicion be good.
Bot if a man of bothe tuo
Be riche and vertuous also,
Thanne is he wel the more worth.
Bot yit to putte himselve forth
He moste don his besinesse,
For nowther good ne gentilesse
Mai helpen hem whiche ydel be.
   Bot who that wole in his degré
Travaile so as it belongeth,
It happeth ofte that he fongeth
Worschipe and ese bothe tuo.
For evere yit it hath be so,
That love honeste in sondri weie
Profiteth, for it doth aweie
The vice, and as the bokes sein,
It makth curteis of the vilein,
And to the couard hardiesce
It gifth, so that verrai prouesse
Is caused upon loves reule
To him that can manhode reule;
And ek toward the wommanhiede,
Who that therof wol taken hiede,
For thei the betre affaited be
In everything, as men mai se.
For love hath evere hise lustes grene
In gentil folk, as it is sene,
Which thing ther mai no kinde areste.
I trowe that ther is no beste,
If he with love scholde aqueinte,
That he ne wolde make it queinte
As for the while that it laste.
And thus I conclude ate laste,
That thei ben ydel, as me semeth,
Whiche unto thing that love demeth
Forslowthen that thei scholden do.
   And overthis, mi sone, also
After the vertu moral eke
To speke of love if I schal seke,
Among the holi bokes wise
I finde write in such a wise,
'Who loveth noght is hier as ded';
For love above alle othre is hed,
Which hath the vertus for to lede,
Of al that unto mannes dede
Belongeth: for of ydelschipe
He hateth all the felaschipe.
For Slowthe is evere to despise,
Which in desdeign hath al apprise,
And that acordeth noght to man.
For he that wit and reson kan,
It sit him wel that he travaile
Upon somthing which mihte availe,
For ydelschipe is noght comended,
Bot every lawe it hath defended.
   And in ensample therupon
The noble wise Salomon,
Which hadde of everything insihte,
Seith, 'As the briddes to the flihte
Ben made, so the man is bore
To labour,' which is noght forbore
To hem that thenken for to thryve.
For we, whiche are now alyve,
Of hem that besi whylom were,
Als wel in scole as elleswhere,
Mowe every day ensample take,
That if it were now to make
Thing which that thei ferst founden oute,
It scholde noght be broght aboute.
Here lyves thanne were longe,
Here wittes grete, here mihtes stronge,
Here hertes ful of besinesse,
Wherof the worldes redinesse
In bodi bothe and in corage
Stant evere upon his avantage.
And for to drawe into memoire
Here names bothe and here histoire,
Upon the vertu of her dede
In sondri bokes thou miht rede.

Expedit in manibus labor, vt de cotidianis
   Actibus ac vita viuere possit homo.
Set qui doctrine causa fert mente labores,
   Preualet et merita perpetuata parat.8

[On the Uses of Labor]

   Of every wisdom the parfit
The hyhe God of His spirit
Gaf to the men in erthe hiere
Upon the forme and the matiere
Of that he wolde make hem wise.
And thus cam in the ferste apprise
Of bokes and of alle goode
Thurgh hem that whilom understode
The lore which to hem was give,
Wherof these othre, that now live,
Ben every day to lerne newe.
Bot er the time that men siewe,
And that the labour forth it broghte,
Ther was no corn, thogh men it soghte,
In non of al the fieldes oute;
And er the wisdom cam aboute
Of hem that ferst the bokes write,
This mai wel every wys man wite,
Ther was gret labour ek also.
Thus was non ydel of the tuo,
That on the plogh hath undertake
With labour which the hond hath take,
That other tok to studie and muse,
As he which wolde noght refuse
The labour of hise wittes alle.
And in this wise it is befalle,
Of labour which that thei begunne
We be now tawht of that we kunne.
Here besinesse is yit so seene,
That it stant evere alyche greene;
Al be it so the bodi deie,
The name of hem schal nevere aweie.
In the croniqes as I finde.

[Discoverers and Inventors]

   Cham, whos labour is yit in minde,
Was he which ferst the lettres fond
And wrote in Hebreu with his hond.
Of naturel philosophie
He fond ferst also the clergie.
   Cadmus the lettres of Gregois
Ferst made upon his oghne chois.
   Theges of thing which schal befalle,
He was the ferste augurre of alle.
   And Philemon be the visage
Fond to descrive the corage.
   Cladyns, Esdras, and Sulpices,
Termegis, Pandulf, Frigidilles,
Menander, Ephiloquorus,
Solins, Pandas, and Josephus
The ferste were of enditours,
Of old cronique and ek auctours:
   And Heredot in his science
Of metre, of rime, and of cadence,
The ferste was of which men note.
   And of musique also the note
In mannes vois, or softe or scharpe,
That fond Jubal; and of the harpe
The merie soun, which is to like,
That fond Poulins forth with phisique.
   Zenzis fond ferst the pourtreture,
And Promotheus the sculpture;
After what forme that hem thoghte,
The resemblance anon thei wroghte.
   Tubal in iren and in stel
Fond ferst the forge and wroghte it wel.
   And Jadahel, as seith the bok,
Ferst made net and fisshes tok.
Of huntynge ek he fond the chace,
Which now is knowe in many place.
A tente of cloth with corde and stake
He sette up ferst and dede it make.
   Verconius of cokerie
Ferst made the delicacie.
   The craft Minerve of wolle fond
And made cloth hire oghne hond,
And Delbora made it of lyn:
Tho wommen were of great engyn.
   Bot thing which gifth ous mete and drinke
And doth the labourer to swinke
To tile lond and sette vines,
Wherof the cornes and the wynes
Ben sustenance to mankinde,
In olde bokes as I finde,
Saturnus of his oghne wit
Hath founde ferst, and more yit
Of chapmanhode he fond the weie,
And ek to coigne the moneie
Of sondri metall, as it is,
He was the ferste man of this.
   Bot hou that metall cam a place
Thurgh mannes wit and Goddes grace
The route of philosophres wise
Controeveden be sondri wise,
Ferst for to gete it out of myne,
And after for to trie and fyne.

[Alchemy]

   And also with gret diligence
Thei founden thilke experience,
Which cleped is alconomie,
Wherof the selver multeplie
Thei made and ek the gold also.
And for to telle hou it is so,
Of bodies sevene in special
With foure spiritz joynt withal
Stant the substance of this matiere.
The bodies whiche I speke of hiere
Of the planetes ben begonne.
The gold is titled to the sonne,
The mone of selver hath his part,
And iren that stant upon Mart,
The led after Satorne groweth,
And Jupiter the bras bestoweth,
The coper set is to Venus,
And to his part Mercurius
Hath the quikselver, as it falleth,
The which, after the bok it calleth,
Is ferst of thilke fowre named
Of spiritz, whiche ben proclamed;
And the spirit which is secounde
In sal armoniak is founde.
The thridde spirit sulphur is;
The ferthe suiende after this
Arcennicum be name is hote.
With blowinge and with fyres hote
In these thinges whiche I seie,
Thei worchen be diverse weie.
For as the philosophre tolde
Of gold and selver, thei ben holde
Tuo principal extremites,
To whiche alle othre be degres
Of the metalls ben acordant,
And so thurgh kinde resemblant,
That what man couthe aweie take
The rust, of which thei waxen blake,
And the savour and the hardnesse,
Thei scholden take the liknesse
Of gold or selver parfitly.
   Bot for to worche it sikirly,
Betwen the corps and the spirit,
Er that the metall be parfit,
In sevene formes it is set;
Of alle and if that on be let,
The remenant mai noght availe,
Bot otherwise it mai noght faile.
For thei be whom this art was founde
To every point a certain bounde
Ordeignen, that a man mai finde
This craft is wroght be weie of kinde,
So that ther is no fallas inne.
Bot what man that this werk beginne,
He mot awaite at every tyde,
So that nothing be left aside,
Ferst of the distillacion,
Forth with the congelacion,
Solucion, descencion,
And kepe in his entencion
The point of sublimacion,
And forth with calcinacion
Of veray approbacion
Do that ther be fixacion
With tempred hetes of the fyr,
Til he the parfit elixir
Of thilke philosophres ston
Mai gete, of which that many on
Of philosophres whilom write.
And if thou wolt the names wite
Of thilke ston with othre tuo,
Whiche as the clerkes maden tho,
So as the bokes it recorden,
The kinde of hem I schal recorden.

[The Three Philosopher's Stones]

   These olde Philosophres wyse
Be weie of kinde in sondri wise
Thre stones maden thurgh clergie.
The ferst, if I schal specefie,
Was lapis vegetabilis,
Of which the propre vertu is
To mannes hele for to serve,
As for to kepe and to preserve
The bodi fro siknesses alle,
Til deth of kinde upon him falle.
   The ston seconde I thee behote
Is lapis animalis hote,
The whos vertu is propre and cowth
For ere and yhe and nase and mouth,
Wherof a man mai hiere and se
And smelle and taste in his degré,
And for to fiele and for to go
It helpeth man of bothe tuo.
The wittes fyve he underfongeth
To kepe, as it to him belongeth.
   The thridde ston in special
Be name is cleped minerall,
Which the metalls of every mine
Attempreth, til that thei ben fyne,
And pureth hem be such a weie,
That al the vice goth aweie
Of rust, of stink, and of hardnesse.
And whan thei ben of such clennesse,
This mineral, so as I finde,
Transformeth al the ferste kynde
And makth hem able to conceive
Thurgh his vertu, and to receive
Bothe in substance and in figure
Of gold and selver the nature.
For thei tuo ben th'extremetes,
To whiche after the propretes
Hath every metal his desir,
With help and confort of the fyr
Forth with this ston, as it is seid,
Which to the sonne and mone is leid;
For to the rede and to the whyte
This ston hath pouer to profite.
It makth multiplicacioun
Of gold, and the fixacioun
It causeth, and of his habit
He doth the werk to be parfit
Of thilke elixer which men calle
Alconomie, as is befalle
To hem that whilom weren wise.
Bot now it stant al otherwise;
Thei speken faste of thilke ston,
Bot hou to make it, nou wot non
After the sothe experience.
And natheles gret diligence
Thei setten upon thilke dede,
And spille more than thei spede;
For allewey thei finde a lette,
Which bringeth in poverte and dette
To hem that riche were afore.
The lost is had, the lucre is lore,
To gete a pound thei spenden fyve;
I not hou such a craft schal thryve
In the manere as it is used:
It were betre be refused
Than for to worchen upon weene
In thing which stant noght as thei weene.
Bot noght forthi, who that it knewe,
The science of himself is trewe
Upon the forme as it was founded,
Wherof the names yit ben grounded
Of hem that ferste it founden oute;
And thus the fame goth aboute
To suche as soghten besinesse
Of vertu and of worthinesse.
Of whom if I the names calle,

[The First Alchemists]

   Hermes was on the ferste of alle,
To whom this art is most applied;
Geber therof was magnefied,
And Ortolan and Morien,
Among the whiche is Avicen,
Which fond and wrot a gret partie
The practique of Alconomie;
Whos bokes, pleinli as thei stonde
Upon this craft, fewe understonde;
Bot yit to put hem in assai
Ther ben full manye now aday,
That knowen litel what thei meene.
It is noght on to wite and weene;
In forme of wordes thei it trete,
Bot yit they failen of begete,
For of to moche or of to lyte
Ther is algate founde a wyte,
So that thei folwe noght the lyne
Of the parfite medicine,
Which grounded is upon nature.
Bot thei that writen the scripture
Of Grek, Arabe, and of Caldee,
Thei were of such auctorité
That thei ferst founden out the weie
Of al that thou hast herd me seie;
Wherof the cronique of her lore
Schal stonde in pris foreveremore.
   
[Letters and Language]

   Bot toward oure marches hiere,

Of the Latins if thou wolt hiere,
Of hem that whilom vertuous
Were and therto laborious,
Carmente made of hire engin
The ferste lettres of Latin,
Of which the tunge Romein cam,
Wherof that Aristarchus nam
Forth with Donat and Dindimus
The ferste reule of scole, and thus,
How that Latin schal be componed
And in what wise it schal be soned,
That every word in his degré
Schal stonde upon congruité.
And thilke time at Rome also
Was Tullius with Cithero,
That writen upon Rethorike,
Hou that men schal the wordes pike
After the forme of eloquence,
Which is, men sein, a gret prudence.
And after that out of Hebreu
Jerom, which the langage kneu,
The Bible, in which the Lawe is closed,
Into Latin he hath transposed;
And many an other writere ek
Out of Caldee, Arabe, and Grek
With gret labour the bokes wise
Translateden. And otherwise
The Latins of hemself also
Here studie at thilke time so
With gret travaile of scole toke
In sondri forme for to boke,
That we mai take here evidences
Upon the lore of the sciences,
Of craftes bothe and of clergie;
Among the whiche in poesie
To the lovers Ovide wrot
And tawhte, if love be to hot,
In what manere it scholde akiele.
   Forthi, mi sone, if that thou fiele
That love wringe thee to sore,
Behold Ovide and take his lore."
    "Mi fader, if thei mihte spede
Mi love, I wolde his bokes rede;
And if thei techen to restreigne
Mi love, it were an ydel peine
To lerne a thing which mai noght be.
For lich unto the greene tree,
If that men toke his rote aweie,
Riht so myn herte scholde deie,
If that mi love be withdrawe.
Wherof touchende unto this sawe
There is bot only to poursuie
Mi love, and ydelschipe eschuie."
    "Mi goode sone, soth to seie,
If ther be siker eny weie
To love, thou hast seid the beste.
For who that wolde have al his reste
And do no travail at the nede,
It is no resoun that he spede
In loves cause for to winne;
For he which dar nothing beginne,
I not what thing he scholde achieve.
Bot overthis thou schalt believe,
So as it sit thee wel to knowe,
That ther ben othre vices slowe,
Whiche unto love don gret lette,
If thou thin herte upon hem sette."

Perdit homo causam linquens sua iura sopori,
   Et quasi dimidium pars sua mortis habet.
Est in amore vigil Venus, et quod habet vigilanti
   Obsequium thalamis fert vigilata suis.9

"Toward the slowe progenie
Ther is yit on of compaignie,
And he is cleped Sompnolence,
Which doth to Slouthe his reverence,
As he which is his chamberlein,
That many an hundrid time hath lein
To slepe, whan he scholde wake.
He hath with love trewes take,
That wake whoso wake wile,
If he mai couche a doun his bile,
He hath al wowed what him list;
That ofte he goth to bedde unkist,
And seith that for no druerie
He wol noght leve his sluggardie.
For thogh no man it wole allowe,
To slepe levere than to wowe
Is his manere, and thus on nyhtes,
Whan that he seth the lusti knyhtes
Revelen, wher these wommen are,
Awey he skulketh as an hare,
And goth to bedde and leith him softe,
And of his Slouthe he dremeth ofte
Hou that he stiketh in the myr,
And hou he sitteth be the fyr
And claweth on his bare schanckes,
And hou he clymbeth up the banckes
And falleth into slades depe.
Bot thanne whoso toke kepe,
Whanne he is falle in such a drem,
Riht as a schip agein the strem,
He routeth with a slepi noise,
And brustleth as a monkes froise,
Whanne it is throwe into the panne.
And otherwhile sielde whanne
That he mai dreme a lusti swevene,
Him thenkth as thogh he were in hevene
And as the world were holi his.
And thanne he spekth of that and this,
And makth his exposicion
After the disposicion
Of that he wolde, and in such wise
He doth to love all his service.
I not what thonk he schal deserve.
Bot, sone, if thou wolt love serve,
I rede that thou do noght so."
    "Ha, goode fader, certes no.
I hadde levere, be mi trowthe,
Er I were set on such a slouthe
And beere such a slepi snoute,
Bothe yhen of myn hed were oute.
For me were betre fulli die
Thanne I of such a slugardie
Hadde eny name, God me schilde;
For whan mi moder was with childe,
And I lay in hire wombe clos,
I wolde rathere Atropos,
Which is goddesse of alle deth,
Anon as I hadde eny breth,
Me hadde fro mi moder cast.
Bot now I am nothing agast,
I thonke Godd; for Lachesis,
Ne Cloto, which hire felawe is,
Me schopen no such destiné,
Whan thei at mi nativité
My weerdes setten as thei wolde;
Bot thei me schopen that I scholde
Eschuie of slep the truandise,
So that I hope in such a wise
To love for to ben excused,
That I no Sompnolence have used.
For certes, fader Genius,
Yit into nou it hath be thus,
At alle time if it befelle
So that I mihte come and duelle
In place ther my ladi were,
I was noght slow ne slepi there.
For thanne I dar wel undertake,
That whanne hir list on nyhtes wake
In chambre as to carole and daunce,
Me thenkth I mai me more avaunce,
If I mai gon upon hir hond,
Thanne if I wonne a kinges lond.
For whanne I mai hire hand beclippe,
With such gladnesse I daunce and skippe
Me thenkth I touche noght the flor.
The ro, which renneth on the mor,
Is thanne noght so lyht as I.
So mow ye witen wel forthi,
That for the time slep I hate.
And whanne it falleth othergate,
So that hire like noght to daunce,
Bot on the dees to caste chaunce
Or axe of love som demande,
Or elles that hir list comaunde
To rede and here of Troilus,
Riht as sche wole or so or thus,
I am al redi to consente.
And if so is that I mai hente
Somtime among a good leisir,
So as I dar of mi desir
I telle a part; bot whanne I preie,
Anon sche bidt me go mi weie
And seith it is ferr in the nyht;
And I swere it is even liht.
Bot as it falleth ate laste,
Ther mai no worldes joie laste,
So mot I nedes fro hire wende
And of my wachche make an ende.
And if sche thanne hiede toke,
Hou pitousliche on hire I loke,
Whan that I schal my leve take,
Hire oghte of mercy for to slake
Hire daunger, which seith evere 'nay.'
   Bot he seith often, 'Have good day,'
That loth is for to take his leve:
Therfore, while I mai beleve,
I tarie forth the nyht along,
For it is noght on me along
To slep that I so sone go,
Til that I mot algate so;
And thanne I bidde Godd hire se,
And so doun knelende on mi kne
I take leve, and if I schal,
I kisse hire, and go forthwithal.
And otherwhile, if that I dore,
Er I come fulli to the dore,
I torne agein and feigne a thing,
As thogh I hadde lost a ring
Or somwhat elles, for I wolde
Kisse hire eftsones, if I scholde,
Bot selden is that I so spede.
And whanne I se that I mot nede
Departen, I departe, and thanne
With al myn herte I curse and banne
That evere slep was mad for yhe;
For, as me thenkth, I mihte dryhe
Withoute slep to waken evere,
So that I scholde noght dissevere
Fro hire, in whom is al my liht.
And thanne I curse also the nyht
With al the will of mi corage,
And seie, 'Awey, thou blake ymage,
Which of thi derke cloudy face
Makst al the worldes lyht deface,
And causest unto slep a weie,
Be which I mot nou gon aweie
Out of mi ladi compaignie.
O slepi nyht, I thee defie,
And wolde that thou leye in presse
With Proserpine the goddesse
And with Pluto the helle king.
For til I se the daies spring,
I sette slep noght at a risshe.'
And with that word I sike and wisshe,
And seie, 'Ha, whi ne were it day?
For yit mi ladi thanne I may
Beholde, thogh I do nomore.'
And efte I thenke forthermore,
To som man hou the niht doth ese,
Whan he hath thing that mai him plese
The longe nyhtes be his side,
Where as I faile and go beside.
Bot slep, I not wherof it serveth,
Of which no man his thonk deserveth
To gete him love in eny place,
Bot is an hindrere of his grace
And makth him ded as for a throwe,
Riht as a stok were overthrowe.
And so, mi fader, in this wise
The slepi nyhtes I despise,
And evere amiddes of mi tale
I thenke upon the nyhtingale,
Which slepeth noght be weie of kinde
For love, in bokes as I finde.
Thus ate laste I go to bedde,
And yit min herte lith to wedde
With hire, wher as I cam fro;
Thogh I departe, he wol noght so,
Ther is no lock mai schette him oute,
Him nedeth noght to gon aboute,
That perce mai the harde wall;
Thus is he with hire overall,
That be hire lief, or be hire loth
Into hire bedd myn herte goth,
And softly takth hire in his arm
And fieleth hou that sche is warm,
And wissheth that his body were
To fiele that he fieleth there.
And thus miselven I tormente,
Til that the dede slep me hente.

[On Dreams]

   Bot thanne be a thousand score
Welmore than I was tofore
I am tormented in mi slep,
Bot that I dreme is noght of schep;
For I ne thenke noght on wulle,
Bot I am drecched to the fulle
Of love, that I have to kepe,
That nou I lawhe and nou I wepe,
And nou I lese and nou I winne,
And nou I ende and nou beginne.
And otherwhile I dreme and mete
That I alone with hire mete
And that Danger is left behinde;
And thanne in slep such joie I finde,
That I ne bede nevere awake.
Bot after, whanne I hiede take,
And schal arise upon the morwe,
Thanne is al torned into sorwe,
Noght for the cause I schal arise,
Bot for I mette in such a wise,
And ate laste I am bethoght
That al is vein and helpeth noght.
Bot yit me thenketh be my wille
I wolde have leie and slepe stille,
To meten evere of such a swevene,
For thanne I hadde a slepi hevene."
    "Mi sone, and for thou tellest so,
A man mai finde of time ago
That many a swevene hath be certein,
Al be it so, that som men sein
That swevenes ben of no credence.
Bot for to schewe in evidence
That thei fulofte sothe thinges
Betokne, I thenke in my wrytinges
To telle a tale therupon,
Which fell be olde daies gon.

[The Tale of Ceix and Alceone]

   This finde I write in poesie:
Ceix the king of Trocinie
Hadde Alceone to his wif,
Which as hire oghne hertes lif
Him loveth; and he hadde also
A brother, which was cleped tho
Dedalion, and he per cas
Fro kinde of man forschape was
Into a goshauk of liknesse;
Wherof the king gret hevynesse
Hath take, and thoghte in his corage
To gon upon a pelrinage
Into a strange regioun,
Wher he hath his devocioun
To don his sacrifice and preie,
If that he mihte in eny weie
Toward the goddes finde grace
His brother hele to pourchace,
So that he mihte be reformed
Of that he hadde be transformed.
To this pourpos and to this ende
This king is redy for to wende,
As he which wolde go be schipe;
And for to don him felaschipe
His wif unto the see him broghte,
With al hire herte and him besoghte,
That he the time hire wolde sein,
Whan that he thoghte come agein.
'Withinne,' he seith, 'tuo monthe day.'
And thus in al the haste he may
He tok his leve, and forth he seileth
Wepende, and sche hirself beweileth,
And torneth hom, ther sche cam fro.
Bot whan the monthes were ago,
The whiche he sette of his comynge,
And that sche herde no tydinge,
Ther was no care for to seche.
Wherof the goddes to beseche
Tho sche began in many wise,
And to Juno hire sacrifise
Above alle othre most sche dede,
And for hir lord sche hath so bede
To wite and knowe hou that he ferde,
That Juno the goddesse hire herde,
Anon and upon this matiere
Sche bad Yris hir messagere
To slepes hous that sche schal wende,
And bidde him that he make an ende
Be swevene and schewen al the cas
Unto this ladi, hou it was.
   This Yris, fro the hihe stage,
Which undertake hath the message,
Hire reyny cope dede upon,
The which was wonderli begon
With colours of diverse hewe,
An hundred mo than men it knewe;
The hevene lich unto a bowe
Sche bende, and so she cam doun lowe,
The god of slep wher that sche fond.
And that was in a strange lond,
Which marcheth upon Chymerie.
For ther, as seith the poesie,
The god of Slep hath mad his hous,
Which of entaille is merveilous.
Under an hell ther is a cave,
Which of the sonne mai noght have,
So that no man mai knowe ariht
The point betwen the dai and nyht.
Ther is no fyr, ther is no sparke,
Ther is no dore which mai charke,
Wherof an yhe scholde unschette,
So that inward ther is no lette.
And for to speke of that withoute,
Ther stant no gret tree nyh aboute
Wheron ther myhte crowe or pie
Alihte, for to clepe or crie.
Ther is no cok to crowe day,
Ne beste non which noise may
The hell, bot al aboute round
Ther is growende upon the ground
Popi, which berth the sed of slep,
With othre herbes suche an hep.
A stille water for the nones
Rennende upon the smale stones,
Which hihte of Lethes the rivere,
Under that hell in such manere
Ther is, which gifth gret appetit
To slepe. And thus full of delit
Slep hath his hous; and of his couche
Withinne his chambre if I schal touche,
Of hebenus that slepi tree
The bordes al aboute be,
And for he scholde slepe softe,
Upon a fethrebed alofte
He lith with many a pilwe of doun:
The chambre is strowed up and doun
With swevenes many thousendfold.
Thus cam Yris into this hold,
And to the bedd, which is al blak,
Sche goth, and ther with Slep sche spak,
And in the wise as sche was bede
The message of Juno sche dede.
Fulofte hir wordes sche reherceth,
Er sche his slepi eres perceth;
With mochel wo bot ate laste
His slombrende yhen he upcaste
And seide hir that it schal be do.
Wherof among a thousend tho,
Withinne his hous that slepi were,
In special he ches out there
Thre, whiche scholden do this dede:
The ferste of hem, so as I rede,
Was Morpheus, the whos nature
Is for to take the figure
Of what persone that him liketh,
Wherof that he fulofte entriketh
The lif which slepe schal be nyhte;
And Ithecus that other hihte,
Which hath the vois of every soun,
The chiere and the condicioun
Of every lif, what so it is;
The thridde suiende after this
Is Panthasas, which may transforme
Of everything the rihte forme,
And change it in another kinde.
Upon hem thre, so as I finde,
Of swevenes stant al th'apparence,
Which otherwhile is evidence
And otherwhile bot a jape.
Bot natheles it is so schape,
That Morpheus be nyht alone
Appiereth until Alceone
In liknesse of hir housebonde
Al naked ded upon the stronde,
And hou he dreynte in special
These othre tuo it schewen al.
The tempeste of the blake cloude,
The wode see, the wyndes loude,
Al this sche mette, and sih him dyen;
Wherof that sche began to crien,
Slepende abedde ther sche lay,
And with that noise of hire affray
Hir wommen sterten up aboute,
Whiche of here ladi were in doute,
And axen hire hou that sche ferde;
And sche, riht as sche syh and herde,
Hir swevene hath told hem everydel.
And thei it halsen alle wel
And sein it is a tokne of goode;
Bot til sche wiste hou that it stode,
Sche hath no confort in hire herte,
Upon the morwe and up sche sterte,
And to the see, wher that sche mette
The bodi lay, withoute lette
Sche drowh, and whan that sche cam nyh,
Stark ded, hise armes sprad, sche syh
Hire lord flietende upon the wawe.
Wherof hire wittes ben withdrawe,
And sche, which tok of deth no kepe,
Anon forth lepte into the depe
And wolde have cawht him in hire arm.
   This infortune of double harm
The goddes fro the hevene above
Behielde, and for the trowthe of love,
Which in this worthi ladi stod,
Thei have upon the salte flod
Hire dreinte lord and hire also
Fro deth to lyve torned so,
That thei ben schapen into briddes
Swimmende upon the wawe amiddes.
And whan sche sih hire lord livende
In liknesse of a bridd swimmende,
And sche was of the same sort,
So as sche mihte do desport,
Upon the joie which sche hadde
Hire wynges bothe abrod sche spradde,
And him, so as sche mai suffise,
Beclipte and keste in such a wise
As sche was whilom wont to do.
Hire wynges for hire armes tuo
Sche tok, and for hire lippes softe
Hire harde bile, and so fulofte
Sche fondeth in hire briddes forme,
If that sche mihte hirself conforme
To do the plesance of a wif,
As sche dede in that other lif.
For thogh sche hadde hir pouer lore,
Hir will stod as it was tofore,
And serveth him so as sche mai.
Wherof into this ilke day
Togedre upon the see thei wone,
Wher many a dowhter and a sone
Thei bringen forth of briddes kinde;
And for men scholden take in mynde
This Alceoun the trewe queene,
Hire briddes yit, as it is seene,
Of Alceoun the name bere.
   Lo, thus, mi sone, it mai thee stere
Of swevenes for to take kepe,
For ofte time a man aslepe
Mai se what after schal betide.
Forthi it helpeth at som tyde
A man to slepe, as it belongeth,
Bot slowthe no lif underfongeth
Which is to love appourtenant."
    "Mi fader, upon covenant
I dar wel make this avou,
Of all mi lif that into nou,
Als fer as I can understonde,
Yit tok I nevere slep on honde,
Whan it was time for to wake;
For thogh myn yhe it wolde take,
Min herte is evere theragein.
Bot natheles to speke it plein,
Al this that I have seid you hiere
Of my wakinge, as ye mai hiere,
It toucheth to mi lady swete.
For otherwise, I you behiete,
In strange place whanne I go,
Me list nothing to wake so.
For whan the wommen listen pleie,
And I hir se noght in the weie
Of whom I scholde merthe take,
Me list noght longe for to wake,
Bot if it be for pure schame,
Of that I wolde eschuie a name,
That thei ne scholde have cause non
To seie, 'Ha, lo, wher goth such on,
That hath forlore his contenaunce!'
And thus among I singe and daunce,
And feigne lust ther as non is.
For ofte sithe I fiele this:
Of thoght, which in mi herte falleth
Whanne it is nyht, myn hed appalleth,
And that is for I se hire noght
Which is the wakere of mi thoght.
And thus as tymliche as I may,
Fulofte whanne it is brod day,
I take of all these othre leve
And go my weie, and thei beleve,
That sen per cas here loves there.
And I go forth as noght ne were
Unto mi bedd, so that alone
I mai ther ligge and sighe and grone
And wisshen al the longe nyht,
Til that I se the daies lyht.
I not if that be Sompnolence,
Bot upon youre conscience,
Min holi fader, demeth ye."
    "Mi sone, I am wel paid with thee,
Of slep that thou the sluggardie
Be nyhte in loves compaignie
Eschuied hast, and do thi peine
So that thi love thar noght pleine.
For love upon his lust wakende
Is evere, and wolde that non ende
Were of the longe nyhtes set.
Wherof that thou be war the bet,
To telle a tale I am bethoght,
Hou love and slep acorden noght.

[The Prayer of Cephalus]

   For love who that list to wake
Be nyhte, he mai ensample take
Of Cephalus, whan that he lay
With Aurora that swete may
In armes all the longe nyht.
Bot whanne it drogh toward the liht,
That he withinne his herte sih
The dai which was amorwe nyh,
Anon unto the sonne he preide,
For lust of love, and thus he seide:
    'O Phebus, which the daies liht
Governest til that it be nyht,
And gladest every creature
After the lawe of thi nature,
Bot natheles ther is a thing,
Which onli to the knouleching
Belongeth as in priveté
To love and to his dueté,
Which asketh noght to ben apert,
Bot in cilence and in covert
Desireth for to be beschaded.
And thus whan that thi liht is faded
And Vesper scheweth him alofte,
And that the nyht is long and softe,
Under the cloudes derke and stille
Thanne hath this thing most of his wille.
Forthi unto thi myhtes hyhe,
As thou which art the daies yhe,
Of love and myht no conseil hyde,
Upon this derke nyhtes tyde
With al myn herte I thee beseche
That I plesance myhte seche
With hire which lith in min armes.
Withdrawgh the banere of thin armes,
And let thi lyhtes ben unborn,
And in the signe of Capricorn,
The hous appropred to Satorne,
I preie that thou wolt sojorne,
Wher ben the nihtes derke and longe.
For I mi love have underfonge,
Which lith hier be mi syde naked,
As sche which wolde ben awaked,
And me lest nothing for to slepe.
So were it good to take kepe
Nou at this nede of mi preiere,
And that thee like for to stiere
Thi fyri carte, and so ordeigne,
That thou thi swifte hors restreigne
Lowe under erthe in Occident,
That thei towardes Orient
Be cercle go the longe weie.
   And ek to thee, Diane, I preie,
Which cleped art of thi noblesse
The nyhtes mone and the goddesse,
That thou to me be gracious.
And in Cancro thin oghne hous
Agein Phebus in opposit
Stond al this time, and of delit
Behold Venus with a glad yhe.
For thanne upon astronomie
Of due constellacion
Thou makst prolificacion,
And dost that children ben begete:
Which grace if that I mihte gete,
With al myn herte I wolde serve
Be nyhte, and thi vigile observe.'
   Lo, thus this lusti Cephalus
Preide unto Phebe and to Phebus
The nyhte in lengthe for to drawe,
So that he mihte do the lawe
In thilke point of loves heste,
Which cleped is the nyhtes feste,
Withoute slep of sluggardie,
Which Venus out of compaignie
Hath put awey, as thilke same,
Which lustles, ferr from alle game
In chambre doth fulofte wo
Abedde, whanne it falleth so
That love scholde ben awaited.10
Bot Slowthe, which is evele affaited,
With slep hath mad his retenue,
That what thing is to love due,
Of all his dette he paieth non.
He wot noght how the nyht is gon
Ne hou the day is come aboute,
Bot onli for to slepe and route
Til hyh midday, that he arise.
Bot Cephalus dede otherwise,
As thou, my sone, hast herd above."
    "Mi fader, who that hath his love
Abedde naked be his syde,
And wolde thanne hise yhen hyde
With slep, I not what man is he:
Bot certes as touchende of me,
That fell me nevere yit er this.
Bot otherwhile, whan so is
That I mai cacche slep on honde
Liggende alone, thanne I fonde
To dreme a merie swevene er day;
And if so falle that I may
Mi thought with such a swevene plese,
Me thenkth I am somdiel in ese,
For I non other confort have.
So nedeth noght that I schal crave
The sonnes carte for to tarie,
Ne yit the mone, that sche carie
Hire cours along upon the hevene,
For I am noght the more in evene
Towardes love in no degree.
Bot in mi slep yit thanne I se
Somwhat in swevene of that me liketh,
Which afterward min herte entriketh,
Whan that I finde it otherwise.
So wot I noght of what servise
That slep to mannes ese doth."
    "Mi sone, certes thou seist soth,
Bot only that it helpeth kinde
Somtyme, in Phisique as I finde,
Whan it is take be mesure.
Bot he which can no slep mesure
Upon the reule as it belongeth,
Fulofte of sodein chance he fongeth
Such infortune that him grieveth.
Bot who these olde bokes lieveth,
Of Sompnolence hou it is write,
Ther may a man the sothe wite,
If that he wolde ensample take,
That otherwhile is good to wake:
Wherof a tale in poesie
I thenke for to specefie.

[The Tale of Argus and Mercury]

   Ovide telleth in his sawes
How Jupiter be olde dawes
Lay be a mayde, which Yo
Was cleped, wherof that Juno
His wif was wroth, and the goddesse
Of Yo torneth the liknesse
Into a cow, to gon theroute
The large fieldes al aboute
And gete hire mete upon the griene.
And therupon this hyhe queene
Betok hire Argus for to kepe,
For he was selden wont to slepe,
And yit he hadde an hundred yhen,
And alle alyche wel thei syhen.
Now herkne hou that he was beguiled.
Mercurie, which was al affiled
This cow to stele, he cam desguised,
And hadde a pipe wel devised
Upon the notes of musiqe,
Wherof he mihte hise eres like.
And over that he hadde affaited
Hise lusti tales, and awaited
His time; and thus into the field
He cam, where Argus he behield
With Yo, which beside him wente.
With that his pype on honde he hente,
And gan to pipe in his manere
Thing which was slepi for to hiere.
And in his pipinge evere among
He tolde him such a lusti song,
That he the fol hath broght aslepe.
Ther was non yhe mihte kepe
His hed, the which Mercurie of smot,
And forthwithal anon fot hot
He stal the cow which Argus kepte,
And al this fell for that he slepte.
Ensample it was to manye mo,
That mochel Slep doth ofte wo,
Whan it is time for to wake:
For if a man this vice take,
In Sompnolence and him delite,
Men scholde upon his dore wryte
His epitaphe, as on his grave;
For he to spille and noght to save
Is schape, as thogh he were ded.
   Forthi, mi sone, hold up thin hed,
And let no slep thin yhe englue,
Bot whanne it is to resoun due."
    "Mi fader, as touchende of this,
Riht so as I you tolde it is,
That ofte abedde, whanne I scholde,
I mai noght slepe, thogh I wolde;
For love is evere faste by me,
Which takth no hiede of due time.
For whanne I schal myn yhen close,
Anon min herte he wole oppose
And holde his scole in such a wise,
Til it be day that I arise,
That selde it is whan that I slepe.
And thus fro Sompnolence I kepe
Min yhe: and forthi if ther be
Oght elles more in this degré,
Now axeth forth."
       "Mi sone, yis;
For Slowthe, which as moder is
The forthdrawere and the norrice
To man of many a dredful vice,
Hath yit another laste of alle,
Which many a man hath mad to falle,
Wher that he mihte nevere arise;
Wherof for thou thee schalt avise,
Er thou so with thiself misfare,
What vice it is I wol declare."

Nil fortuna iuuat, vbi desperacio ledit;
   Quo desiccat humor, non viridescit humus.
Magnanimus set amor spem ponit et inde salutem
   Consequitur, quod ei prospera fata fauent.11

"Whan Slowthe hath don al that he may
To dryve forth the longe day,
Til it be come to the nede,
Thanne ate laste upon the dede
He loketh hou his time is lore,
And is so wo begon therfore,
That he withinne his thoght conceiveth
Tristesce, and so himself deceiveth,
That he wanhope bringeth inne,
Wher is no confort to beginne,
Bot every joie him is deslaied.
So that withinne his herte affraied
A thousend time with o breth
Wepende he wissheth after deth,
Whan he fortune fint adverse.
For thanne he wole his hap reherce,
As thogh his world were al forlore,
And seith, 'Helas, that I was bore!
Hou schal I live? Hou schal I do?
For nou fortune is thus mi fo,
I wot wel God me wol noght helpe.
What scholde I thanne of joies yelpe,
Whan ther no bote is of mi care?
So overcast is my welfare,
That I am schapen al to strif.
Helas, that I nere of this lif,
Er I be fulliche overtake!'
And thus he wol his sorwe make,
As God him mihte noght availe.
Bot yit ne wol he noght travaile
To helpe himself at such a nede,
Bot slowtheth under such a drede,
Which is affermed in his herte,
Riht as he mihte noght asterte
The worldes wo which he is inne.
   Also whan he is falle in sinne,
Him thenkth he is so ferr coupable,
That God wol noght be merciable
So grete a sinne to forgive;
And thus he leeveth to be schrive.
And if a man in thilke throwe
Wolde him consaile, he wol noght knowe
The sothe, thogh a man it finde.
For Tristesce is of such a kinde,
That for to meintiene his folie,
He hath with him Obstinacie,
Which is withinne of such a Slouthe,
That he forsaketh alle trouthe
And wole unto no resoun bowe.
And yit ne can he noght avowe
His oghne skile bot of hed.
Thus dwyneth he, til he be ded,
In hindringe of his oghne astat.
For where a man is obstinat,
Wanhope folweth ate laste,
Which mai noght after longe laste,
Til Slouthe make of him an ende.
Bot God wot whider he schal wende.
   Mi sone, and riht in such manere
Ther be lovers of hevy chiere,
That sorwen mor than it is ned,
Whan thei be taried of here sped
And conne noght hemselven rede,
Bot lesen hope for to spede
And stinten love to poursewe.
And thus thei faden hyde and hewe,
And lustles in here hertes waxe.
Hierof it is that I wolde axe,
If thou, mi sone, art on of tho."
    "Ha, goode fader, it is so,
Outake a point, I am beknowe;
For elles I am overthrowe
In al that evere ye have seid.
Mi sorwe is everemore unteid,
And secheth overal my veines;
Bot for to conseile of mi peines,
I can no bote do therto;
And thus withouten hope I go,
So that mi wittes ben empeired,
And I, as who seith, am despeired
To winne love of thilke swete,
Withoute whom, I you behiete,
Min herte, that is so bestad,
Riht inly nevere mai be glad.
For be my trouthe I schal noght lie,
Of pure sorwe, which I drye
For that sche seith sche wol me noght,
With drecchinge of myn oghne thoght
In such a wanhope I am falle,
That I ne can unethes calle,
As for to speke of eny grace,
Mi ladi merci to pourchace.
Bot yit I seie noght for this
That al in mi defalte it is;
For I cam nevere yit in stede,
Whan time was, that I my bede
Ne seide and, as I dorste, tolde.
Bot nevere fond I that sche wolde,
For oght sche knew of min entente,
To speke a goodly word assente.
And natheles this dar I seie,
That if a sinful wolde preie
To God of his forgivenesse
With half so gret a besinesse
As I have do to my ladi,
In lacke of askinge of merci
He scholde nevere come in helle.
And thus I mai you sothli telle,
Save only that I crie and bidde,
I am in Tristesce al amidde
And fulfild of Desesperance.
And therof gif me mi penance,
Min holi fader, as you liketh."
   "Mi sone, of that thin herte siketh
With sorwe, miht thou noght amende,
Til love his grace wol thee sende,
For thou thin oghne cause empeirest
What time as thou thiself despeirest.
I not what other thing availeth,
Of hope whan the herte faileth,
For such a sor is incurable,
And ek the goddes ben vengable.
And that a man mai riht wel frede,
These olde bokes whoso rede,
Of thing which hath befalle er this.
Now hier of what ensample it is.

[The Tale of Iphis and Araxarathen]

   Whilom be olde daies fer
Of Mese was the king Theucer,
Which hadde a kniht to sone, Iphis.
Of love and he so maistred is,
That he hath set al his corage
As to reguard of his lignage
Upon a maide of lou astat.
Bot thogh he were a potestat
Of worldes good, he was soubgit
To love, and put in such a plit,
That he excedeth the mesure
Of reson, that himself assure
He can noght; for the more he preide,
The lasse love on him sche leide.
He was with love unwys constreigned,
And sche with resoun was restreigned.
The lustes of his herte he suieth,
And sche for drede schame eschuieth,
And as sche scholde, tok good hiede
To save and kepe hir wommanhiede.
And thus the thing stod in debat
Betwen his lust and hire astat.
He gaf, he sende, he spak be mouthe,
Bot yit for oght that evere he couthe
Unto his sped he fond no weie,
So that he caste his hope aweie,
Withinne his herte and gan despeire
Fro dai to dai, and so empeire,
That he hath lost al his delit
Of lust, of slep, of appetit,
That he thurgh strengthe of love lasseth
His wit, and resoun overpasseth.
As he which of his lif ne rowhte,
His deth upon himself he sowhte,
So that be nyhte his weie he nam,
Ther wiste non wher he becam;
The nyht was derk, ther schon no mone,
Tofore the gates he cam sone,
Wher that this yonge maiden was,
And with this wofull word, 'Helas!'
Hise dedli pleintes he began
So stille that ther was no man
It herde, and thanne he seide thus:
'O thou Cupide, o thou Venus,
Fortuned be whos ordinaunce
Of love is every mannes chaunce,
Ye knowen al min hole herte,
That I ne mai your hond asterte;
On you is evere that I crie,
And yit you deigneth noght to plie,
Ne toward me youre ere encline.
Thus for I se no medicine
To make an ende of mi querele,
My deth schal be in stede of hele.
   Ha, thou mi wofull ladi diere,
Which duellest with thi fader hiere
And slepest in thi bedd at ese,
Thou wost nothing of my desese,
Hou thou and I be now unmete.
Ha lord, what swevene schalt thou mete,
What dremes hast thou nou on honde?
Thou slepest there, and I hier stonde.
Thogh I no deth to thee deserve,
Hier schal I for thi love sterve,
Hier schal a kinges sone dye
For love and for no felonie;
Wher thou therof have joie or sorwe,
Hier schalt thou se me ded tomorwe.
O herte hard aboven alle,
This deth, which schal to me befalle
For that thou wolt noght do me grace,
Yit schal be told in many a place,
Hou I am ded for love and trouthe
In thi defalte and in thi slouthe.
Thi Daunger schal to manye mo
Ensample be for everemo,
Whan thei my wofull deth recorde.'
And with that word he tok a corde,
With which upon the gate tre
He hyng himself, that was pité.
   The morwe cam, the nyht is gon,
Men comen out and syh anon
Wher that this yonge lord was ded.
Ther was an hous withoute red,
For no man knew the cause why.
Ther was wepinge and ther was cry:
This maiden, whan that sche it herde,
And sih this thing hou it misferde,
Anon sche wiste what it mente,
And al the cause hou it wente
To al the world sche tolde it oute,
And preith to hem that were aboute
To take of hire the vengance,
For sche was cause of thilke chance,
Why that this kinges sone is spilt.
Sche takth upon hirself the gilt,
And is al redi to the peine
Which eny man hir wole ordeigne.
And bot if eny other wolde,
Sche seith that sche hirselve scholde
Do wreche with hire oghne hond,
Thurghout the world in every lond
That every lif therof schal speke,
Hou sche hirself it scholde wreke.
Sche wepth, sche crith, sche swouneth ofte,
Sche caste hire yhen up alofte
And seide among ful pitously:
'A, Godd, Thou wost wel it am I,
For whom Iphis is thus besein.
Ordeine so, that men mai sein
A thousend wynter after this,
Hou such a maiden dede amis,
And as I dede, do to me.
For I ne dede no pité
To him which for mi love is lore,
Do no pité to me therfore.'
And with this word sche fell to grounde
Aswoune, and ther sche lay a stounde.
The goddes, whiche hir pleigntes herde
And syhe hou wofully sche ferde,
Hire lif thei toke awey anon,
And schopen hire into a ston
After the forme of hire ymage
Of bodi bothe and of visage.
And for the merveile of this thing
Unto the place cam the king
And ek the queene and manye mo;
And whan thei wisten it was so,
As I have told it hier above,
Hou that Iphis was ded for love,
Of that he hadde be refused,
Thei hielden alle men excused
And wondren upon the vengance.
And for to kepe in remembrance,
This faire ymage mayden liche
With compaignie noble and riche
With torche and gret sollempnité
To Salamyne the cité
Thei lede, and carie forth withal
The dede corps, and sein it schal
Beside thilke ymage have
His sepulture and be begrave:
This corps and this ymage thus
Into the cité to Venus,
Wher that goddesse hire temple hadde,
Togedre bothe tuo thei ladde.
This ilke ymage as for miracle
Was set upon an hyh pinacle,
That alle men it mihte knowe,
And under that thei maden lowe
A tumbe riche for the nones
Of marbre and ek of jaspre stones,
Wherin this Iphis was beloken,
That evermor it schal be spoken.
And for men schal the sothe wite,
Thei have here epitaphe write,
As thing which scholde abide stable.
The lettres graven in a table
Of marbre were and seiden this:
'Hier lith, which slowh himself, Iphis,
For love of Araxarathen:
And in ensample of tho wommen,
That soffren men to deie so,
Hire forme a man mai sen also,
Hou it is torned fleissh and bon
Into the figure of a ston.
He was to neysshe and sche to hard.
Be war forthi hierafterward;
Ye men and wommen bothe tuo,
Ensampleth you of that was tho.'
   Lo thus, mi sone, as I thee seie,
It grieveth be diverse weie
In desespeir a man to falle,
Which is the laste branche of alle
Of Slouthe, as thou hast herd devise.
Wherof that thou thiself avise
Good is, er that thou be deceived,
Wher that the grace of hope is weyved."
    "Mi fader, hou so that it stonde,
Now have I pleinly understonde
Of Slouthes court the propreté,
Wherof touchende in my degré
Forevere I thenke to be war.
Bot over this, so as I dar,
With al min herte I you beseche,
That ye me wolde enforme and teche
What ther is more of youre aprise
In love als wel as otherwise,
So that I mai me clene schryve."
    "Mi sone, whyl thou art alyve
And hast also thi fulle mynde,
Among the vices whiche I finde
Ther is yit on such of the sevene,
Which al this world hath set unevene
And causeth manye thinges wronge,
Where he the cause hath underfonge.
Wherof hierafter thou schalt hiere
The forme bothe and the matiere."

Explicit Liber Quartus










behavior

Procrastination (see note)
property of nature
leave
here and now
(see note)
(see note)


thinks


harmed (jeopardized)

neither

behaves slothfully

same

done before

yes
I admit

i.e., in his livery [as a retainer]



bade [me] abide yet
declared [that]; neither intelligent
Nor timely; then

spent


might just as well send
by chance; clearly
dare say

time

foolish
planned to speak


know not
Whether; fear

know
diminished

beg (ask)
prayed
one place
continuously [for]
yet
in spite of my [will]
know well in the end
seldom
fear
all the rest
pertaining
Procrastination; (t-note)





cause; [to go] away

guide; counsel


one



Against; (see note)
once
as a son
fleet of ships; led; (see note)

lodging

then

(t-note)
yet; called
Who; passionately

laid
did entirely; desired

Italy
By; place of disembarkation
chosen; prepared; depart

perturbation
while
(see note)
caused him; know

delay; returning [to her]
[Such] that
(see note)
once; in a prior time
mate lost

(the swan) thrust
poem
truth
Sprawling (Writhing); two

mate



lament


delayed; a pity


saw




fault

determined


way out
heart's root
thrust



(t-note)

to be feared

pondered

a second example





(see note)
crowd



(see note)
(see note)







woo
yield




Since first; departed
way
where
made; (t-note)
knows; seeks

threat

their carnal desire

accomplish [their] deeds


endowed with beauty




make me blush

(t-note)
might [bring about]




And [should] remember
And that he [should] not delay
set free


[So] that
might keep




(see note)

accepts
read over carefully

made anxious
thoroughly seized




what

desire; heart
prepare; voyage

a day seems to him

face


burnt

haste









(see note)


learning; head



but because of





wall






(see note)






their oil; unavailable


shut



trained




(t-note)
believe
(see note)



limb

place
requested
minded
arranged






hear

seek what
hasten

account








progress (success)



'had I known'
wish



to blame
barren








Cowardice


(see note); (t-note)

begin something




carry out




[because] of fantasy



destroyed; undertakes
[can] heal

abounds
once move
by; lose he must
venture in order to win



Who lack courage

speak
sound


timid
And dare ask nothing concerning love
lose; nothing



I fully acknowledge
one; those [who are] slothful


break apart

taken

slip away

according to what; (see note)
follows

who perseveres





(see note)


craft of sculpture he mastered
then

belabor
sculpture
Like
feature; outward appearance

living
white ivory

ruddy
also
beguiles himself






in return


at dinner
eat


taken


full of tears; sleepless
kissed

whispers; ear


continually



cause him more pain

persistence

accepted

was most miserable








dared to speak; won
desired in bed


called
designation
island
call

beyond nature


woe


those who



lonely (strange); (see note)





quarrel; (see note)


it would not be prevented
if she should bear a daughter
be nothing but destroyed




Who; childbearing; (see note)
distressful circumstance
normal-sized again


Ordered to be kept


understand

taken away then



(see note)
[To] him was delivered
duke's
Who; in bed; (see note)



playmates





(see note)

And caused [the love] to be put above nature

their desire

teaching
what nature naturally

situation


kissed
(see note)
natural

then


benevolent
continue




diligence
(t-note)




confessed before
lost

hinder


confession; acknowledge



same
yes



bound


addled







Sloth




(see note)

wallet


he knows not
nonetheless
Deprived; plead for
a third part
intended
destroyed

overwhelmed


toward (unto)






is not worth a nutshell

truly
what I planned to say
scarcely speak
entirely intended [to] have declared
sorely; afraid

ghost


know; who
wither I will [go]; whence I came

erased

overwhelmed

out of; thrust; (t-note)
[I] stand; deaf
ivy leaf; (t-note)
thought well [to] have
start [as if from sleep]

fear





lament

fool; then
saw
eyes


outrage

fear; so good a person
endowed



foolish heart
cowardly heart; untutored

allow to freeze
lose


dare to ask none



cloak ends
increase

dependent

(see note)


(see note)

dear


solicitude



assure


laugh; scowl


gracious [lady]
prevent
fetches
(see note)















such a person





like it or not (willy-nilly)





where
before
sorely afraid
too cheerful


great excellence


(t-note)
[even] though I wanted [to]
thought reveal
what I intend

i.e., about twenty minutes
time


that is often useless
before planned

as if it had never been
[I] stand bewildered; befuddled
written music for

beyond comprehension






cowardice
wish; (t-note)
act according to you (i.e., to your advice)



dares not ask


knows; that men [should] make requests
prayers
bestows; places


That [God] will take thought for


escape
from your diligence



know




by; (see note)

Sailing; (see note)

blown him



Who



was called

most becomes her
[she] pleases herself
[she] welcomed him

escape



try
began


troth pledged

remained


seek





believed
[it] should (mis)happen to her
desired



pledges as surety
return
month's time
kissed
whether it were pleasing or not



lessens
food
But


sent

power



promised
passionately
[should] delay

die because of
fidelity



same time


previously
delayed too long

time (tide)
sea



knows not
abstaining from food

then

tower

burning

by night
(see note)
ignored


while



perceive
tower; run
garden by herself alone; (t-note)
lament
knew
lost
[So] that; faints
stains

eyes
continuously
called
creature



fidelity; word





destroy


bough
girdle of silk
tied; induced
neck





against the slothful
[Such] that; instant
nut tree

filbert
called; courtyard





not missing then
curse







ask








one; secretary
called
keep watch over his documents

(see note)
after the fact






deceived; grimace
horse; (see note)


plays; plan made after the event



excellence

he often suffers guile
believes he stands on solid ground





untroubled conscience
myself

not one of the learned



aspects
That pertain to
handle of the tool
blade be fitting




nature
Could teach me
[Such] that

Devise
assurance
either
succeed
trust well
means

would have learned it





Attain; lofty an erudition


It is not my Will's fault



still a beginner

since I know not; turn out

as surety
understanding



how it seems to you
pleases
absolved


loses
say



corporeal
is not destroyed





sun called; (see note)
earth warmly

(see note)
was called

was called

father's chariot







instruction
sorely

reins
very careful
[should] steer; chariot
[So] that; pathway
with good attention always
keep a sharp eye
[neither] too low nor too high
any moment
Because of which; tumble over
by Phebus' permission
his own control
drove

Because he was
own situation saw not

succeed


it pleased them
[So] that


scorched
fear

misfortunes; happened
who saw
despite; prohibition
path

ocean
drowned
(t-note)






(see note)

too high

(see note)

was called; it seemed wretched to them



prepare


knew

fly





Too high
sun
their


climb
no account



craft


many
prosperity





















hates; industry
one
nurse; (see note)

pleasures
nothing because of
heat
freeze or sweat
indoors; outside

Unless; dice
[retainer's] fees
honor


Unless
sees by fortune
aristocratic privilege and its legal protection




according to his desires

claws


frame






effort (exertion)



location
commanded


[it] is so [that] she asks nothing




Just as
hear
slip by
fail to approach
On [the] chance that I might
back


embrace her naked



reflection




female aloofness
sigh


despite; I cannot cease

(see note)

prepare

leave
by her permission
bids
bids
it pleases her to call

die
must
(see note)
must I of necessity
bend
eye





gaze

reflect; talk
sigh
composure; select [as agreeable]; (see note)

It does not please her [to] be with me
to occupy herself with

draw out

bearing



birds



So that; speak well [of me]
wheel; (see note)

it pleases her
pilgrimage; place
bidden

gently


carriage
be aware of that
prepare myself

speak from time to time
sometimes











(t-note)

unless; (t-note)




slothful
exert themselves


despite themselves; must

diligently












Armenia; (see note)

called

(see note)
Who then; renown

father's heir
one deficiency [in her]
[a] pity

Who (What)


school [of love]
one of the slothful



[Will] have brought her up (i.e., have educated her)
by means of Cupid; power
person
Who then; youthfully sensual





who humbles proud hearts


made an instrument of punishment


stumbled
disposition




before; sun arose
knew
discreetly
[that was] near by



seemed lovely to her
grove of trees


contemplate
saw; sweet
birds
animals; their
doe; hart
male; (see note)


could not escape
eye
matching colors; company

wood's edge


each rode sidesaddle
opulence
well equipped

gowns; expensive cloaks
all the same
Equally mixed
charming things

lithe
enchanting beauty; their; (see note); (t-note)

Crowns; their heads; bear
As [if] each of them
[So] that
smallest crown


saw
For sheer wonder; herself aside
kept herself hidden; bough


elegance
to ask
(t-note)
rather
known


linden tree



limped; ill-shod (hurt by a nail)
vexed

white star
On his forehead





torn


at that particular time
near
saw




then
those

[she] came forward; 'Wait!'
hear
here
splendidly
disconcerted

My lady

kept their love pledges
their hearts
delayed



remain

thus furnished
covered
once; one

slothful

sorely pay


clothing


follow their path (see note)

pack their
their stable boy




stories hear



face; turns



previously, before; dead


overwhelmed me
took



So close my life was to its end
it was
earlier
upon me
Before
[So] that it (love)

In that my intention; to that extent

bridle wear

commend you
And may you admonish



passing cloud

was startled
Alas
situation









know

(see note)
desires healthy (unharmed)
(see note)



by chance



forewarned




(see note)


follow

seldom; peace
is not; set upon with snares




dares to show its face


delay
[So] that; would not occupy
In hurrying

lost possessions
so wise a person
Who; lost

of what happens if; suppresses
[it is] long before
youthful desires


loses
burden; (see note)
fail to impose
unless [offspring] should be lacking
marriage
when she may enter into it
perhaps
obstructed; most dear to her

blameworthy




(see note)

duke; was called
[it] so happened; fight; (see note)
Against

vowed




whether it [might] be
As soon as

Slay
band of knights


enemies
hinder that [which] must be; (see note)
duke; lively





go before

father's

ripped apart



complete

foes by





Cut to pieces; burn
In praise

knew


keep
[to] which; beholden
promised
trembled
coming




(see note)




assailed
wasted; (t-note)

according to
population

lost
with his permission
virgins
pain



sent for
go






lost



(t-note)








who tarry


labor seek
according to its merit

know not


once men earned their love

carried out; their hands










moreover
Meritoriousness
more quickly; (see note); (t-note)






ocean


military forays
Prussia; Rhodes


(see note)







remove standoffishness from her attitude


labor
to this labor I refer
confess



(see note)






it would be preferable to me
Cairo

do not know
spilled
commanded
kill
across the sea

[let] those cross over; foam


cower; their


forbid us
But place themselves in the midst
command
Those who





teaching
stop; (see note)


whoever [might] deserve renown
I shall serve love
(i.e., love and arms)

sit tight



(see note)


Polyxena





dear





lose
poor bargain
lose; (see note)





straw
thanks; otherwise get
food
is missing; table





attain; boon
succeed



Separate me from




least



far ahead

which ship-side; sail (i.e., on whatever tack)

commit to chance
beyond help


apply







put off
continued to try
is persistent; (see note)


know not






intention


judge

confessed here

ought not
Except in how; succeed
advise
Wait; too
dice
know not

powerful currents
though it seems a long time to you
By chance












neglect








sent to war; (t-note)







pursue
forsake



(see note)
once

(see note)




His (Ulysses') wife; passionately
[he] would not promise them [that he would go]
he (Ulysses) devised; clever deceit


possess




pretended; insane
plow
oxen

sowed
(t-note)
deceit; feigns


A son as his child; advised

earth

the same furrow; then plowed
to test (investigate)
please
insane

fetched
And set directly before the plow

swiftly


jest
discovered










honor




harm
(t-note)




excellence




returns home half

foolishness

whether it pleased him or not

not excuse himself

(t-note)

as well


lofty chivalric deed





manner
(see note)


own loyal subject

Who; melancholic



[Apart] from Troy


made

determined




presented (alleged)
[So] that; [would] remain


anxiety
as if it were nothing


it was preferable to him


in his reputation

cowardice; hindered



(see note)
unnaturally
what; prophesied
called back from the dead

advice



(t-note)



military expedition
hinder
knew [to be] determined


Join [in battle]; their
value

would consider
honor

love; slain

Whose; memory




(see note)






educated
By Chiro; was called
(i.e., the listener)





hart; doe
its
hill

youth

heartiness







In whom he would find no fight

spear

Pursue; game animal
fitting


without fail

Either; or


from what
courageousness developed
feared


surpass; (t-note)
feats of strength


(see note)

excellence


pursue
avoid
labor honorably
know not what use love would be to him
demands an inducement








[should] delay







And [as to] that







(see note)
called; in his dominion

(see note)


lively person




India

fame
carried out






dared; refuse to give

earlier; [had] prayed
agreement


defeats

affirmed

deceiver
Who
Understood

what the king [had] answered



removes all fears
inspires
that leaves no living thing untouched

inflames

agree upon




on foot

hinder their arena
removed

show

rushed
seized

powerful a clutch


change shape
adder; slipped


turns himself; bull
bellow; sound
collapse
paws; tramples

tosses them here
possesses no fear of him

took


[So] that; trickery
upright
yielded
desired



It seemed to her

He gained for himself to lie in arms

have nothing



moreover; (see note)


written and portrayed







rescue
besieged
(see note)

it was also pleasing
To Philemenis [to travel]




possess the renown





(i.e., Penthesilea); multitude








buried
honor; saved

reward
a pledge of tribute


manner he prospered



labored
(see note); (t-note)

energetically
Turnus
would not have
conquered (Turnus)
victory



By








(see note)

edification
How nobility is to be described

(see note)




has become vulnerable; (see note)







possession






before all other

then; (see note)






gifts



at that time
lineup

know not

be held responsible
hear
pleasures here
(see note)


journey


ancient mother; (t-note)
earth

[Such] that
according to nature



think

heart
worldly circumstances; violent


made so wealthy


certainty
(see note)




follows
truly noble
nothing else [produces it]



i.e., the virtue not based on wealth; achieve
presses its case


[moral] condition









receives
Honor

honorable love


a courtier out of a peasant


produced by



are fashioned




creature; (see note)

behave graciously




Behave slothfully with regard to what
moreover
(see note)


(t-note)
dead; (see note)





to be scorned
holds all instruction
that (such scorn)
is capable of
engage himself
yield something worthwhile

prohibited



birds; (see note)

avoided


From those who formerly were industrious
(see note)

if it were [necessary] now to create
invented

Their

worthwhile occupation

spirit



their actions









the perfection; (see note)




teaching





before; scattered seed on the ground


(see note)


know









what we understand



disappear




(see note)


(see note)
invented; learning
(see note)

(see note)
soothsayer
physiognomy; (see note)
heart (seat of the emotions)
(see note)
(see note)
(see note)
(see note)
composers (writers)

(see note)



whether
(see note)
pleasing
medicine; (see note)
Zeuxis; portrait painting; (see note)
(see note)
they conceived
shaped
(see note)

(see note)





(see note)

woolen goods invented; (see note)
[by] her own hand
linen; (see note)
Those; ingenuity
(see note)
causes; toil






mercantilism



into place

company


separate metal from ore; refine



(see note)
that experienced science
alchemy








assigned; sun; (see note)
moon; silver; its
pertains to Mars

(see note)

its





gum ammoniac


is called








similar natures






body
Before
(see note)
obstructed
(t-note)

by; invented


nature
falseness

must
(t-note)







reduction [to a nontransferable substance]




once wrote
know


relate
nature; them; commit to memory





learned procedures; (see note)
(see note); (t-note)


health



assure
called




perceive and be animate

undertakes
pertains



refined
[it] purifies

stench; lack of fusibility
refinement

initial nature









laid
i.e., gold and silver; (see note)










now knows none



lose; succeed [in making]
hindrance

before
money is lost

know not


expectation
suppose
nonetheless











the first one of all; (see note)

(see note)
(see note)
(see note)




try them out


know; interrogate

possession
too much; too little
always; blame

(see note)


Arabic




praise



regions here



[own] cleverness; (see note)

From
took; (see note)
(see note)
institutional instruction; (t-note)
constructed
pronounced
its


(see note)

choose



(see note)

translated





Their
higher learning

[So] that; written results

learning
(see note)
(see note)
too heated
be cooled


wisdom
facilitate; (see note)
(see note)






taken away
matter

avoid





fare well


know not


slothful
harm
them






slothful
a particular one
Somnolence


(see note)

accommodation made

lay down his beak (i.e., go to sleep)
has done all the wooing he wants
[Such] that; unkissed
love matter
leave

rather; woo

sees
Making revel

lays himself down softly

mud

scratches; legs

grassy glades



snores
sizzles; pancake

rarely
dream; erotic dream

wholly





know not; reward; (t-note)

advise

rather, by
Before
carry
eyes
[it] would be better utterly to

reputation, [may] God protect me

enclosed
Death

As soon as
from my mother abandoned me

(one of the fateful sisters)
companion
Shaped for me

fate determined

Avoid the truancy of sleep










it pleases her




grasp

It seems to me; floor
roebuck; moor

know

otherwise

dice
ask some question about love
what [it] pleases her to order
hear; (see note)
(i.e., or whatever else she wants)

seize
at some point in the course of things


bids
too late at night



must; depart
vigil



diminish
aloofness
he (her "daunger")



dependent (i.e., because of my wish)


pray God watch over her
kneeling


[might] dare
door



soon after
succeed
must necessarily

swear and curse
made; eye
endure

separate


potent desire




By


be put away



rush (straw)
sigh
(see note)


next I think
i.e., affords sensual gratification



know not



for a time; (t-note)
Just as if a tree trunk







stands as a pledge; (see note)

he (my heart)




whether she likes it or not






[should] seize me






what I dream of is not sheep
wool
tormented
With love; watch over
[Such] that now; laugh
lose

dream; dream
meet
(see note)

pray [that I might] never




dreamed
mindful
vain

lain; continued sleeping
dream; dream





dreams

true matters
Signify





(see note)


(see note)

then named
by chance
transformed


heart
pilgrimage
foreign land




brother's health



go


sea accompanied him
And with


two month's time



home, where
gone


distress to seek (i.e., none lacking)




prayed
fared

And at once

go

By dream vision; show



rainy cloak (rainbow) put on; (see note)
wonderfully ornamented






borders on Chimerea


decor
hill




creak
eye; open (unshut)
impediment [to sleep]

nearby
magpie
call
cock
animal; make noises
[On] the hill

Poppies; bear
huge quantity
(see note)

is called
hill
gives
(see note)


ebony

softly
(see note)
pillow; down
strewn
dreams



commanded
conveyed

ears pierces
reluctance (expression of woe)
eyes
done
then






whatever; pleases him
deceives
Someone who; at night
Icelos; second was called



following
Phantasos




sometimes is true testimony
other times but a joke
things are thus arranged

unto
(see note)
dead; beach
drowned


angry sea
dreamed; saw him die

where
fearful outcry

for their; fear
ask

every bit
interpret

knew

And in the morning
sea; dreamed
hesitation
near
saw
floating; waves




(see note)

faithfulness




birds

living
bird





Embraced; kissed
once



tries



human ability lost
before; (see note)


dwell


hold in memory


i.e., Halcyon
stir
heed

happen
time

But no one accepts sloth
[No one, that is] who


up to the present



it (sleep)
opposed

here
hear

assure
foreign
It does not please me at all
wish to play




the reputation
[So] that

lost his composure
continually

often times

grows faint
because
Who
early


remain
Who see by chance their
as if there were nothing [wrong]


fantasize

know not

judge
pleased



your love ought not complain




I have in mind




(see note)


maiden; (see note)


saw

sun
Because of desire








exposed (made public)
silence
obscured





lofty powers
eye




who lies
banner of your heraldic sign (i.e., sunrise)





embraced (received)
by




guide
(t-note)

West
East
By circle

called are
moon; (see note)








cause; born






carry out
that climax of love's command
is called; feast

by herself





ill-prepared


pays nothing; (see note)


snore

did









Lying; contrive
dream before












tricks my heart






taken in moderation




believe

a man may know the truth







tales; (see note)
in olden days

called
furious; (see note)

throughout

food; grassy field

Employed

eyes


prepared
steal


ears please
moreover; invented










protect
cut off
speedily

happened because

often causes harm; (see note)





For dying; not for being safe
[He] is fashioned

stick shut
Except; appropriate to reason




with me (i.e., so has me in its grasp)
the appropriate time


give his lectures

[So] that




yes

breeder; nurse














(see note)
has reached a crisis

lost


(see note)


withheld from him
affrighted
a single breath
hopes for death


lost
Alas; born



boast
reward


Alas; were not deceased
Before






escape


far guilty

(t-note)
neglects to be absolved


discovers
nature

(see note)


(t-note)

reason except rashly (unadvisedly)
languishes (pines away); dead


Despair

(t-note)
go

gloomy demeanor
Who
delayed; their intention
know not how to counsel themselves
lose; of success
stop pursuing love
skin; complexion
listless; their hearts grow

one of those

Except for; I confess
demolished




remedy

weakened


assure
afflicted


endure

tormenting
despair
scarcely




place
prayer
dared, said [it]



(see note)
sinful [person]



For insufficient requests for mercy
hell


(see note)
Hopelessness


sighs


impair

know not

sorrow

feel






Once; far gone; (see note); (t-note)
Mysia
as a son
(see note)

In comparison to his lineage
low
potentate







by reason
follows





gave [gifts]; sent [messages]

success


[to] become worse


lessens
exceeds his reason
had no pity

took
knew; where he went
shone no moon



complaints




(t-note)

escape

comply
ear
because

place of health



distress
incompatible (at odds)
dream; dream

(t-note)
(see note)
die

crime








Aloofness

remember




saw; (t-note)

counsel




Immediately; knew



(t-note)

killed



unless some other would

wreak vengeance


avenge


continually

troubled


did
did; (see note)

lost


for a time



transformed her




more
knew





(see note)





declare it must

sepulcher; buried






[So] that





know the truth
their







(t-note)


too soft; too










eradicated

fully








absolve myself

therefore


rocked the whole world

When he (i.e., that sin) has taken up the case