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Le creatour de toute creature,
Qui l’alme d’omme ad fait a son ymage,
Par quoi le corps de reson et nature
Soit attempré per jouste governage,
Il done al alme assetz plus d’avantage;
Car il l’ad fait discrete et resonable,
Dont sur le corps raison ert conestable.
En dieu amer celle alme ad sa droiture,
Tant soulement pour fermer le corage
En tiel amour u nulle mesprisure
De foldelit la poet mettre en servage
De frele char, q’est toutdis en passage:
Mais la bone alme est seinte et permanable;
Dont sur le corps raison ert conestable.
En l’alme gist et raison et mesure,
Dont elle avera le ciel en heritage;
Li corps selonc la char pour engendrure
Avera la bone espouse en mariage;
Qui sont tout une chose et un estage,
Qe l’un a l’autre soient entendable:
Dont sur le corps raison ert conestable.
De l’espirit l’amour quiert continence,
Et vivre chaste en soul dieu contemplant;
Li corps par naturele experience
Quiert femme avoir, dont soir multipliant;
Des bones almes l’un fait le ciel preignant,
Et l’autre emplist la terre de labour:
Si l’un est bon, l’autre est assetz meilour.
A l’espirit qui fait la providence
Ne poet failir de reguerdon suiant.
Plus est en l’alme celle intelligence,
Dont sanz null fin l’omme en serra vivant,
Qe n’est le corps en ses fils engendrant;
Et nepourqant tout fist le creatour:
Si l’un est bon, l’autre est assetz meilour.
A l’espirit dieus dona conscience,
Par quelle om ert du bien et mal sachant.
Le corps doit pas avoir la reverence,
Ainz ert a l’alme et humble et obeissant;
Mais dieus, qui les natures vait creant,
Et l’un et l’autre ad mis en son atour:
Si l’un est bon, l’autre est assetz meilour.
Au plus parfit dieus ne nous obligea,
Mais il voet bien qe nous soions parfitz.
Cist homme a dieu sa chasteté dona,
Et cist en dieu voet estre bons maritz:
S’il quiert avoir espouse a son avis,
Il plest a dieu de faire honeste issue
Selonc la loi de seinte eglise due.
Primerement qant mesmes dieus crea
Adam et Eve en son saint paradis,
L’omme ove la femme ensemble maria,
Dont ait la terre en lour semense emplis:
Lors fuist au point celle espousaile empris
Du viele loi, et puis, qant fuist venue,
Selonc la loi de seinte eglise due.
Et puisque dieus qui la loi ordina
En une char ad deux persones mis,
Droitz est qe l’omme et femme pourcela
Tout un soul coer eiont par tiel devis,
Loiale amie avoec loials amis:
C’est en amour trop belle retenue
Selonc la loi de seinte eglise due.
Ovesque amour qant loialté s’aqueinte,
Lors sont les noeces bones et joiouses;
Mais li guilers, qant il se fait plus queinte,
Par falssemblant les fait sovent doubtouses,
A l’oill qant plus resemblont amorouses:
C’est ensi come de stouppes une corde,
Qant le penser a son semblant descorde.
Celle espousaile est assetz forte et seinte,
D’amour u sont les causes vertuouses:
Si l’espousaile est d’avarice enceinte,
Et qe les causes soient tricherouses,
Ja ne serront les noeces graciouses;
Car conscience toutdis se remorde,
Qant le penser a son semblant descorde.
Honest amour, q’ove loialté s’aqueinte,
Fait qe les noeces serront gloriouses;
Et qui son coer ad mis par tiele empeinte,
N’estoet doubter les changes perilouses.
Om dist qe noeces sont aventurouses;
Car la fortune en tiel lieu ne s’accorde,
Qant le penser a son semblant descorde.
Grant mervaile est et trop contre reson,
Q’om doit du propre chois sa femme eslire,
Et puis confermer celle eleccion
Par espousaile, et puis apres desdire
Sa foi, qant il de jour en jour desire
Novell amour assetz plus qe la beste:
Sa foi mentir n’est pas a l’omme honeste.
De l’espousailes la profession
Valt plus d’assetz qe jeo ne puiss descrire:
Soubtz cell habit prist incarnacion
De la virgine cil q’est nostre Sire:
Par quoi, des toutes partz qui bien remire,
En l’ordre de si tresseintisme geste
Sa foi mentir n’est pas a l’omme honeste.
De l’espousailes celle beneiçoun
Le sacrement de seinte eglise enspire:
C’est un liens, sanz dissolucioun
Q’om doit guarder; car quique voldra lisre
Le temps passé, il avera cause a dire,
Pour doubte de vengeance et de moleste,
Sa foi mentir n’est pas a l’omme honeste.
Nectanabus, qui vint en Macedoine
D’Egipte, u qu’il devant ot rois esté,
Olimpeas encontre matrimoine,
L’espouse au roi Philipp, ad violé,
Dont Alisandre estoit lors engendré:
Mais quoique soit du primere envoisure,
Le fin demoustre toute l’aventure.
Cil q’est de pecché pres sa grace esloigne:
Ceo parust bien, car tiele destinée
Avint depuis, qe sanz nulle autre essoine
Le fils occist, le pere tout de grée.
Ore esgardetz coment fuist revengé
D’avolterie celle forsfaiture:
Le fin demoustre toute l’aventure.
Rois Uluxes pour plaire a sa caroigne
Falsoit sa foi devers Penolopé;
Avoec Circes fist mesme la busoigne,
Du quoi son fils Thelogonus fuist née,
Q’ad puis son propre piere auci tué.
Q’il n’est plesant a dieu tiele engendrure,
Le fin demoustre toute l’aventure.
El grant desert d’Ynde superiour
Cil qui d’arein les deux pilers fichoit,
Danz Hercules, prist femme a son honour
Qe file au roi de Calidoine estoit;
Contre Achelons en armes conquestoit
La belle Deianire par bataille.
C’est grant peril de freindre l’espousaile.
Bien tost apres tout changea cell amour
Pour Eolen, dont il s’espouse haoit:
Celle Eolen fuist file a l’emperour
D’Eurice, et Herculem tant assotoit,
Q’elle ot de lui tout ceo q’avoir voloit.
N’ert pas le fin semblable au comensaile;
C’est grant peril de freindre l’espousaile.
Unqes ne fuist ne ja serra null jour,
Qe tiel pecché de dieu vengé ne soit:
Car Hercules, ensi com dist l’auctour,
D’une chemise, dont il se vestoit,
Fuist tant deceu, qu’il soi mesmes ardoit.
De son mesfait porta le contretaille;
C’est grant peril de freindre l’espousaile.
Li prus Jason, q’en l’isle de Colchos
Le toison d’or par l’aide de Medée
Conquist, dont il d’onour portoit grant los,
Par tout le monde en court la renomée,
La joefne dame ove soi ad amenée
De son paiis en Grece, et l’espousa.
Freinte espousaile dieus le vengera.
Qant Medea meulx quide estre en repos
Ove son mari, et q’elle avoit porté
Deux fils de lui, lors changea le purpos,
El quel Jason primer fuist obligé:
Il ad del tout Medeam refusé,
Si prist la file au roi Creon Creusa.
Freinte espousaile dieux le vengera.
Medea, q’ot le coer de dolour clos,
En son corous, et ceo fuist grant pité,
Ses joefnes fils, quex ot jadis enclos
Deinz ses costées, ensi come forsenée
Devant les oels Jason ele ad tué.
Ceo q’en fuist fait pecché le fortuna;
Freinte espousaile dieus le vengera.
Cil avoltiers qui fait continuance
En ses pecchés et toutdis se delite,
Poi crient de dieu et l’ire et la vengeance:
Du quoi jeo trieus une Cronique escrite
Pour essampler; et si jeo le recite,
L’en poet noter par ceo qu’il signifie,
Horribles sont les mals d’avolterie.
Agamenon, q’ot soubtz sa governance
De les Gregois toute la flour eslite,
A Troie qant plus fuist en sa puissance,
S’espouse, quelle estoit Climestre dite,
Egistus l’ot de fol amour soubgite,
Dont puis avint meinte grant felonie:
Horribles sont les mals d’avolterie.
Agamenon de mort suffrist penance
Par treson qe sa femme avoit confite;
Dont elle apres morust sanz repentance:
Son propre fils Horestes l’ad despite,
Dont de sa main receust la mort subite;
Egiste as fourches puis rendist sa vie:
Horribles sont les mals d’avolterie.
La tresplus belle q’unqes fuist humeine,
L’espouse a roi de Grece Menelai,
C’estoit la fole peccheresse Heleine,
Pour qui Paris primer se faisoit gai;
Mais puis tornoit toute sa joie en wai,
Qant Troie fuist destruite et mis en cendre:
Si haut pecché covient en bass descendre.
Tarquins auci, q’ot la pensé vileine,
Q’avoit pourgeu Lucrece a son essai,
Sanz null retour d’exil receust la peine;
Et la dolente estoit en tiel esmai,
Qe d’un cotell s’occist sanz null deslai:
Ceo fuist pité, mais l’en doit bien entendre,
Si haut pecché covient en bass descendre.
Mundus fuist prince de la Court Romeine,
Qui deinz le temple Ysis el mois de Maii
Pourgeust Pauline, espouse et citezeine:
Deux prestres enbastiront tout le plai.
Bani fuist Munde en jugement verai,
Ysis destruit, li prestres vont au pendre:
Si haut pecché covient en bass descendre.
Albins, q’estoit un prince bataillous,
Et fuist le primer roi de Lombardie,
Occist, com cil qui fuist victorious,
Le roi Gurmond par sa chivalerie;
Si espousa sa file et tint cherie,
La quelle ot noun la belle Rosemonde.
Cil qui mal fait, falt qu’il au mal responde.
Tiel espousaile ja n’ert gracious,
U dieus les noeces point ne seintifie:
La dame, q’estoit pleine de corous
A cause de son piere, n’ama mie
Son droit mari, ainz est ailours amie;
Elmeges la pourgeust et fist inmonde.
Cil qui mal fait, falt qu’il au mal responde.
Du pecché naist le fin malicious,
Par grief poison Albins perdist la vie:
Elmeges ove sa dame lecherous
Estoient arsz pour lour grant felonie;
Le duc q’ot lors Ravenne en sa baillie
En son paleis lour jugement exponde:
Cil qui mal fait, falt qu’il au mal responde.
Le noble roi d’Athenes Pandeon
Deux files ot de son corps engendré,
Qe Progne et Philomene avoiont noun:
A Tereüs fuist Progne mariée,
Cil fuist de Trace roi; mais la bealté
De l’autre soer lui fist sa foi falser.
Malvois amant reprent malvois loer.
De foldelit contraire a sa reson
Cil Tereüs par treson pourpensée
De Philomene en sa proteccion
Ravist la flour de sa virginité,
Contre sa foi, qu’il avoit espousée
Progne sa soer, qui puis se fist venger:
Malvois amant reprent malvois loer.
Trop fuist cruele celle vengeisoun:
Un joefne fils qu’il ot de Progne né
La miere occist, et en decoccion
Tant fist qe Tereüs l’ad devorée;
Dont dieus lui ad en hupe transformée,
En signe qu’il fuist fals et avoltier:
Malvois amant reprent malvois loer.
Seint Abraham, chief de la viele loi,
De Chanaan pour fuïr la famine
Mena Sarrai sa femme ovesque soi
Tanq’en Egipte, u doubta la covine
De Pharao, qui prist a concubine
Sarrai s’espouse, et en fist son voloir.
En halt estat fait temprer le pooir.
Cist Abraham, qui molt doubta le roi,
N’osa desdire, ainz suffrist la ravine,
Pour pes avoir et se tenoit tout coi:
Dont il fuist bien; du roi mais la falsine
De son pecché par tiele discipline
Dieus chastioit, dont il poait veoir,
En halt estat fait temprer le pooir.
Soubdeinement, ainz qe l’en scieust pour quoi,
Par toute Egipte espandist la morine;
Dont Pharao, q’estoit en grant effroi,
Rendist l’espouse, et ceo fuist medicine.
A tiel pecché celle alme q’est encline,
Pour son delit covient au fin doloir:
En halt estat fait temprer le pooir.
Trop est humaine char frele et vileine;
Sanz grace nulls se poet contretenir:
Ceo parust bien, sicom le bible enseine,
Qant roi David Urie fist moertrir
Pour Bersabée, dont il ot son plesir:
Espouse estoit, mais il n’en avoit guarde;
N’ert pas segeur de soi qui dieus ne guarde.
La bealté q’il veoit ensi lui meine,
Qu’il n’ot poair de son corps abstenir,
Maisqu’il chaoit d’amour en celle peine,
Dont chastes ne se poait contenir:
L’un mal causoit un autre mal venir,
L’avolterie a l’omicide esguarde:
N’ert pas segeur de soi qui dieus ne guarde.
Mais cil, qui dieus de sa pité remeine,
David, se prist si fort a repentir,
Q’unqes null homme en ceste vie humeine
Ne receust tant de pleindre et de ghemir:
Merci prioit, merci fuist son desir,
Merci troevoit, merci son point ne tarde.
N’ert pas segeur de soi qui dieus ne guarde.
Comunes sont la cronique et l’istoire
De Lancelot et Tristrans ensement;
Enqore maint lour sotie en memoire,
Pour essampler les autres du present:
Cil q’est guarni et nulle garde prent,
Droitz est qu’il porte mesmes sa folie;
Car beal oisel par autre se chastie.
Tout temps del an om truist d’amour la foire,
U que les coers Cupide done et vent:
Deux tonealx ad, dont il les gentz fait boire,
L’un est assetz plus douls qe n’est pyment,
L’autre est amier plus que null arrement:
Parentre deux falt q’om se modefie,
Car beal oisel par autre se chastie.
As uns est blanche, as uns fortune est noire;
Amour se torne trop diversement,
Ore est en joie, ore est en purgatoire,
Sanz point, sanz reule et sanz governement:
Mais sur toutz autres il fait sagement,
Q’en fol amour ne se delite mie;
Car beal oisel par autre se chastie.
Om truist plusours es vieles escriptures
Prus et vailantz, q’ont d’armes le renoun,
Mais poi furont q’entre les envoisures
Guarderont chaste lour condicion.
Cil rois qui Valentinians ot noun
As les Romeins ceo dist en son avis,
Qui sa char veint, sur toutz doit porter pris.
Qui d’armes veint les fieres aventures,
Du siecle en doit avoir le reguerdoun;
Mais qui du char poet veintre les pointures,
Le ciel avera trestout a sa bandoun.
Agardetz ore la comparisoun,
Le quell valt plus, le monde ou Paradis:
Qui sa char veint, sur toutz doit porter pris.
Amour les armes tient en ses droitures,
Et est plus fort, car la profession
De vrai amour surmonte les natures
Et fait om vivre au loi de sa reson:
En mariage est la perfeccioun;
Guardent lour foi cils q’ont celle ordre pris:
Qui sa char veint, sur toutz doit porter pris.
Amour est dit sanz partir d’un et une;
Ceo voet la foi plevie au destre main:
Mais qant li tierce d’amour se comune,
Non est amour, ainz serra dit barguain.
Trop se decroist q’ensi quiert avoir guain,
Qui sa foi pert poi troeve d’avantage,
A un est une assetz en mariage.
N’est pas compaigns q’est comun a chascune;
Au soule amie ert un ami soulain:
Mais cil qui toutdis change sa fortune,
Et ne voet estre en un soul lieu certain,
Om le poet bien resembler a Gawain,
Courtois d’amour, mais il fuist trop volage:
A un est une assetz en mariage.
Semblables est au descroisçante lune
Cil q’au primer se moustre entier et plain,
Qant prent espouse, ou soit ceo blanche ou brune,
Et quiert eschange avoir a l’endemain:
Mais qui q’ensi son temps deguaste en vain
Doit bien sentir au fin de son passage,
A un est une assetz en mariage.
En propreteé cil qui del or habonde
Molt fait grant tort s’il emble autri monoie:
Cil q’ad s’espouse propre deinz sa bonde
Grant pecché fait s’il quiert ailours sa proie.
Tiels chante, “c’est ma sovereine joie,”
Qui puis en ad dolour sanz departie:
N’est pas amant qui son amour mesguie.
Des trois estatz benoitz c’est le seconde,
Q’au mariage en droit amour se ploie;
Et qui cell ordre en foldelit confonde
Trop poet doubter, s’il ne se reconvoie.
Pource bon est qe chascun se pourvoie
D’amer ensi, q’il n’ait sa foi blemie:
N’est pas amant qui soun amour mesguie.
Deinz son recoi la conscience exponde
A fol amant l’amour dont il foloie;
Si lui covient au fin qu’il en responde
Devant celui qui les consals desploie.
O come li bons maritz son bien emploie,
Qant l’autre fol lerra sa fole amie!
N’est pas amant qui son amour mesguie.
Al universiteé de tout le monde
Johan Gower ceste Balade envoie;
Et si jeo n’ai de François la faconde,
Pardonetz moi qe jeo de ceo forsvoie:
Jeo sui Englois, si quier par tiele voie
Estre excusé; mais quoique nulls en die,
L’amour parfit en dieu se justifie.
[Latin verses following the balades:]
Quis sit vel qualis sacer ordo connubialis
Scripsi, mentalis sit amor quod in ordine talis.
Exemplo veteri poterunt ventura timeri;
Cras caro sicut heri leuiter valet ilia moueri.
Non ita gaudebit sibi qui de carne placebit,
Quin corpus flebit aut spiritus inde dolebit:
Carne refrenatus qui se regit inmaculatus,
Omnes quosque status precellit in orbe beatus,
Ille deo gratus splendet ad omne latus.
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The Creator of every creature,
Who made the soul of man in His image,
In order that the body by reason and nature
Might be ruled with just governance,
Gave superiority to the soul;
Because He made it discreet and rational,
Reason is therefore constable over the body.
This soul in its rectitude loves God,
Exclusively to firm the heart
In such love that no misdeed
Of foul delight is able to put it in service
Of the weak flesh, which is always passing away:
But the good soul is holy and eternal;
Therefore reason is constable over the body.
In the soul lie reason and measure,
Because it will inherit heaven;
The body, in accord with the flesh, for engendering
Will have a good spouse in marriage;
Each has one essence and one condition,
To which the one or the other should be obedient:
Therefore reason is constable over the body.
From the spirit Love seeks continence,
And to live chaste, contemplating God alone;
The body by natural experience
Seeks to have a female, so that it might multiply;
With good souls the one seeks to make heaven replete,
The other fills the earth with its labor:
If the one is good, the other is that much better.
From the spirit which does this, Providence
Cannot withhold a subsequent reward.
This understanding is greater in the soul,
By which a man will be alive eternally, without end,
Than in the body engendered in its sons;
And nonetheless, the Creator makes it all:
If the one is good, the other is that much better.
To the spirit God gives a conscience,
By which a man is aware of good and evil.
The body should not have reverence
But — on the contrary — be humble and obedient to the soul;
Yet God alone, who creates every nature,
Has given to one and the other its condition:
If the one is good, the other is that much better.
God does not compel us to be altogether perfect,
But He strongly desires that we be perfect.
One man promises chastity to God,
And another wishes to be well married:
If he seeks to have an agreeable wife,
It pleases God to create honest issue
According to the law set out by Holy Church.
In the beginning when God created
Adam and Eve in His holy paradise,
He married man and woman together,
By which means the earth filled with their offspring:
Thus, marriage was made at that time,
Under the Old Law, and since then, whenever it has taken place,
According to the law set out by Holy Church.
And since God who ordained the law
Placed two persons in one flesh,
It is meet that the male and the female therefore
Should have one single heart by that devising,
The loyal wife with the loyal husband:
Love is a most beautiful companionship,
According to the law set out by Holy Church.
When Love acquaints itself with Loyalty,
Then weddings are good and joyous;
But the beguilers, when they make themselves most cunning,
Often create doubts by dissembling,
When to the eye they most resemble lovers:
It is thus like a rope of tow,
When the thought and its semblance disagree.
That marriage is strongest and most sanctified,
In which the causes of love are virtuous:
If the marriage is impregnated by Avarice,
And its causes are treacherous,
Then no nuptials will be gracious;
Because the conscience always is remorseful,
When the thought and its semblance disagree.
Honest love, which acquaints itself with loyalty,
Creates marriages that are glorious;
And whosoever sets his heart guided by such an impulse,
Need not be afraid of dangerous changes.
It is said that marriages are adventurous,
Because Fortune in such a case is discordant —
When the thought and its semblance disagree.
It is a great marvel and altogether against reason,
That a man should by his own choice select a wife,
And then confirm that election
By marriage, and immediately after disavow
His promise, when day after day he desires
Fresh love, more even than a beast does:
He who falsifies a promise is no honest man.
The profession of marriages
Is worth more than I am able to describe.
Under that guise He took incarnation
From the Virgin, He who is our Lord:
Because — let anyone take a second look at all aspects —
By command of so supremely sacred an act,
He who falsifies a promise is no honest man.
That benediction of marriages
Inspires the sacrament of Holy Church:
It is a bond, without dissolution,
Which one should protect; because whosoever might wish to understand
The times past, he will have cause to say,
For fear of vengeance and torment,
He who falsifies a promise is no honest man.
Nectanabus — who came into Macedonia
From Egypt, where earlier he had been king —
Olimpeas, contrary to matrimony,
The wife of King Philip, he ravished,
From which Alexander was then engendered:
But whatever the first pleasure might be,
The end reveals the full story.
He who is close to sin sends grace fleeting.
This appears clearly from such a destiny
As happened long thereafter: without any other cause,
The son killed the father willfully.
Now observe how was avenged
This transgression of adultery:
The end reveals the full story.
King Ulysses, to pleasure his carcass,
Falsified his oath to Penelopé;
With Circe he enacted the same business,
From which his son Thelegonus was born,
Who also afterwards killed his own father.
Such engendering is not pleasing to God:
The end reveals the full story.
In the vast desert of India the Greater,
He who established therein the two pillars,
Master Hercules, for his honor, took a woman
Who was the daughter of the king of Caledonia;
At arms against Achelons he won
The beautiful Deianira in battle.
Great peril it is to break a marriage.
Shortly thereafter his love changed entirely
In favor of Eolen, so that he hated his wife:
This Eolen was the daughter of the emperor
Of Euricie, and she made such a fool of Hercules
That she had from him everything she wanted.
The end is not like the beginning:
Great peril it is to break a marriage.
Never has there been nor will there ever be a day
When such sin would not be avenged by God:
Because Hercules, so says the author,
By a shirt in which he dressed himself,
Was so completely deceived that he burned himself up.
For his misdeed he bore the retribution;
Great peril it is to break a marriage.
The noble Jason — he who on the isle of Colchos
The golden fleece with the aid of Medea
Won (for which he gained great fame for honor,
Renowned of everyone in court) —
Brought the young lady with him
From her country into Greece, and married her.
A broken marriage God will avenge.
When Medea most trusted to be at peace
With her husband, and when she had borne
Two sons by him, then he changed his purpose
Toward her, to whom Jason was first bound:
He rejected Medea outright,
And took Creusa, daughter of Creon the king.
A broken marriage God will avenge.
Medea, who had her heart closed by sadness,
In her rage — and this was a great pity! —
Her young sons, whom she had formerly enclosed
Within her sides, just like a madwoman
Killed them, right before Jason’s eyes.
Such is the fortune of him who committed sin.
A broken marriage God will avenge.
Those adulterers who persevere
In their sins, and always delight themselves,
Little fear the anger or the vengeance of God:
About which I find a chronicle written
As an example; and thus I tell it,
So that one may be able to note what it signifies:
Horrible are the evils of adultery.
When Agamemnon, who had under his governance
All the select flower of the Greeks,
Was at Troy at the height of his power,
His wife, who was called Climestre,
Egistus had subjected to foul love,
From which afterward a great crime arose:
Horrible are the evils of adultery.
Agamemnon suffered death as penance
Through the treachery which his wife had arranged;
For which she died without repenting:
Her legitimate son Horestes hated her,
And immediately she received death at his hand;
Thereafter Egistus on the gallows gave up his life:
Horrible are the evils of adultery.
The most beautiful woman who ever was human,
The wife of the king of Greece, Menelaus,
Was the mad sinner Helen,
On account of whom Paris at first was joyful;
But thereafter all his joy turned to woe,
When Troy was destroyed and burned to ash:
Thus high sin must needs be brought low.
Tarquin also, who had villainous ideas,
Who had lain with Lucrece, to her danger,
Received the punishment: exile without return;
And the sorrowing woman was in such dismay,
That she with a knife killed herself without delay;
That was a pity, but it must be understood:
Thus high sin must needs be brought low.
Mundus was a prince in the Roman court,
Who within the temple of Isis in the month of May
Lay with Paulina, wife and citizen:
Two priests contrived the entire affair.
Mundus was banished, in a true judgment,
Isis destroyed, the priests went to the gallows;
Thus high sin must needs be brought low.
Albinus, who was a warlike prince,
And the first king of Lombardy,
Killed, when victorious
Through his knighthood, King Gurmond;
He married his daughter and held her dear —
She who was called the beautiful Rosamunde:
One who does evil invokes an evil response.
Such a marriage is never gracious,
Wherever God does not sanctify the wedding at all:
The lady, who was full of anger
On account of her father, loved not at all
Her legal husband, but was another’s beloved;
Helmege lay with her uncleanly.
One who does evil invokes an evil response.
From sin an evil end is born:
Through grievous poison Albinus lost his life;
Helmege and his lecherous lady
Were burned for their great felony.
The duke who had Ravenna in his charge
In his palace pronounced their judgment:
One who does evil invokes an evil response.
The noble king of Athens, Pandion,
Had engendered two daughters of his body,
Who were called Philomena and Progne:
Progne was married to Tereus,
Who was king of Thrace; but the beauty
Of the other sister caused him to falsify his oath.
A wicked lover receives a wicked reward.
With mad delight contrary to reason
This Tereus, with malice aforethought,
From Philomena, who was in his protection,
Ravished the flower of her virginity,
Contrary to his oath, with which he had espoused
Progne her sister, who thereafter avenged herself:
A wicked lover receives a wicked reward.
This vengeance was most cruel:
A lovely son, whom Progne had borne,
The mother killed, and in a concoction
Caused Tereus to devour his son;
Thereafter God transformed him into a hoopoe,
As a sign that he was a false adulterer:
A wicked lover receives a wicked reward.
The blessed Abraham, head of the Old Law,
Out of Canaan in order to flee the famine
Led Sarrai his wife with him
Into Egypt, where he feared the designs
Of Pharaoh, who seized as a concubine
Sarrai his wife, and with her worked his will.
Power in high estate must be controlled.
Abraham, who greatly feared the king,
Dared say nothing, but endured the rapine,
In order to have peace, and maintained silence:
Thereafter he was well; but the king’s falsehood,
His sin, with such punishment
God chastised, that he was able to understand:
Power in high estate must be controlled.
Suddenly, before he knew why,
Throughout all Egypt spread the murrain;
Then Pharaoh, who was greatly frightened,
Returned the wife, and that was the medicine.
The soul so disposed to do such sin,
For its delight sorrow must be its end.
Power in high estate must be controlled.
Human flesh is exceedingly frail and base;
Without grace no one is able to defend himself:
That is apparent, as the Bible teaches,
When King David of Uriah became a murderer
For Bersabee; whereupon he had his pleasure:
Wife she was, but he cared not;
He has no security, whom God does not protect.
The beauty which he saw thus led him,
He who did not have the power to forbear his body,
But he fell into such pain of love —
Thus he was powerless to keep himself chaste.
The one evil causes another evil to come:
Adultery looks forward to murder.
He has no security, whom God does not protect.
But he whom God in His pity restored,
David, himself very forthrightly acted to repent,
So that — as no man ever in this human life —
He welcomed such mourning and groaning:
He prayed for mercy, mercy was his desire,
Mercy he found, mercy his point did not delay.
He has no security, whom God does not protect.
Common are the chronicle and the history
Of Lancelot and Tristan both;
Even yet their hubris remains in memory,
By way of an example to others in the present:
He who is warned and takes no care,
It is just that he himself carry the same folly:
Because the beautiful bird by means of another corrects itself.
All year long one finds the fair of love,
Where Cupid buys and sells hearts:
He has two casks, from which he makes men drink,
One is sweeter than piment,
The other more bitter than any ink:
Between the two falls the man who controls himself,
Because the beautiful bird by means of another corrects itself.
Toward one white, toward another Fortune is black;
Love changes very diversely:
One is joyful, another is in purgatory,
Without purpose, without rule and without government:
But above all others he acts sagely
Whom wanton love delights not at all;
Because the beautiful bird by means of another corrects itself.
One finds often in ancient writings
The brave and valiant, who have renown of arms,
But few there are who between the snares
Guard their chaste condition.
That king who was named Valentinian
To the Romans gave his advice:
Who overcomes his flesh, over all ought he bear the glory.
He who by arms overcomes fierce adventures
Ought to have the reward of the age;
But he who is able to overcome the stings of the flesh
Will have heaven quickly in its power.
Take heed now of the comparison:
Which is worth more, the world or Paradise?
Who overcomes his flesh, over all ought he bear the glory.
Love takes up arms in its uprightness,
And is more robust, because the profession
Of true love surmounts natures
And makes one live according to the law of reason:
In marriage is perfection;
They guard their faith who have this order taken.
Who overcomes the flesh, over all ought he bear the glory.
Love is said [to be] a man and a woman without parting;
This the faith pledged with the right hand requires:
But when a third party shares love,
It is not love — rather, it is called a business transaction.
He loses too much, who seeks to have gain,
Who loses his faith finds little profit,
For one man one woman is enough in marriage.
It is not a companion who is common to everyone;
For a single beloved there shall be a single lover:
But he who always changes fortune,
And is not able to be in one single place steadfast,
That one rightly can resemble Gawain,
Courtly in love, but wholly fickle:
For one man one woman is enough in marriage.
He is similar to the waning moon
That at first shows itself whole and full,
When he takes a spouse, whether she be fair or dark,
And seeks to have a substitute the next day:
But he who wastes his time thus in vain
Will have to realize at the end of his passage,
For one man one woman is enough in marriage.
Proprietarily, he who by right has gold
Does great wrong if he steals another’s money:
Just so he who has a proper spouse in his bond
Does great sin if he seeks his prize elsewhere.
Many a one sings, “It is my sovereign joy,”
Who thereafter will have sorrow without remove:
He is not a lover who his love misguides.
Of the three estates, blessed is the second,
That to marriage in lawful love yields itself;
And whoever confounds that order in sinful pleasure
It is extremely doubtful that he will lead himself back.
Therefore it is good that each prepare himself
To love thus, who has not tarnished his promise:
He is not a lover who his love misguides.
In privacy the conscience sets forth
To the wanton lover the love to which he plays the fool;
Thus at last he is obliged to respond to it
Before the One who unfolds the counsels.
Oh how the good husband puts his goodness to use,
While the wanton other deserts his wanton lover!
He is not a lover who his love misguides.
To the community of the entire world
John Gower this Balade sends:
And if I do not have eloquence in French,
Pardon me when I go astray with it:
I am English — thus I seek in such a way
To be excused; but whatever anyone may say about it,
Perfect love justifies itself in God.
[Latin verses following the balades:]
For whomsoever the sacred order of marriage may be,
I write, so that there may be such spiritual love in the order.
We may fear what is to come by the example of what is past;
Tomorrow as yesterday the flesh may be lightly stirred.
Thus he will not honor himself who will please the flesh:
Either the body laments or the spirit suffers because of it;
He who will reign immaculate must restrain the flesh.
And he whose blessed status will surpass all,
He will shine, wholly and broadly pleasing to God.
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