the proper anvils, and should not let from the shape of the anvil, and that thr 355 and skill the face of the copy should

by additions of any other elements f the original. Accordingly, obeying t the Ruler, in my work I stamp, so to sp coins1 of things in the image of the 360 lifying the figure of the example, har ing like from like, and have produce appearances of individual things. Y mysterious, divine majesty, I have so work and service that the right ha 365 power should direct my hand in its ap the pen of my composition would error, should it not be guided by the porter. Without the help, however, worker, I could not perfect so many cl 370 Therefore, since it pleased me to sojou ful palace of the eternal region, whe wind destroys the peace of pure sere dropping night of clouds buries the open heaven, where no violence of 375 where no rioter's madness impends in

1 Reading numismata, with R.

outskirt world I stationed Venus, who is skilled in the knowledge of making, as under-deputy of my work, in order that she, under my judgment and guidance, and with the assisting activity of her husband Hymen and her son Cupid, by laboring at the various 380 formation of the living things of earth, and regularly applying their productive hammers to their anvils, might weave together the line of the human race in unwearied continuation, to the end that it should not suffer violent sundering at the hands of the Fates.' 385 While, in the progress of this narrative, mention was being made of Cupid, I slipped a question of the following tenor into an interruption, with which I had broken in, saying:

'Stay! stay! Did I not fear to incur disfavor from 390 thy kindness by rude division of thy speech, and by the burden of my questions, I would desire to know, from thy discernment and by thy delineation, the nature of Cupid, on whom thy speech has touched before with some slight mention. For though various 395 authors have pictured his nature under the covering wrap of allegory, they have yet left us no marks of certainty. And his authority over the human race is seen from experience to be so powerful that no one, whether marked with the seal of nobility, or 400 clothed in the beauty of exceptional wisdom, or fortified with the armor of courage, or robed in the garment of loveliness, or honored with distinctions of other graces, can except himself from the comprehensiveness of the power of love.'

Then she, slowly shaking her head, said in words foretelling rebuke:

405

'I believe that thou art serving as a paid soldier in the camp of Cupid, and art connected with him by some relationship and close intimacy. For thou 410

definition, a matter that is non-demons demonstrate, one that is inextricable I sl albeit this, which is not bound in obedi 425 nections with any substance, and does n scrutiny of the intellect, cannot be stamp or any description. Then let there b representation of the subject, as I have d let this issue as the explanation of a na 430 able, let this be the conception of a subje this theory be given of a matter not a and yet, withal, in chastened and lofty

Metre V.

Pax odio, fraudique fides, spes junc

Love is peace joined with hatred, faith hope with fear, and fury mixed with re ant shipwreck, light heaviness, welcom healthy sickness, satisfied1 hunger, fami drunken thirst, deceptive delight, glad full of pains, sweet evil, evil sweetness, pl to itself, whose scent is savory, whose sa 1 Reading et satiata, with Migne.

15

less, grateful tempest, clear night, shadowy day, living death, dying life, agreeable misfortune, sinful forgiveness, pardonable sin, laughable punishment, holy in- 10 iquity, nay, even delightful crime, unstable play, fixed delusion,1 weak vigor, changeable firmness, mover of things established, undiscerning reason, mad prudence, sad prosperity, tearful laughter, sick repose, soothing hell, sorrowful paradise, pleasant prison, vernal winter, wintry spring, calamity, bold moth of the mind, which the purple of the king feels, and which does not pass by the toga of a beggar. Does not Cupid, working many miracles by changing things into their opposites, transform the whole race of men? When the monk 20 and the adulterer have both been foreign to a man, he yet compels these two to possess and dwell in him at the same time. While his madness rages, Scylla lays aside her fury, the good Æneas begins to be a Nero, Paris lightens with his sword, Tydeus 25 is gentle in love, Nestor becomes young and Melicerta old, Thersites begs Paris for his beauty, Davus begs Adonis and into Davus goes all of Adonis, rich Crassus is in want and Codrus has abundance in poverty, Bavius produces poetry, the muse of Maro 30 is dull, Ennius is eloquent, Marcus is silent, Ulysses becomes foolish, Ajax in his folly is wise. He who in time past saw through the stratagem of Antæus and vanquished him, is vanquished by this prodigy, which subdues all others. If this madness infect a 35 woman's mind, she runs into any conceivable crime, and beyond; the daughter treacherously kills her father, the sister her brother, the wife her husband, anticipating the hand of fate. And thus in the evil progression she hews her husband's body, and with stealthy sword 40

1 Alain plays on the words-instabilis ludus, stabilis delusio. 2 Reading hæc, with B.

I tell more? Under the spear of lover go, and pay him his dues. He all; his rule excepts hardly a one; h 55 with the anger of his lightning, and a probity nor prudence will be of effe form, nor abundance of riches, nor bility. Thefts, lies, fear,1 anger, fury error, sadness possess his strange 60 it is reason to be without reason, n unrestrained, faith to have no faith. sweet, he adds the bitter, instils poi best things with an evil end. Attra laughing he jeers, with smarting oint 65 laying hold he corrupts, loving he canst thyself bridle that madness, if stronger medicine is given. If thou Love, shun his places, his times; time give him nourishment. If tho 70 he attends; by fleeing, he is put to retreatest, he retires; if thou fleest, h

1 Reading metus, with B.