Classic Poem

" DAME, " said I, " I can do not otherwise
Than serve my master, who can make me rich
One hundred thousand times more than you can.
If well I serve, he might grant me the Rose,
And then for nothing else would I have need.
Your Socrates I count not worth three peas,
However great; of him I'll hear no more.
Unto my master I'll return, and keep
His covenants, for that is fair and right.
Though he should guide my footsteps down to Hell,
I never could withhold from him my heart.
My heart? It is not mine; and nevermore
Will I impair my testament to him,
Or wish to do so, for another's love.
Unto Fair Welcome I have given my all;
I know my legacy by heart, I hear
Impatiently confession sans remorse.
I would not change my Rose for anything
You offer, and you ought to know my will.
" Besides, I hold you were not courteous
When you referred to cullions, for no maid
In good society would use that word.
I know not how so fair and wise a dame
As you would dare to mention such a thing
Unless you found for it some term polite,
More seemly in a gentlewoman's speech.
Even the nurses who are often bold
And bawdy, when they give the children baths,
I've often seen undress and fondle them
And name those parts quite otherwise, I'm sure.
You know well what I mean, and if I lie. "
Reason made answer to me smilingly:
" Fair friend, without disgrace I well may name
Quite openly and by the proper term
A thing that's nothing if it be not good.
Even of evil may I plainly speak;
Unless it tend to sin, I'm not ashamed.
But naught could make me have to do with sin,
For never in my life have I done wrong.
No sin is it to name such noble things,
In open text without resort to gloss,
As God the Father made in Paradise
With his own hands, and other instruments
Intended to perpetuate the race
Which without them had fallen in decay.
By his own will, and not in spite of it,
God made, for his transcendent purposes,
In order that the species might survive
By natural replenishment, these parts;
Unto the virile purse and staff he first
Entrusted generation's potency.
By birth the race is subject to demise,
But in decline provides for its rebirth;
With which provision God assures mankind
That it shall long endure and never fail.
So he provided also for dumb beasts
That, thus sustained, their species may remain;
For when one dies another takes his place. "
Said I, " You're worse than ever; I perceive,
By your lewd speech, you are a foolish bawd;
For though God may have made the things you name
He ne'er made words so full of ribaldry. "
" Dear friend, " sage Reason said, " no foolishness
Is valiance, nor was, nor e'er will be.
Say what you will, for you have time and space;
Nor should I, who but wish to gain your love
And favor, question it. I'll hear you out
And yet keep silence if you do no worse,
However much reproach you heap on me.
You'd like to make me answer foolishly,
But that I shall not do. 'Tis for your good
That I chastise you. I am not like you,
Nor would I start such villainous discourse.
As would to slander or to quarrel lead.
Be not displeased, but quarreling, 'tis true,
Is evil vengeance; slander's even worse.
Quite otherwise would I avenge myself
If vengeance I desired By word or deed
If you offended me, I'd find a way
By deed or word to quietly reprove
And so chastise and teach you without blame
And without slandering you. If you refused
My good and true discourse, I'd have revenge
In other ways, by making my complaint
At proper time before the proper judge,
And he would see that I had equity.
Or by some other reasonable deed
I'd take some other honorable revenge.
I have no wish my neighbor to reprove
Or injure him or hold him up to scorn,
Whoever he may be, or good or bad.
Let each his burden bear, and as he will
Let each confess his faults or them conceal.
I urge him not. No folly would I do
Or say, could I avoid it. Silent tongue
May be small merit; but 'tis devilish
To utter things that better far were hid.
" The tongue should bridled be, as Ptolemy
Early in his Almagest explains
In noble words: " Most wise is he who strives
To hold his tongue save when he speaks of God."
In such a case no utterance is too much;
We cannot too much praise our God, or vow
Ourselves too much to Him as sovereign lord,
Too much obey Him, too much fear His wrath,
Too much beg mercy, too much render thanks.
No man too much attention pays to this,
For always those who blessings have received
Should Him invoke. If you know Cato's book,
You will remember that he says the same;
There you'll find written that the highest worth
Is found in him who bridled keeps his tongue.
Then curb your speech, avoiding outrages
Of foolish talk, and you'll be wise and good.
A man does well the pagans to believe
If he from their wise words may gain great good.
" One thing I'll tell you without ire or hate,
Without reproach or choler (foolishness
It were to anger you!), and this is it:
Saving your grace and peace, it seems to me,
Who love you and would have you silent now,
That you are much at fault when " ribald fool "
And other names you wrongly to me give;
Considering that my father, King of Heaven,
The courteous God, lacking all villainy,
From whom all goodness comes, has tutored me
And brought me up and taught me how to speak
(Nor do I think that I have badly learned);
And it is by His will that it's my use
To call things by their names, and properly,
Without a gloss, whenever I may please.
" Now as to your injunction that I gloss,
I make response that God indeed has made
But has not named the things He did create.
Although He might have done so at the time
When He formed all that is upon the earth,
The names that they have now He ne'er assigned.
It was His will that I should choose the names,
Common and proper, as my pleasure bade,
Fitting to add to man's intelligence.
For this He gave his precious gift of speech.
You'll find authoritative proof of that,
For Plato in his school was wont to say
That speech was given to make us understand
And willingly to teach as well as learn.
In Plato's Timaeus you'll find the text
That I have metered here. He was no fool.
" You make objection that I use a word
Which you call lewd. I ask you, before God,
If when I gave the names to all the things
I'd relics " cullions," cullions " relics" called,
Would you who now so snap and bite at me,
Have said that " relic" is a filthy word?
Cullion is a good word; I like the name —
Genitals and testicles as well.
No better named you'd find if you should try.
I made these words, who surely never did
Blameworthy thing. God, who is wise and sure,
Accepts as good whatever deed I do.
By the body of Saint Omer, dare I name
Improperly the works of God's own hand?
Should I compete with him? They must have names,
Else no one would know how to speak of them;
Therefore we give them such as men may speak.
If women never say such words in France,
It is through lack of custom; were they used,
The proper names would be acceptable,
And certainly their use would be no sin.
" Custom is all-powerful, if I
Am any judge; new things often displease
Though they're found fair when custom sanctions them.
How many paraphrases women use,
In speaking of such parts, I do not know.
They call them purses, harness, torches, things,
And even pricks, as if they were like thorns;
But after they have been well introduced
They find them not so painful after all.
They call them what they like; it's naught to me
That they will not employ the proper names,
And 'tis not their example I'll observe
When I wish openly to nominate.
" Within our schools you may learn many a thing
In parables that pleasant are to hear.
He'd be a fool who took them literally.
There was another meaning in the word
When I discoursed of cullions to you,
Desiring briefly then to signify
Something quite other than the sense you got.
A man of understanding would have seen
The cloudy fable in a different light.
The truth that lay within had been most clear
If proper exposition it had had.
Recall Ovid's book Integuments ,
And you will understand; for there you'll find
Much of the secret of philosophy,
Which will give you great profit and delight.
In profiting you will enjoyment gain,
And your enjoyment will be profitable;
For in the myths and fables of this sort
Philosophers their speculations hide.
'Tis thus they cover many a useful truth
Which you must see if you would comprehend.
But I've given you two words you understand
Quite literally, and should, without a gloss. "
" Lady, most easily whoever knows
Our language will these words well apprehend;
They have no need of further commentary.
Now 'tis not my intention to explore
The sense of poets' fabling metaphors;
But, if I may be cured and merit have
In your employ, for which I hope reward,
I will expound continually such points
As may be fitting, that each man may see
Their meaning clearly. Hold yourself excused
For that first word you used, and other two
Employed thereafter, if, as you have said,
You use them properly. I'll take no pains
And waste no time in glossing them for you.
But, in God's mercy, censure not my love!
It's my own lookout if I am a fool.
I took good care of one thing to be sure:
That I was acting wisely when I swore
Allegiance to my lord. If now I'm mad,
Regard me not. Whatever may befall,
I'm vowed to Love — in service to my Rose.
No other will I ever give my heart.
I could not keep my word if I to you
My love should promise, for I must deceive
You or him to whom I tendered it
Ere you proposed your covenant to me.
But often have I told you that no thought
I have for others than my longed-for Rose.
Now oft by your reiterated words
You irk me so that my thoughts fly away
And tempt me to achieve escape by flight
Unless you'll quiet keep; for still my heart
Is in attendance on another one. "
When Reason heard this speech, she turned aside
And left me pensive — lonely — most disconsolate.