Classic Poem

" WOMEN are likely to be troublesome
And boresome in their talk; but I perceive
The truth so clearly that your leave I ask
To give you now some more particulars.
" Many a man is so deceived by dreams
That, jumping from his bed, he dons his clothes
And shoes, and gathers all his other gear,
As if his common sense were still asleep
While all his other senses were awake.
He takes his staff and scrip or bill and bow
Or sickle and goes, traveling afar —
He knows not where; may even mount a steed
And ride o'er hill and dale through dust and mire,
Arriving at some unfamiliar place;
And, when his common sense at last awakes,
He marvels and is very much amazed.
When to his rightful state he has returned
And mingled with his neighbors, he declares —
And not at all as something fabulous —
That demons bore him off, removing him
From his own home; whereas it was himself.
" Sometimes a frenzy seizes on a man
In illness; and, if he has lain alone
And is not guarded well, he may get up
And run away; nor does his wandering cease
Until he finds himself in some wild place —
A meadow, vineyard, or a wood — and there
He falls. When friends come, possibly quite late,
Because he had no nurse, or stupid ones,
From cold and illness he is found quite dead.
" One often sees even a healthy man
Who lives unwisely or whose native bent
Inclines him oft to meditate too much
Or to be melancholy or to fear
Unreasonably, who pictures to himself
Apparitions numerous and strange —
Quite other than the ones we talked about
When we, too briefly, of the mirrors spoke
These phantoms seem to him as good as real.
" Some will with great devotion meditate,
And too much meditation makes appear
Before them things of which they have but thought;
But they believe they see them openly.
" This is but lying and deceit. Thus he
Who dreams believes that he before him sees
Substances spiritual, as Scipio
Once dreamed that he saw Hell and Paradise
And sky and air and sea and earth beneath
And all the things that are contained therein.
He sees the stars appear, and birds in flight,
The fish that swim the sea, and animals
Disporting in the woods and circling there
Gently and graciously. All sorts of men
He sees — some taking chamber joy, and some
The chase pursuing o'er the countryside
Through forests, vineyards, fallows, and tilled fields,
Over the mountains, by the riverbanks.
One dreams of pleas and judgments, or of wars
And tournaments, or caroling and dance,
And hears the citoles and the violins,
Smells spicy odors, tastes delicious food,
Feels his fair sweetheart (though she isn't there)
As if she really were within his arms.
Then perhaps Jealousy appears to him,
Her pestle on her shoulder, having learned
From Evil Tongue that they together are;
For he invents his tales before the facts,
Wherefore all lovers are by day alarmed.
When ardently they give their passion rein,
Those who lay claim to being lovers true
Have much to bear that's hard and dolorous.
(I know the symptoms by experience.)
In bed at night after they long have thought
Of her whom all day they've implored, she comes
Into their dreams, where rivals may appear,
Opposing them and causing dreariment.
If mortal hate possess their souls, they dream —
Associating contrary ideas
Or similar — of contests, quarrels, fights,
And all that appertains to war with those
Who caused their anger and are enemies.
If they've been put in prison for some crime,
They dream of pardons if they hope to gain
Deliverance; or, if they feel despair,
They dream of gallows tree and hangman's rope
Or other things as disagreeable
Which are by no means there, but in their minds.
But they think all are actualities,
And put on mourning or a festive mien
According to the dreams within their brains
Which, by the phantoms that the mind accepts,
All the five senses master with deceit.
" Because of this some foolishly suppose
That sorceresses, wandering by night,
Are led by Dame Abundance; and they say
That one in three of all the children born
In all the earth displays her attributes,
And that three nights a week they issue forth,
As destiny directs, and force their way
Into each house, in spite of lock and bar
(For they can enter by a chink or crack
Or cat hole, since their souls have power to leave
Their bodies); and through dwellings and through yards
They wander with those fays that people call
Good Ladies. If for this belief one ask
The reason, folk reply that all the things
They see have never come to them in bed;
So it must be their souls that labor so
And thus go coursing over all the earth.
They would have us believe that while their souls
Are on these trips their bodies must not be
Turned over, or the souls no entry find
On their return. But monstrous foolishness
Is this, and quite impossible to trust.
The human body dies soon as the soul
Inhabits it no longer. Therefore they
Who thrice a week this sort of journey make
Thrice die and thrice revive each seven days.
Disciples of that convent may well claim
Great frequency of resurrection days!
" I dare assert without an argument,
For well 'tis proved, no mortal man need die
More than one death; nor will he be revived
Until the day of judgment, unless God
Shall manifest some special miracle,
As in the case of holy Lazarus
We read about and do not contradict.
" Now, on the other hand, when some men say
That if the soul the body once deserts
It never can get back if it should find
The body has been turned when it was gone,
Who would attempt such fable to maintain?
It must be that the liberated soul
Is freer, subtler, wiser than it was
When to its earthly body 'twas confined,
From which it e'er must its complexion take,
Which hinders it. Therefore the soul should gain
The entry, though the body had been turned,
More easily than exit theretofore.
" As to the statement that one third of all
The human race with Dame Abundance speed,
If this is true, as foolish old wives try
To prove by citing visions they have had,
Then, doubtless, all the world must speed with her;
For there's nobody who does not have dreams
Of truth or falsehood, not three times a week,
Perhaps, but five times every fifteen days,
Or more or less, perchance, as fancy wills.
" I will not say that dreams are true or false,
Or whether men should all reject or none,
Or why, when one may be most horrible,
Another's most agreeable and fair,
According as the apparitions come
In various complexions of the mind
Resulting from a difference of age
Or habit; nor shall I attempt to say
If God sends revelations by such dreams,
Or if the evil spirits by them try
To tempt men to their peril. None of this
Will I discuss, but to my theme return.
" I say, then, that the clouds, when they are worn
Or tired of casting arrows through the sky,
Which are more often wet than dry, for they
Are always watered with the rain and dew,
If heat has given them nothing dry to throw,
Consider that they have had sport enough
And all together they unbend their bows.
The fashion of the bows these archers bend
Is strange enough, for when they are unstrung
And sheathed, their colors straightway disappear;
We never see them use those bows again,
But if they wish to shoot another day
They make new bows, which nothing but the sun
Can color, for they'll take no other gloss.
" The heavens' influence more wonders works,
Such powers they have on sea and land and air;
They make appear the comets, never fixed
In heaven but in the upper air aflame,
And once they have been formed their life is short.
Many a fable is of comets told:
Astrologers who such predictions make
Foretell the death of princes by their means.
But comets do not guard or cast their rays
Or throw their influence more strongly o'er
Great emperors than over common folk,
Or over commoners than over kings;
And we are certain that they hold their sway
O'er all earth's regions as they climates find
And men and beasts disposed to yield themselves
To the great influence stars and planets have.
Celestial powers have great significance,
And, as they find things subject to their force,
They often change the temper of affairs.
" I do not say that any king should be
Considered richer than a common man
Who wends his way afoot. Sufficiency
Is wealth, and avarice is poverty.
Be he a king or man not worth two peas,
The more he covets things the poorer he
Kings are like pictures, if we may believe
The Scriptures. He who wrote the Almagest
This illustration gives: he who would view
A picture best should never stand too near;
However pleasing it may be afar,
It loses something when too closely scanned.
And this of powerful friends is also true:
Lacking experience of acquaintanceship
A man would think their help and friendship sweet;
But one who's proved them well such bitterness
Will know that disappointment he will have,
So much to be discounted is their grace.
Horace describes their love and favor thus.
" Princes unworthy are that stars should give
More warning of their deaths than of the ends
Of other men. Their bodies are not worth
An apple more than those of laborers
Or clerks or squires; for I make all alike,
As when they're born they one and all appear.
Equally naked they are brought to birth —
Highborn or low, and powerful or weak.
I place them all upon an equal plane
As far as human status is concerned.
Fortune may do the rest, but ne'er displays
Dependability; for she bestows
Her favors as she pleases, and on whom
She chooses, without care; and when she will
She takes away, or will take, all that she has given. "