Classic Poem

" IF ANYONE should dare to contradict
What I have said, and vaunt his gentle birth
And name of gentleman, declaring he
Is better by nobility of race
Than those who cultivate the fields, and live
By their own labor, I should answer thus:
That no man's gentle who is not intent
On virtue, and that none ungentle are
Except by foolish outrage or by vice.
" Nobility comes from an upright heart;
Gentility of birth is nothing worth
If he who has it lacks goodheartedness.
In him the prowess should be shown of those
Who were his forebears, and their name achieved
By the good works to which they set themselves.
When from the world they went, they with them took
Their virtues, leaving only to their heirs —
Who nothing more could claim — their property.
These have their fathers' wealth, but nothing more —
No nobleness or worth — unless they do,
By reason of their virtue or good sense,
That which discloses true nobility.
" A greater chance have learned men to be
Gentle and courteous and wise, than kings
And princes who may be illiterate.
This is the reason: clerks may find in books
By reason demonstrated — proved by lore —
The good they must pursue, the ill to flee.
Whate'er the world has known in word or deed
Has been recorded. In the ancient lives
Clerks see the wickedness of all the bad
And all the goodnesses of gentlemen
Who were compendiums of courtesy.
Briefly, they find recorded in their books
Whatever they should follow or eschew.
Disciple or master, therefore, every clerk
Is truly — or should be — a gentleman.
His evil heart's to blame if he is not;
For his advantages are greater far
Than those of men who hunt the forest deer.
No one is valued less than learned clerk
Whose soul lacks fineness and nobility
And who forsakes known virtues to pursue
That which he clearly sees is naught but vice.
Before the King of Heaven, worse punishment
That man should have, when he succumbs to sin,
Than any layman, simple and unwise,
Scorned by the clerks as underbred and vile,
Who may have never learned to read a book
In which the nobler virtues were set forth.
Although a prince may well know how to read,
He has so much to busy him that he
May have no time to study much or learn.
In their pursuit of true nobility
The clerks have some advantages more great
And fairer than those had by lords of land.
" To make a conquest of gentility,
Than which pursuit naught is more honorable,
One should learn well this rule: he who would have
True nobleness must guard himself from pride
And, whether he choose the study or the field,
Be void of villainy and idleness.
Let him in heart be humble, courteous,
And gentle, in all places, toward all men
Except the enemies whom he has failed
To reconcile. All damsels and all dames
He ought to honor, but small confidence
Repose in them, for no one is too good,
However she may seem. Such gentleman
Should have the name of true gentility,
Honor, and praise — without reproof or blame.
No others can deserve so great renown.
" Knights strong in arms and courteous in speech
And, like Sir Gawain, doughty in their deeds,
Whom no one would inscribe among the weak,
Or like the good count Robert of Artois,
Who from the cradle practiced all his life
Nobility, largesse, and chivalry,
Nor e'er was pleased to take ignoble ease,
But rather was a man before his time —
Such knights, valiant and true and generous
And courteous and trustworthy in arms,
Should everywhere be welcomed, praised, and loved.
" Much should one honor, too, the learned clerks
Who labor with intelligence, and strive
To practice virtues set forth in their books.
Of such there many were in ancient days;
The names of ten or more I could recite —
Indeed, so many that the list would tire.
In former days the valiant gentlemen,
As they are called in literature — the kings,
Dukes, emperors, and counts, of whom I'll say
No more — honored the great philosophers.
Villas and gardens, honorable estates,
And many other most delightful gifts
They gave even to poets. Vergil was made
The Lord of Naples, a more lovely town
Than Lavardin or even Paris is.
Fair gardens in Calabria were given
To Ennius by friends in ancient times.
But why should I for more examples seek?
Well could I prove my point by many such,
Who, though lowborn, yet had much nobler souls
Than many a son of count or even king,
And so were rightly known as gentlemen;
But of all these I'll give you no account.
The times have come to such a pass that now
Good men who give their lives to learning's quest,
Becoming doctors of philosophy,
And journeying to many a foreign land,
Get into debt and suffer poverty,
And almost naked beg their barefoot way
In search of knowledge; yet they are not loved.
Less than an apple princes prize them now,
And yet they are far worthier gentlemen
(God grant I get no fever saying this!)
Than those who spend their time in hunting hares,
Or those whose sole ambition seems to be
The dung heaps of their fathers to maintain.
" Is he a gentleman who name and praise
Would have because he has inherited
Nobility from others, yet has not
Their merit and their prowess? I say, no!
Rather he should be deemed a villain wretch,
And less esteemed than son of vagabond.
I'll never flatter such a one as he
Though he were born the son of Alexander,
Who dared so much in arms and made such wars
That he became the lord of all the lands.
When those surrendered who had fought with him,
And others yielded without trial of arms,
With pride he was so swollen that he said
He found the world too small — no longer wished
To stay where he could scarcely turn around,
But longed to seek another, larger world
Where he might institute another war.
To gain more fame he smote the gates of Hell,
Whereat the devils trembled with alarm;
For they believed he was the destined one
Who, by the power of the wooden cross
Erected for the souls who die in sin,
Should break the gates of Hell, subdue their pride,
And from the pit deliver all His friends.
" Let us suppose, though it could never be,
That I no gentleman to birth had brought
And that of common folk I had no care,
What would gentility then have been worth?
A man who strives to comprehend the truth
Must certainly agree that there's no good
In it unless a man would emulate
The prowess of his noble ancestors.
In this attempt should live each gentleman
Who would show semblance of gentility,
Unless he'd steal nobility, and have
The credit for it without real desert;
For I make bold to assert this axiom:
Gentility confers no other good
Upon a man but the necessity
Of his performing deeds befitting it
Know well that no man merits having praise
By virtue of the good in someone else;
Nor does he merit blame for others' sins.
Honor to him to whom the honor's due!
But he who does no good — in whom are found
Depravity, ill-humor, villainy,
Lying, blustering, and boastfulness,
Vanity, deceit, and insolence,
Uncharitableness, and lack of alms,
Stinginess, and negligence (alas,
Too many of this sort a man may find!) —
Though born of parents whose good deeds shine clear,
Does not, of right, deserve to have the name
His ancestry confers; but he should be
Considered viler than those lower born.
" No person of intelligence denies
That there exists a mighty difference,
As touching unrestrained philanthropy,
Between a man of sense and nobleness
Who gains his reputation by his worth
And one who spends his life in toil to gain
Great property and wealth and ornaments
For he who has a great desire to work
To gain such money, jewelry, and land,
Though he a hundred thousand marks in gold,
Or even more, amass, may leave it all
To whomsoever of his friends he will
But he who works to gain such other things
As I have mentioned, which are merited,
Cannot be led by friendship to do that;
For he cannot bequeath them anything.
Can he bequeath them knowledge? Not at all;
Nor his renown, nor his gentility.
But he may teach them how to gain all these
If they will take example from his life.
They are no better than mere idle oafs
Who boast nobility that others own.
They do not tell the truth, but rather lie,
And steal the name of gentleman, when they
To their good parents no resemblance show.
" Whereas as equals I bring men to birth,
If they wish any other nobleness
Than what I give them, which is fine enough —
Their native frankness, that I grant to all,
With reason, which is given them by God,
Who, in His wisdom and His goodness, makes
Them like Himself and like the angel host,
Excepting for the difference that's made
By their mortality — they must acquire,
If they are worthy, new gentility;
And, if they can't achieve it by themselves,
They'll ne'er be gentlemen by other means.
I make exception of no count or king.
A carter, cobbler, swineherd might be shamed
To have a son who proved a reprobate:
But greater shame it is for any prince
To be offensive, vicious, or a fool.
Had he the offspring of some coward been,
Who by the fire, all dusty, sat at home,
It had been more to valiant Gawain's praise
Than if he had a coward been himself
And noble Renoart had had as sire.
" But it's no fable that a prince's death
Is than a peasant's much more notable,
And when his body lying dead is found
More widespread is the rumor of the event.
Therefore the simple folk suppose that when
They see a comet it is for a prince;
But if all men were equal on the earth
In peace or war, and there was neither king
Nor prince to reign in province or in realm,
Still would celestial bodies, when they come
In proper influence to do such work,
At proper times bring comets into birth,
If but the air sufficiency supply
Of right material to nourish them.
The simple folk consider them to be
Like flying dragons scattering twinkling stars
Which, as they fall, descend from out the skies.
But reason holds that nothing from the heavens
Can fall, for there exists in heavenly things
Nothing corruptible; but all is firm
And strong and stable. Naught that touches them
Can break them or leave imprint on their forms;
Nor yet can aught their substances invade,
However sharp or subtle it may be,
Unless it were a spiritual thing
Like light, the rays of which may well pass through
And do no harm or damage to the heavens.
By various influences they produce
Hot summers, freezing winters; and they make
Fall snow or hail in large or tiny flakes;
And, by their oppositions, other weather,
According as they separate or join.
When in the sky he sees eclipses come,
Many a man is very much dismayed
Or thinks himself in a precarious state
From loss of influence which seems to fail
When some familiar planet disappears;
But, if he knew why they were lost to sight,
No longer would he be measurably disturbed. "