Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/265

Fair promise blighted The law of Christ as tale absurd
(This is the wretched caitiff’s word)
And mischievous. Alas! the day,
That mouth of man such words should say!
With Nero perished out the line
Of Cæsar, and, as I opine,6830
This monster so was void of grace
Or virtue, that ’twere meet his race
Should fall extinct. He nobly reigned
Five years before with crime he stained
His annals, and no prince e’er gave
A fairer promise by his grave
And loyal rule; so good at first
Appeared this felon-king accurst,
That once in audience given at Rome,
When some poor caitiff to that home6840
Whence none return he should consign,
He cried: ‘O evil fate is mine
That e’er my hand hath learned to write.’

This monster stood upon the height
Of empire more than sixteen years,
Deceiving hopes, fulfilling fears,
And for his whole life thirty-two
Years good and evil lived he through.
But, stirred to felony by pride,
So grievously he turned aside6850
From virtue, that he lastly fell
From highest grace to lowest hell
Of crime and sin, as thou hast heard,
And Fortune’s freak it was preferred
Him thus on high, that she might show
Her power to raise and overthrow.