Romance of the Rose (Ellis)/Chapter 40
XL
How Seneca, that noble man,
Succumbed beneath his pupil’s ban;
Set in a bath to die was he,
By Nero’s savage cruelty.
The death of Seneca
“The sentence given, no stop or stay
Made Nero, mocked he all delay;
And Seneca was straightway set
Within a bath, and leeches let
The blood from out his veins, till dead
He lay—his glorious spirit fled.
No pretext Nero had for this
Most treacherous crime, save that amiss
He took it that, since childhood’s days,
He had been taught his cap to raise
In humbleness and reverence when
He met his tutor. Cried he then:
‘Fit is it I should bow my face
Either in house or public place
To any man?
As emperor
No longer will I bend before
Another, whosoe’er he be,
Tutor or sire, ’tis one to me.’
Sithence he felt it as a brand
Of tutelage that he should stand6600
Uncovered, as the custom bade
That he from tender years had had,
He made forthwith a royal decree,
That Seneca should shamefully
Be put to death. Unbridled rule
This monster (mingled knave and fool)
Held o’er the Roman Empire wide,
That stretched its arms from side to side
Of all the earth; north, south, and west
And east, this madman’s sway confessed.6610
Good friend, I hope thou hast the wit,
Hearing my tale, to learn from it
That riches, rule, and honours high,
Full power and great prosperity,
And all the gifts Dame Fortune showers
With lavish hand on those she dowers
With worldly wealth, can never make
Those whom she favoureth to break
With vice and turn to virtuousness,
Proving them worthy to possess6620
The kingly rod; for if abide
Within their bosoms hateful pride,
The germ of every poisonous fruit,
Little to them will honours boot,
For ever as men mount more high,
Their crimes but blaze more openly;
For had they ne’er to power attained,
Their paltry vices had remained
Obscure, but when aloft men rise,
Then comes the crucial test which tries6630
The stuff they’re made of.
Oft I’ve heard
A proverb, which I count absurd
And false, though many a man, forsooth,
Will quote it for unquestioned truth.
It boldly saith that: ‘Honours spoil
Good manners.’ ’Twere but wasted toil
If I should strive to prove how vain
That proverb is; no poisonous bane
Are honours if they chance to fall
On worthy wights, for not at all6640
They change men’s natures; if erst good
That nature proved in needihood,
So will it still to good incline,
When on it wealth and honour shine
’Fore all the world; but if poor men
Are vicious, past all question then,
If they arrive at high estate,
They do but show more reprobate.
God all-powerful
The name of power is ill applied
To malice, ignorance, and pride,6650
For hath not sacred Scripture shown
That power proceeds from God alone?
And no man doth God’s law transgress,
Save when misled by foolishness:
And every man who sees aright,
Knows lack of good is lack of might,
For thus ’tis said in Holy Writ;
But if, still unconvinced of it,
Thy soul remaineth yet in doubt,
Nor draws assurance full thereout,6660
I’ll quickly show that nought can be
Impossible to the Deity.
No man would dare to say the will
Of God could ever stoop to ill,
And owning that, thou know’st right well,
That God hath power o’er heaven and hell,
Yet hath not power aught ill to do.
Then is the axiom clearly true,
That he who made all things in earth
And heaven, ne’er gave foul evil birth.6670
E’en as a shadow hideth not.
Except the light, one single jot
Of matter, so in equal wise
Vile men are nought
The man in whom no virtue lies,
By God was simply left all void
Of good. His soul then if destroyed
And lost for ever by gross sin,
Did not from God perdition win.
Also the Scriptures go so far,
Well knowing what the wicked are,6680
As say a sinner is no man.
To prove this were none other than
Mere waste of time, for is it not
In many a Scripture found, God wot?
Yet natheless, if thou wilt but bear
Some short space with me, thou shalt hear,
Among a thousand reasons, some
Which, staying not for others, come
Within my mind. The common end
Toward which all living things should tend6690
Forsake they, yet the first it is,
And highest of all things, ywis.
And other reasons might, if sought,
Be found, why wicked men are nought,
By him who notes the road they fare.
Seeing they live all unaware
Of that one end and aim which each
And all on earth should strive to reach.
The plain corollary is then,
That less than nought are evil men.6700
Desire not Fortune’s favours
Behold ye in this world what pranks
Dame Fortune plays, and less of thanks
Than curses gets thereby, for she
It was by whose supreme decree
The worst of all men was declared
Lord of the world, and ’neath him fared
The noble Seneca so ill.
Therefore let thou no longing fill
Thy heart for Fortune’s favours, for
The mightiest king or emperor6710
Is but her plaything. Better far
Persuade thyself her blessings are
But curses, and to be despised.
The poet, Claudian hight, surprised
And shocked at this, would cast the blame
Back on the Gods, as if it came
Of them that fools were set on high
And dowered with riches plenteously.
And honour great and uncurbed might.
With all that man’s heart longs for, dight.6720
But afterwards he wisely writ,
When he had thought and conned of it,
How that the Gods permit such things,
That later they on scatterlings
May send a heavier chastisement,
Whose day of power hath been misspent
In foolish vice, and do but call
Them into place that greater fall
May be their lot; higher the state
Such men attain, more dire their fate.6730
And if so be that thou forsake
My counsels never, they shall make
Thee wise and happy, and no man
Shall higher be or richer than
Thy very self, and thou shalt ne’er
Eat out thine heart in dark despair
Or wasting wrath, though Fortune’s stroke
Thy friends, estate, and body broke;
But having patience, thou in me,
Shalt find a friend to comfort thee.6740
Wherefore discoverest thou such dole?
Tears from between thine eyelids roll,
As drops from some alembic stood
Above a furnace. In the flood
Thou mightst be washed out like a rag,
None but a fool, or merry wag,
Would call so poor a stick a man,
For never creature looked so wan
And wretched as dost thou. The devil,
True spring and source of all things evil,6750
Within thy weakling heart hath set
This love, and hence thy cheeks are wet
With waterfalls; thou shouldst disdain
To show thee so far weak and vain.
This tyrant God whose breath doth fan
The fire of love within the pan
Of thy frail brain it is, alone,
Who causeth thee to fret and moan.
Thy noble liege! thy reverenced friend!
Through whom thy soul thou dost expend6760
In tears—he sells his friendship dear,
As doth to my poor wit appear.
Brave, manly hearts do not disgrace
Their souls with woe-worn maudlin face;
To puny boys, and women weak,
Leave it through sobs and sighs to speak
Their griefs, poor feeble willow wands—
But thou—stand firm with hard-clenched hands,
When see’st thou Fortune near thee reel
Her aye-revolving, changeful wheel.6770
Dost thou imagine thou canst stay
Its turning e’en for one short day?
Nay! never since first rose heaven’s sun,
Hath rich or poor that marvel done.
Nero deserted
Nero, of whom I lately spake,
And whose mere frown sufficed to shake
The world, o’er which he held such sway
As never tyrant till his day
Had known, had yet no power to check
Fortune, but bowed before her beck,6780
If history lie not, for ’tis said
Most wretchedly he perishèd.
So did he fire the people’s hate,
That rose they all infuriate
Against this monster. Then he sent
Envoys to all his friends, intent
To save his worthless life, but not
A single man he found, I wot,
To give him refuge. Then while rocked
His craven heart with fear, he knocked6790
With frantic strokes at many a portal,
But, to his thundering, not a mortal
Replied, and he aback returned,
While helpless rage his vitals burned.”