Romance of the Rose (Ellis)/Chapter 53
LIII
How Jason erstwhile ploughed the sea,
To seek the gold-fleece bravery,
And by the folk where’er he went,
Was seen with fear and wonderment.
Jason’s journeying
Prince Jason ’twas who first of all
Built on the waves a vessel tall.
And voyaged therein to seek the fleece
Of gold, but Neptune deemed his peace
Invaded, and great Triton too,
And Doris with her daughters grew9970
Alarmed, and feared themselves betrayed,
Beholding these first men who made
Their road across the acres they
Had held with undisputed sway.
For earth’s first dwellers were content
To stay a-land, nor ever went
To plough the sea; enough they found
For all their needs on solid ground.
Where each man had what each required,
For none as yet ambition fired.9980
O happy men, of simple life—
Love reigned, and all unknown was strife
Earth’s curses
Till Fraud arose, his lance in rest,
And Crime and Evil-Hap confessed
Stood, foes of sweet sufficiency.
Then Pride, who scorns to equal be
With others, came in grand estate
With Covetousness, and hideous Hate,
And Envy dire, and Avarice,
And many another foul-faced vice.9990
And Poverty from hell they brought,
Who there had long-time lived, and nought
Men knew her on the happy earth,
Till now new-born, ah! woeful birth!
Wherefore, alas! came she at all?
Worst evil that can man befall.
Drear Poverty, of wit bereft,
Led by the hand her infant, Theft,
Who to the gibbet goes straightway,
Seeking his mother’s needs to stay.10000
All powerless she to take his part,
As eke his sire, y’clept Faint-Heart;
Nor doth for him aught good provide
Laverna, of all thieves the guide
And goddess, who with cloud and night
Conceals their evil deeds, till light
At last discovers them; and when
They’re haled before their fellow-men,
No pitying eye doth she afford,
Seeing around their necks the cord10010
Fast tied, but gaily pulls it tight
When penitence they’ve made aright.
Suddenly these mad fiends accurst
(When once they hell’s dread bounds had burst),
Their hearts aflame with envious rage
’Gainst dwellers in this golden age
Of peace, o’erran the pleasant earth,
Sowing ill will and murdering mirth,
While envy, malice, spite, and hate
They strove to spread and propagate.10020
The lust of gain
Longing the ruddy gold to win
From mother earth, her very skin
Men tore, and then for treasures stored
Beneath her breast deep caverns bored,
And precious stones and metals sought,
With life and labour dearly bought.
For Avarice and Covetousness
Torment the minds of men, and press
Them on, e’en while they curse and ban
Their lot, to win whate’er they can.10030
This strives to gain, and that to keep,
For ne’er from out his useless heap
The miser will one denier spend
The while he lives, but when the end
Falls on him, to his heir it goes,
Unless God otherwise dispose
Thereof; and if he lost it all,
Pity therefor need be but small.
Ere long the unhappy human race
Corrupted grew, and every trace10040
Of simple living lost, they came
To be false tricksters, void of shame;
The land they set about to share
In seigniories, and here and there
Fixed lines and limitations, but
Thereout full many a man was shut.
And next they fell to war thereon,
And each man kept whate’er he won
By force and fraud, and thus the strong
Beat back the weak—if right or wrong.10050
But if awhile they left their lands,
Arose some idle roving bands
Of rascals, who would forge within
Their dwellings, and their warnestore win.
And so among them ’twas agreed
To choose out one who might give heed
To all men’s surety, and adjudge
Each plaint of fraud, misdeed, or grudge
With upright, fair, impartial voice;
So gathered they to fix their choice.10060