Fortune
Balades de Visage sanz Peinture.*
I
The Complaint Against Fortune.
This wretched world’s mutability, from well-being to woe, from poverty to honor, is governed by wayward Fortune, without order or wise discernment. Nevertheless, though I die, the lack of her favor shall not make me sing, “J’ay tout perdu mon temps et mon labour;”* For at last, Fortune, I defy you!
Yet there is left in me the light of reason, by which I may know friend from foe in your mirror; your whirling up and down has taught me to know so much in little time. But, in truth, no matter for your rigor to him who has the mastery over himself. My self-sufficiency shall be my aid: for at last, Fortune, I defy you!
O Socrates, steadfast champion, she could never be your tormentor! You never dreaded her tyranny, nor found pleasure in her expression. You knew well the deceit of her colors, and that she prides herself most in lying. I too know her to be a false dissembler: for at last, Fortune, I defy you!
II
The Response of Fortune Against the Plaintive
No man is wretched, unless he should deem himself so; and he who has himself has sufficiency. Why then do you say I am so harsh to you, who is free from my control? Say thus, “Grant mercy for the abundance which you have lent before this.” Why will you strive against me? What do you know of how I may yet advance you? And you have also your best friend yet living!
I have taught you to know a friend in deed from a friend in appearance. You need no gall of the hyena, which cures dim eyes of their pains; already you see clearly, who were in darkness. Still your anchor holds, and still you may come to that port where bounty carries the key to my riches: and you have also your best friend yet living!
How many have I refused sustenance while I have cherished you in your pleasant life! Will you then enact a statute against me, your queen, that I shall ever be at your command? You are born under my realm of variability, and you with others must whirl around the wheel. In my teaching is more good than there is evil in your affliction. And you have also your best friend yet living!
III
The Response of the Plaintive Against Fortune.
I condemn your teaching; it is but bitterness. You may not rob me of my friends, blind goddess; I know my fair-weather friends, and for that I thank you. Take them back, let them be packed away in a closet; their miserly wealth is a sign that you will assail their tower. A corrupt appetite always comes before sickness. Everywhere this rule shall hold.
The Response of Fortune Against the Plaintive
You chide my mutability, because I lent you a drop of my riches and now am pleased to withdraw myself. Why should you reproach my royal power? The sea may ebb and flow, more or less; the sky has the power to shine, rain, or hail; even so may I reveal my instability. Everywhere this rule shall hold.
Lo, the execution of that majesty* which oversees all things in righteousness, that same thing you, you blind ignorant beasts, call “Fortune"! Heaven by nature is stable, this world is ever in restless travail. Your last day is the end of my interest in you. Everywhere this rule shall hold.
The Envoy of Fortune
Princes, I pray you of your noble courtesy, let not this man scold this way and cry out upon me, and I will reward the three or two of you for your trouble, and, unless you wish to relieve him, pray his best friend by his nobleness to help him to some better estate.
Explicit.
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1 Balades de visage sanz peinture. Ballads of faces (countenances) without depiction.
2 J’ay tout perdu mon temps et mon labour. I have lost my time and my labor.
3 Majesty. Generally taken to mean God or Providence.
Translated and Edited by Gerard NeCastro
© Copyright, 2007, All Rights Reserved
Citation. Chaucer, Geoffrey. Fortune. NeCastro, Gerard, ed. and trans. eChaucer: https://www.echaucer.com. [Site Visit Date.]
