book one: pride

Through folly of imagination.

2270 And, for thy further information,
That as I have advised thee thou
Mayst shun this vice, I tell thee now
A tale that comes from days of old,
One that the learned Ovid* told.

There was a lord's son, long ago,

Whose ingrained pride had made him so
Fastidious, that in all the wide
World's realm he had not found a bride
Worthy his body or his love:

2280 So high he thought himself above

All other creatures, in his state
And in his beauty, that with hate
He viewed all women - there was none
With him to bear comparison.
Narcissus was this young lord's name:
No strength of love could ever tame
His heart, for it was free and wild;
Yet in the end he was beguiled:
And Cupid brought the thing about.

2290 One day, it happened he fared out

In all his circumstance of pride,
And came into a woodland ride,
Among companions of his sort,
Assembled there to hunt and sport.
And when he comes upon the place
Appointed to begin the chase,
Out from their leashes are let go
The hounds, and horns begin to blow.
So the tall stag at last is found

2300 Setting swift feet upon the ground;

Narcissus, spurs in horse's sides,
Makes every haste he can, and rides
* Gower found this tale also in Metamorphoses, Book Three.
82

PRESUMPTION • NARCISSUS

Till all are left behind. As he

Rode on, he saw a linden tree

Beside a rock; and there below,

He saw a pleasant well-spring flow.

Now, it was wondrous hot that day,

And such a thirst upon him lay

That he must either die or drink.

So down he got, and by the brink 2310

He tied his horse up to a branch,

And lay down on the ground to stanch

His thirst. Into the water then

He looked, nor turned away again:

He saw his own face mirrored there;

And yet, as though the image were

That of some nymph or faery maid,

Now was his heart by love assayed,

And folly seized upon his mind;

For he believed (as we shall find) 2320

It was a woman that he saw.

The nearer her he tried to draw,

The nearer she approached him too;

He never knew what he should do:

For when he cried, he saw her cry:

And when he called, then her reply

Would echo the same word again.

And thus began the novel pain,

So foreign to him once: for love

With him a cruel bargain drove, 2330

To set his heart upon a thing

For ever beyond compassing.

He, with continual humble prayer,

Begs her come out and join him there;

Sometimes departs as if he spurns

The nymph; but ever again returns,

And she has never changed her place.

He weeps, he calls, he pleads for grace

83

BOOK one: pride

From that which in its gift has none.

2340 Until against the rocky stone,

As one whose hope and thought were fled,

He dashed himself till he was dead.

Then came the nymphs of stream and well,

And others who in forests dwell,

And found him lifeless where he lay;

So, out of purest pity, they

Dug him a grave beneath the grass,

And buried him. It came to pass

That soon, from where he lay entombed,

2350 Flowers of wondrous beauty oblomed

In such profusion that men might
Well draw a moral from the sight
And from the deeds that he had done -
As there and then was seen. My son,
These flowers in the winter's cold
Alone are fresh and fair: behold,
As this is nature's contrary,
So was his foolish surquidry.

Thus he that held love in disdain

2360 Was brought unto the greatest pain;

And as he set his price most high,

So was least worthy in love's eye
And made most foolish as to wit;
And people still remember it.
Thou, and all others, well might take
Good heed, then, for Narcissus' sake,

gower:

My father, in what touches me,

This is a sin I mean to flee,
For pride produces misery;
2370 But in those things especially

Which Love breeds up to weal or woe,

84

BOASTFULNESS

Myself I never prided so.

And yet, would God send grace to me,

That with the eyes with which I see

My lady, I were seen by her,

Then in my love, as I aver,

No sort of pride should find a place.

But I am nowhere near such grace;

And so I speak of here and now:

I would both pray you, and allow, 2380

To ask me further about Pride,

If there be other points, untried,

Whereof I should and must be shriven.

confessor:

By God, my son, be thou forgiven,

If thou hast ever done amiss
In anything concerned with this.
Yet still there is another style
Of Pride, that must be talking while
Words may be said in his own praise-
Nothing can tame his tongue; it sways 2390
As does the clapper of a bell.
Of this, if thou wouldst have me tell,
Then it is fit that thou be told,
So that thy tongue may be controlled
In all men's presence, and win grace -
Which is denied, in many a place,
To men, unable to sit still,
Who otherwise would have their will.
This vice, then, Boastfulness by name,
Is one of those whom Pride can claim 2400
As friend, so that his worth grows less
The more he runs into excess
By acting his own herald. What
Was good to start with, then is not;
What earned him thanks, now earns him blame;

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book one: pride

All his repute, and all his name,

Because of boastfulness and pride,
He causes to be vilified.
I read, too, how this boastful sin,

2410 By nature, is the origin

Of that wind by whose blasts, when blown,

A man's good fame is overthrown,
Whose power and virtue, otherwise,
To the world's profit should arise;
But he destroys it cruelly.
There are, of just this quality,
Some lovers too; therefore, if thou
Art one of them, inform me now:
When thou wast given anything

2420 At love's hand - as a gem, or ring -

Or clad thyself against the cold
In some kind word thou hast been told
Of token, friendly look, or letter,

Whereof thy heart has been the better

Because thy lady greeted thee:
Hast thou, for very pride and glee,
Been boastful of it here and there?

gower:

Father, would God you were aware

How sure and free my conscience is!

2430 I never had such things as this,

Whereof my heart might be content;

No, not so much as that she sent

By mouth the message c Greet him well\

Hence there is nothing I could tell,

Did I incline to boastfulness;

It stands to reason that, unless

I turn to lying, I shall never

Make any boast of love whatever.

I cannot say what I would do

2440 If I had such occasions to