First in the temple of Venus mayst thou see
Wrought on the wall, full piteous to behold,
The broken sleepes, and the sighes cold,
The sacred teares, and the waimenting,[135]
The fiery strokes of the desiring
That loves servants in this life enduren;
The oathes, that hir covenants assuren.
Pleasance and hope, desire, foolhardiness,
Beauty and youthe, bawdry and richesse,
Charmes and force, leasings[136] and flattery,
Dispence,[137] business,[138] and jealousy
That weared of yellow goldes[139] a garland,
And a cuckoo sitting on her hand;
Feastes, instruments, caroles, dances,
Lust and array, and all the circumstances
Of love, which that I reckoned have and reckon shall,
By order weren painted on the wall,
And mo than I can make of mention.
For soothly all the mount of Citheron,
There Venus hath her principal dwelling,
Was showed on the wall in portraying,
With all the garden and the lustiness.
Nought was forgot the porter Idleness,
Ne Narcissus the fair of yore agone,
Ne yet the folly of King Solomon,
Ne yet the greate strength of Hercules,
The enchantements of Medea and Circes,
N'of Turnus with the hardy fierce courage,
The riche Croesus caitiff[140] in servage[141].
Thus may ye see, that wisdom ne richesse,
Beauty ne sleighte, strengthe, hardiness,
Ne may with Venus holden champarty[142],
For as her list the world then may she gye[143].
Lo, all these folk so caught were in her las[144]
Till they for woe full often said, "Alas!"
Sufficeth here ensamples one or two,
And though I coulde reckon a thousand mo.
The statue of Venus, glorious for to see,
Was naked fleting[145] in the large sea,
And from the navel down all covered was
With waves green, and bright as any glass,
A citole[146] in her right hand hadde she,
And on her head, full seemly for to see,
A rose garland fresh and well smelling,
Above her head her doves flickering[147].
Before her stood her sone Cupido,
Upon his shoulders winges had he two;
And blind he was, as it is often seen;
A bow he bare and arrows bright and keen.
Why should I not as well eke tell you all
The portraiture, that was upon the wall
Within the temple of mighty Mars the red?
All painted was the wall in length and brede[148]
Like to the estres[149] of the grisly place,
That hight the greate temple of Mars in Thrace,
In thilke colde frosty region,
There-as Mars hath his sovereign mansion.
First on the wall was painted a forest,
In which there dwelleth neither man ne beast,
With knotty gnarry barren trees old
Of stubbes[150] sharp and hideous to behold,
In which there ran a rumble and a sough,
As though a storm should bresten[151] every bough:
And downward from an hill, under a bent,[152]
There stood the temple of Mars armipotent,
Wrought all of burned[153] steel, of which th' entry
Was long and strait[154] and ghastly for to see.
And thereout came a rage and such a vese,[155]
That it made all the gates for to rese.[156]
The northern light in at the doores shone,
For window on the wall ne was there none
Through which men mighten any light discern;
The doors were all of adamant eterne,
Yclenched overthwart and endelong[157]
With iron tough, and for to make it strong,
Every pillar the temple to sustene
Was tunne-great,[158] of iron bright and sheen.
There saw I first the dark imagining
Of felony, and all the compassing;
The cruel ire, red as any gleed,[159]
The pickepurse, and eke the pale drede[160];
The smiler with the knife under the cloak;
The shepen[161] brenning[162] with the blacke smoke;
The treason of the murdering in the bed,
The open war, with woundes all bebled;
Contek[163] with bloody knife and sharp menace.
All full of chirking[164] was that sorry place.
The slayer of himself yet saw I there,
His hearte-blood hath bathed all his hair:
The nail ydriven in the shode[165] anight;
The colde death, with mouth gaping upright.[166]
Amiddes of the temple sat mischance,
With discomfort and sorry countenance,
Yet saw I woodness[167] laughing in his rage,
Armed complaint, outhees,[168] and fierce outrage;
The carrion[169] in the bush, with throat ycorven,[170]
A thousand slain, and not of qualm[171] ystorven[172];
The tyrant with the prey by force yreft;
The town destroyed, there was nothing left.
Yet saw I brent[173] the shippes hoppesteres,[174]
The hunte[175] strangled with the wilde bears:
The sowe freten[176] the child right in the cradle;
The cook yscalded, for all his longe ladle.
Nought was forgotten by th' infortune of Marte;
The carter overridden with his cart;
Under the wheel full low he lay adown.
There were also of Mars' division,
The barber, and the butcher, and the smith
That forgeth sharpe swordes on his stith.[177]
And all above depainted in a tower
Saw I Conquest, sitting in great honour,
With the sharpe sword over his head
Hanging by a subtle[178] twines thread.
Depainted was the slaughter of Julius,
Of great Nero, and of Antonius:
Albe that thilke time they were unborn,
Yet was hir death depainted therebeforn,
By menacing of Mars, right by figure,
So was it showed in that portraiture,
As is depainted in the stars above,
Who shall be slain or elles dead for love.
Sufficeth one ensample in stories old,
I may not reckon them alle though I wold.
The statue of Mars upon a carte stood
Armed, and looked grim as he were wood,[179]
And over his head there shinen two figures
Of starres, that be cleped in scriptures,[180]
That one Puella, that other Rubeus.[181]
This god of armes was arrayed thus:
A wolf there stood before him at his feet
With eyen red, and of a man he eat:
With subtle pencil depainted was this story,
In redoubting[182] of Mars and of his glory.
Now to the temple of Dian the chaste
As shortly as I can I will me haste,
To tellen you all the description:
Depainted be the walles up and down
Of hunting and of shamefast chastity.
There saw I how woful Calistope,[183]
When that Dian aggrieved was with her,
Was turned from a woman to a bear,
And after was she made the lodestar[184]:
Thus was it painted, I can say no farre[185];
Her son is eke a star as men may see.
There saw I Dane yturned till[186] a tree,
I meane not the goddesse Diane,
But Peneus' daughter, which that highte Dane.
There saw I Acteon an hart ymaked,[187]
For vengeance that he saw Dian all naked:
I saw how that his houndes have him caught,
And freten[188] him for that they knew him naught.
Yet painted was a little furthermore,
How Atalanta hunted the wild boar,
And Meleager, and many another mo,
For which Diana wrought him care and woe.
There saw I many another wonder story,
The which me list not drawen to memory.
This goddess on an hart full highe seet,[189]
With smalle houndes all about her feet,
And underneath her feet she had a moon,
Waxing it was, and shoulde wanen soon.
In gaudy-green[190] her statue clothed was,
With bow in hand and arrows in a case.
Her eyen caste she full low adown
There Pluto hath his darke region.
A woman travailing was her beforn,
But for her child so longe was unborn
Full piteously Lucina[191] gan she call,
And saide, "Help, for thou mayst best of all."
Well could he painten lifely[192] that it[193] wrought,
With many a florin he the hues bought.
[135] Lamentation.
[136] Lies.
[137] Expense.
[138] Anxiety.
[139] The flower turnsol.
[140] Wretched.
[141] Slavery.
[142] Partnership in power.
[143] Guide.
[144] Snare.
[145] Floating.
[146] Musical instrument.
[147] Fluttering.
[148] Breadth.
[149] Interiors.
[150] Projecting old roots.
[151] Burst.
[152] Slope.
[153] Burnished.
[154] Narrow.
[155] Furious rush of wind.
[156] Shake.
[157] Across and lengthways.
[158] Of the circumference of a tun.
[159] Burning coal.
[160] Coward.
[161] Stables.
[162] Burning.
[163] Contention.
[164] Shrieking.
[165] Forehead.
[166] Prone on back.
[167] Madness.
[168] Outcry.
[169] Corpse.
[170] Cut.
[171] Disease.
[172] Having died.
[173] Burnt.
[174] The dancing ships.
[175] Hunter.
[176] Devour.
[177] Anvil.
[178] Fine.
[179] Mad.
[180] Called in writings.
[181] 'Puella' and 'Rubeus': two figures in Geomancy, representing
two constellations,--the one signifying Mars retrograde, the
other Mars direct.
[182] Reverence.
[183] 'Calistope' or Callisto: daughter of Lycaon--seduced by
Jupiter--turned into a bear by Juno (or Diana)--and placed
afterwards, with her son, as the Great Bear among the stars.
[184] Pole-star.
[185] Farther.
[186] To.
[187] Made.
[188] Devour.
[189] Sat.
[190] Light-green.
[191] 'Lucina': another name for Diana--as the goddess of
child-bearing.
[192] Lifelike.
[193] What.