His igitur si pro se tecum fortuna loqueretur, quid profecto contra hisceres non haberes, aut si quid est quo querelam tuam iure tuearis, proferas oportet.
Dabimus dicendi locum.”
Tum ego: “Speciosa quidem ista sunt,” inquam, “oblitaque Rhetoricae ac Musicae melle dulcedinis; tum tantum, cum audiuntur, oblectant.
Sed miseris malorum altior sensus est.
Itaque cum haec auribus insonare desierint, insitus animum maeror praegravat.”
Et illa: “Ita est,” inquit.
“Haec enim nondum morbi tui remedia sed adhuc contumacis adversum curationem doloris fomenta quaedam sunt.
Nam quae in profundum sese penetrent, cum tempestivum fuerit admovebo.
Verumtamen ne te existimari miserum velis, an numerum modumque tuae felicitatis oblitus es?
Taceo quod desolatum parente summorum te virorum cura suscepit delectusque in affinitatem principum civitatis, quod pretiosissimum propinquitatis genus est, prius carus quam proximus esse coepisti.
Quis non te felicissimum cum tanto splendore socerorum, cum coniugis pudore, cum masculae quoque prolis opportunitate praedicavit?
Praetereo, libet enim praeterire communia, sumptas in adulescentia negatas senibus dignitates; ad singularem felicitatis tuae cumulum venire delectat.
Si quis rerum mortalium fructus ullum beatitudinis pondus habet, poteritne illius memoria lucis quantalibet ingruentium malorum mole deleri, cum duos pariter consules liberos tuos domo provehi sub frequentia patrum, sub plebis alacritate vidisti, cum eisdem in curia curules insidentibus tu regiae laudis orator ingenii gloriam facundiaeque mervisti, cum in circo duorum medius consulum circumfusae multitudinis expectationem triumphali largitione satiasti?
Dedisti ut opinor verba fortunae, dum te illa demulcet, dum te ut delicias suas fovet.
Munus quod nulli umquam privato commodaverat abstulisti.
Visne igitur cum fortuna calculum ponere?
Nunc te primum liventi oculo praestrinxit.
Si numerum modumque laetorum tristiumue consideres, adhuc te felicem negare non possis.
Quod si idcirco te fortunatum esse non aestimas, quoniam quae tunc laeta videbantur abierunt, non est quod te miserum putes, quoniam quae nunc creduntur maesta praetereunt.
An tu in hanc vitae scaenam nunc primum subitus hospesque venisti?
Ullamne humanis rebus inesse constantiam reris, cum ipsum saepe hominem velox hora dissolvat?
Nam etsi rara est fortuitis manendi fides, ultimus tamen uitae dies mors quaedam fortunae est etiam manentis.
Quid igitur referre putas, tune illam moriendo deseras an te illa fugiendo?
Therfor, yif that Fortune spake with thee for hir-self in this manere, for-sothe thou ne haddest nat what thou mightest answere. And, if thou hast any-thing wherwith, thou mayest rightfully defenden[ ] thy compleint, it behoveth thee to shewen it;
and I wol yeven thee space to tellen it.’
‘Certeynly,’ quod I thanne, ‘thise beth faire thinges, and enointed with hony swetenesse of rethorike and musike; and only whyl they ben herd they ben delicious.
But to wrecches is a depper felinge of harm; this is to seyn, that wrecches felen the harmes that they suffren more grevously than the remedies or the delites of thise wordes mowen gladen or comforten hem;
so that, whan thise thinges stinten for to soune in eres, the sorwe that is inset greveth the thought.’
‘Right so is it,’ quod she.
‘For thise ne ben yit none remedies of thy maladye; but they ben a maner norisshinges of thy sorwe, yit rebel ayein thy curacioun.
For whan that tyme is, I shal moeve swiche thinges that percen hem-self depe.
But natheles, that thou shalt not wilne to leten thy-self a wrecche, hast thou foryeten the noumber and the manere of thy welefulnesse?
I holde me stille, how that the soverayne men of the citee token thee in cure and kepinge, whan thou were orphelin of fader and moder, and were chosen in affinitee of princes of the citee; and thou bigunne rather to be leef and dere than forto ben a neighbour ; the whiche thing is the most precious kinde of any propinquitee or alyaunce that may ben.
Who is it that ne seide tho that thou were right weleful, with so grete a nobleye of thy fadres-in-lawe , and with the chastitee of thy wyf, and with the oportunitee and noblesse of thy masculin children, that is to seyn, thy sones?
And over al this—me list to passen the comune thinges—how thou haddest in thy youthe dignitees that weren werned to olde men. But it delyteth me to comen now to the singuler uphepinge of thy welefulnesse.
Yif any fruit of mortal thinges may han any weighte or prys of welefulnesse, mightest thou ever foryeten, for any charge of harm that mighte bifalle, the remembraunce of thilke day that thou saye thy two sones maked conseileres, and y-lad to-gedere fro thyn house under so greet assemblee of senatoures and under the blythenesse of poeple ; and whan thou saye hem set in the court in here chayeres of dignitees?
Thou flatteredst fortune, as I suppose, wile she stroked thè , and cherisht as her darling, whan thou, sittinge bitwene thy two sones, conseileres, in the place that highte Circo, fulfuldest the abydinge of the multitude of poeple that was sprad abouten thee, with so large preysinge and laude, as men singen in victories. Tho yave thou wordes to Fortune, as I trowe, that is to seyn, tho feffedest thou Fortune with glosinge wordes anddeceivedesthir, whan she acoyede thee and norisshede thee as hir owne delyces.
Thou bere away of Fortune a yifte, that is to seyn, swicheguerdoun, that she never yaf to privee man.
Wilt thou therfor leye a rekeninge with Fortune?
She hath now twinkled first upon thee with a wikkede eye.
Yif thou considere the noumbre and the manere of thy blisses and of thy sorwes, thou mayst nat forsaken that thou art yit blisful.
For if thou therfor wenest thy-self nat weleful, for thinges that tho semeden ioyful ben passed, ther nis nat why thou sholdest wene thy-self a wrecche; for thinges that semen now sorye passen also.
Art thou now comen first, a sodein gest, in-to the shadwe or tabernacle of this lyf;
or trowest thou that any stedefastnesse be in mannes thinges, whan ofte a swift houre dissolveth the same man; that is to seyn, whan the soule departeth fro the body?
For, al-though that selde is ther any feith that fortunous thinges wolen dwellen, yit natheles the laste day of a mannes lyf is a manere[ ]60 deeth to Fortune, and also to thilke that hath dwelt.
And therfor, what, wenestow, thar [thee] recche , yif thou forlete hir in deyinge,[ ] or elles that she, Fortune, forlete thee in fleeinge awey?
Yf fortune for her self had spoken thus to thè, thou hadst no cause to grudge agaynst her, but if ought ther be whereby thy quarrell by law thou canst defend, tell it thou must;
place to speak we give.
"Than fayre thes be in show," quoth I, "florist over Retorik and musik, with the honny of ther sweetnes; they only delite whan they be hard.
but deeper sense of yll the wretched hath.
Wherfore, when these haue don, to sounde our eares, ingraffed wo our mynde oppressith."
And she: ”So it is,” sayd she,
"for these be not yet remedyes for thy disease, but serves for bellowes against the cure of thy resisting sorowe.
For when I see thine, I shall apply such remedyes as shall pearce deeper.
But leste thou shouldst suppose thy self a wretch, Hast thou forgotten the tyme, & meane of thy felicitie?
I leave vntolde how desolate of parentes, the care of greatest men fosterd thè, & chosen to affinite of the cities Rulers, And that kynde that is of kyndred the neerest; first thou wert deere afore tou wert next.
Who wold not have famed thè most happy with so greate honour of father in lawe, of wyfes modestie, and seasonable obtayning of a man childe?
I ouerpasse (for so I will common thinges) dignities receavid in youth denyed to elder folkes: it pleasith me, That this is happed to the singuler heape of thy felicitie.
Yf any frute of mortall thinges may beare a waight of blessednes, can the memory of such a daye be scrapte out by any waight of growing harmes? When thou hast seene twoo Consuls at once; thy children, accompanyed to with nomber of the fathers, & peeples Joye, when they sitting in the Court as Curules, thou the Orator of kinges prayse, deservest thou not glory of wit & eloquence, when admist them both tou satisfidest the expectation of consuls with all the rowte, with a liberall tryomph?
Thou flatteredst fortune, as I suppose, while she stroked thè, and cherisht as her darling.
Thou tokest away the rewarde that to private man she neuer lent afore.
Will you now spurne at her?
Hathe she with a heavy eye now strayned thè.
Yf thou doo wayen the nomber and trade of plesant & wofull, tho canst not yet deny thy self happy:
yf therfore thou thinkst not thy self fortunate for seeming Joyes by past, no cause why thou thy self a wretch suppose: for passe they doo that wofull now be thought.
Camst thou now first into the stage of lyfe, of a souden, & stranger?
Supposest thou any constancy to be in humayne matters, whan speedy houre a man himself vndoes?
For tho rare credit of abode owght happing chaunce to have, yet the last daye of lyfe may serue for fortune that remaynes.
What meanest thou to speak? Wilt thou leave her dyeng, or she thee flyeng?
Complete text
Book I: THE SORROWS OF BOETHIUS