Keats's Prologue to The Legend of Good Women II
by Eileen Foy
Well, as promised in my last entry, this is Keats´s Prologue to The Legend of Good Women – the end product of all of my efforts. Enjoy!
(If you are interested in work process, have a look at my first entry.
Keats´s Prologue to The Legend of Good Women by Eileen Foy
Isn’t it just amazing?
That books continue to be fascinating
To so many poets and readers
Throughout all times and eras.
We can learn from them, pardee, 5
They are keys to memory;
They contain knowledge long forgotten
Provide us with a link to the past, all of a sudden.
Connect us with authors, whom we admire,
Like Chaucer or Keats or whomever we desire. 10
But when the season of spring has come,
We sometimes feel the urge to leave our home,
And go outside to admire the beauty of nature,
And find a beautiful daisy in order to praise her.
There is no flower more beautiful than she, 15
How could I find the words to describe her gleam?
To do her unmatched beauty honour,
And find the right words to venerate her.
It is most difficult in rhyme to catch
Her fineness and choose words that match. 20
In that season when all birds are given a mate
By Nature on that particular date,
And welcome the summer with a song and a dance,
That is when I first caught of the daisy a glance.
She rises and unfolds with the rising of the sun 25
And becomes a guiding light herself, anon.
I found myself kneeling in the grass of a meadow
Surrounded by these lovely flowers that show
That there is not a thing in the world whose
Beauty could be compared to those. 30
In that lovely season of May when birds sing
I would rather do nothing than lying
Next to these daisies and watch them
Whom Nature, Zepherus and Flora turned into a gem.
But when the darkness of night is approaching, 35
The daisy closes and homewards I must be going
In order to rise early the next day and return to the meadow.
But before I go to sleep I ask for daisies to be strown
On my bed as I hope to see
The daisy in my dreams, pardee! 40
Upon my awaking in the dream,
I find myself surrounded by the daisies´ gleam.
And from afar come walking the glorious Alceste
And the god of Love is by her side, he comes next.
Alceste, a beauty uncompared, looks like a daisy 45
With her dress and her white crown, as you may see
And Cupid, the mighty God of Love, with fiery darts
And wings like an angel looks like a piece of art.
Though he is blind as men declare
He looks at me or rather stares. 50
However, it is Alceste that catches my attention
Beautiful like a daisy, as I may mention.
Looking at her made me think of a song of praise,
A song about ladies who were true in love in past days.
But all this praise would never suffice, 55
Her beauty is too great and so is Cupid´s
Anger as you shall hear. Behind him
I see approaching the ladies of my hymn
And all of them are true in love
And praise Alceste. When they of 60
This company all sit down, Cupid casts
His eyes at me and I experience his wrath.
After he asked “Who are you?” and I answered “It am I.”
He recognised me and now cannot contain his fury.
Misportraying and betraying love is his accusation 65
And of my writings, especially Troilus, makes mention.
Then, majestic and noble Alceste interrupts him
Much more prudent and encourages overthinking.
Does he not understand that love is complex?
She considers multiple possibilities: 70
“He might not have meant any harm, might have just translated,
And whether Criseyde was false or not is much debated.
Moreover, in your court are many deceivers and flatterers,
Now let him speak and defend his matter,
He might be falsely accused. Now let go your wrath 75
As a lord you should consider this, this is the right path.
You should be just, compassionate, merciful to your subjects,
And he is your – Love´s – servant in every respect.
He wrote many a tale to promote your law,
Has done you great service as you saw. 80
So, don’t punish him and he shall swear
To write a legend of women who were true in love and fair.”
Thus answers Cupid: “You are noble, charitable and true,
Thus I will leave his punishment to you.
I will forgive him and he shall do as you request; 85
Now thank this Lady for this fair penalty, this would be best.”
I thank Alceste for her wise words and calming his anger,
But there is something I can keep to myself no longer:
“I have done to Love not a single trespass
As only of lovers who were indeed false 90
Have I spoken ill – never of true lovers.
My aim was to promote truth in love, not the reverse,
And to warn about falseness and vice, like I have.”
And she answers: Stop this arguing! Speak well of love!
This is thy penance, listen to what I´m saying: 95
You shall write a legend about love and betraying,
A legend about women who were fierce and brave
And about men whose falseness I never forgave.
We will make sure that you do this light penance,
And when you´re done, hand it to your queen, so she´ll get a glance.” 100
Then Cupid asks: “You know who that gentle queen is?”
And I answer: “No, but I see she is full of goodness and bliss.”
Then Cupid says: “That is true and you know it very well!
Don´t you see that this is Queen Alceste? As books tell
That you have read she chose to die for her husband 105
And was thus turned into a daisy in the end.”
Thus, I recognise her, the good Queen Alceste,
My beloved daisy that puts my heart to rest.
Then Cupid says: “It was a great negligence that you forgot her
In your ballad, as she in her time an emblem of true love were. 110
Now go praise her and these ladies in your legend
About whom you have read and I shall leave this land.”
Thus, I return to my beloved old books and my desk
To write my legends about these women that were best.
Women who were famous for being true in love, 115
Who are praised for their pure hearts above
Everything else. They went down in history,
The old books keep their memory.
But, apart from love, what else?
This is not the only reason why our hearts melt 120
When we read their well-known stories,
Which are often full of tragedies.
These women were fierce, strong and brave
And for their one true love they gave
Everything they had. And this clearly is 125
True love, true bravery – fight me on this!
It takes great courage to love with all your heart
And give everything you have, though it is not always smart.
Many of them chose to die for their beloved
By Venus they must have been encouraged. 130
And this is what true love is.
This is what these women did.
They gave us an example of fearlessness and bravery
And this shall become clear in the Legends, pardee!
Alceste commissioned to write of good women a legend 135
And to tell of their destinies, but in the end
These Legends shall not only show that they were true in loving,
But also true and fierce in living and in fighting.
I was told to turn to the old books to compose,
There I shall find their stories in poetry and in prose 140
And they will talk about these women´s bravery,
At least if I read the ancient tales carefully.
I will study the old books and then write,
In retelling their narratives I will take delight,
I will depict the brave queen Alceste, 145
The daisy, who in loving was best
And all of these other courageous queens
That gathered there on the beautiful greens.
In emphasising their courageousness I can only win,
Thus, I shall take quill and ink now and begin. 150
References:
Text:
Chaucer, Geoffrey, ‘The Parliament of Fowls’, in The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edn, ed. by Larry D. Benson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Chaucer, Geoffrey, ‘The Prologue to The Legend of Good Women’, in The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edn, ed. by Larry D. Benson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Hunt, Leigh, ‘Preface to The Story of Rimini’, vii-xix
Keats, John, To John Hamilton Reynolds (Winchester, September 22, 1819), (Winchester: September 22, 1819), < To John Hamilton Reynolds (Winchester, September 22, 1819) (keats-poems.com)> [accessed 07.01.2022]