Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/275

And thou, who joy’dst to kiss the Rose,
Through which to thee such misery grows
As seems would never more abate,
Dost thou desire it for thy fate
Ever to live in soft delight
Kissing fair roses, day and night?7130
Now swear I stoutly by my head,
Good sense within thee seemeth dead.
Victims of Fortune Lest thou beneath thy sorrow sink,
I counsel thee to muse and think
Of Manfred and of Conradin
And Henry, who, than Saladin,
Did deadlier crimes, since war they made
’Gainst Holy Church their nurse, who laid
Her curse on them, and mark how died
Those of Marseilles through fatal pride.7140
With ancient lore too well acquaint
Art thou that I again need paint
Vile Nero’s crime, or Crœsus’ fall,
Such lessons might’st thou well recall,
Showing how vain their power to stay
The turn of Fortune’s wheel one day.
I’faith! the freeman who in pride
Of freedom scorneth all beside,
Forgets how mighty Crœsus fell
From freedom’s heaven to serfdom’s hell,7150
And in his memory holds he not
Sad Hecuba’s unhappy lot,
The wife of Priam, nor the fate
Of Sisygambis, who the great
Darius, king of Persia, bore,
Yet Alexander fell before;