The Perilous Fountain with the Charter of Love

¶ Richly seated in the fourth place
Was Cupid, king of little loves;
original: "damourettes." While often meaning trysts or passing fancies, here it refers to the "petits amours" or "putti" that accompany the god of love.
He truly resembled a powerful god
Upon his throne painted with little flowers.
He held a bow and two arrows,
Ready to strike both great and small;
His inscription read clear and clean:
This is Cupid, the son of Venus.

¶ Loyalty, in truth, was painted
In a color more vivid than all others;
She was completely tinted with a deep indigo,
original: "ynde pers." A deep blue or violet-blue color. In the Middle Ages, blue was the traditional color of fidelity and constancy.
Such a color as no living soul sees.
Nature, that subtle craftswoman,
Took it, so pure, from the heavens;
The other three, with her own saliva,
She colored without any other material.
The poet suggests that Nature’s artistry is so effortless and divine that she requires no pigments other than her own essence to outshine human craft.

¶ Apelles, Zeuxis, and Parrhasius,
These were the three most celebrated painters of ancient Greece. Their inclusion here serves to emphasize that the fountain's beauty surpasses even the greatest human masters of history.
Three painters of very high renown,
Were there; they did not value their own art
At even the price of two parisis
A "parisis" was a small copper coin minted in Paris; to say something is not worth two parisis is to call it worthless.
Compared to this work where there was no flaw;
Forming their gaze upon the marvel,
They were like foolish and senseless men
To presume they could make a similar work.

¶ But they were far off in their reckoning,
And truly felt themselves betrayed
The text cuts off, but suggests the masters were "betrayed" or "thwarted" by their own limitations when compared to Nature's perfection.