Supplement to the Glossary of the Romance of the Rose

Dissertation

(to speak more plainly) it were worth five hundred gold pieces, I would rather it were burned by me than it were sold, in order that it might be published as it is (d). original: (ut apertiùs dicam) quingentis aureis constet, mihi combureretur potiùs quàm ut veniret, in hoc ut qualis est publicaretur

In another place: If anyone who used this book improperly were to lay his sins before me, I would command him, surely, either to blot out very many parts, or to cast it away entirely. original: Si apud me peccata is poneret qui libro hoc uteretur perperam, mandarem, utique, vel plurima utì oblitteraret, vel abjiceret in totum.

And finally: If it were clear to me that Jean de Meun himself Jean de Meun (c. 1240 – c. 1305) was the second and most famous author of the Romance of the Rose; Gerson refers to him here by his Latin name, Joannes Meldunensis. had not washed away the crime of this published and circulated book with penitence and sorrow of soul, I would no better pray for him, nor call upon God for him, than for Judas Iscariot, of whom I can have no doubt that he suffers punishments that will never cease. original: Si mihi constaret Joannem ipsum Meldunensem, libri hujus editi, & evulgati crimen, pœnitentiâ & animi dolore non diluisse, nihilo illi meliùs vel precarer, vel appellarem Deum quam Judæ Iscariotæ, de quo mihi non dubitare licet, quin pœnas det nunquam desituras.

The Preachers, to whom the maxims spread throughout this Romance appeared pernicious, made great efforts to decry it; and perhaps they aroused in many of their listeners the curiosity to read it (e).

To consider the Romance of the Rose (f) without prejudice, it is properly a course in the Philosophy of Love,

(d) Duverdier Library.
(e) Mervesin, History of French Poetry.
(f) Letter from Mr. Desmaiseaux to Mr. de Saint-Évremond, vol. 4.