Le roman de la rose

all these obstacles; but finally he
surmounts them and arrives at the goal:

With great gaiety I gathered,
The flower of the beautiful flowering rosebush,
Thus I had the vermilion rose,
At which it was day and I awake.

All these embarrassments, all these pains,
so many opinions asked,
counsels heard, sorrows received,
pains endured; everything leads to
a moment of pleasure. One wakes
suddenly from this lethargy: Scarcely does
one think that one had any moment
of joy, one remembers only the
pains which were long and fatiguing.
It is the foundation of manners contained
in this Romance; and which is only developed
by these last two Verses, for
those who know how to reflect on it.

Thus I had the vermilion rose,
At which it was day, and I awake.

There is another morality scattered by
maxims in the course of this work.
Some simply
explained, but delicately thought,
would still do honor to those who

expressed them today with
that wise and noble elegance which is
peculiar to them. Is there anything in the antique
and primary simplicity of our Lan-
guage more ingeniously, more
wisely thought than what he says of
justice, that wealth pays to herself
from the heart of the avaricious, and of the
vengeance she takes from them, because
despite her nature, which is to
communicate herself to several, they do not fail
to shut her up in a narrow and
hard captivity?

Verse 5399. * Of honors.

To riches they do great injuries *
When they take from them their natures:
Their nature is that they should run,
To help and succor people,
Without being lent at usury,
To this God has prepared them.
If they have them hidden in prison *
But the riches of such hosts,
Which better according to their destinies,
Should be drawn after them,
Avenge themselves honorably;
For after them shamefully,
They draw, push, and harrow them. *
With three swords their hearts they pierce:
The first is the labor of acquiring,
The second which squeezes their hearts.

* Placed.

* They break.