Chaucer's Translation of Boethius's "De Consolatione Philosophiae" · Boethius
IX. THE GRIEF OF REMEMBERING BYGONE HAPPINESS.
For, of fortunes scharp adversité, The worste kynde of infortune is this, A man to han ben in prosperité, And it remembren, when it passed is. (_Troylus and Cryseyde_, bk. iii. st. 226, vol. iv. p. 291.) Sed hoc est, quod recolentem me vehementius coquit. Nam in omni adversitate fortunæ infelicissimum genus est infortunii, fuisse felicem.[I-10] (_Boethius_, lib. ii. pr. 4.) [Footnote I-10: Cf. Dante, _Inferno_, V. 121. Nessun maggior dolore Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Nella miseria; e ciò sa ’l tuo Dottore.] X. VULTURES TEAR THE STOMACH OF TITYUS IN HELL. ----Syciphus in Helle, Whos stomak fowles tyren everemo, That hyghten volturis. (_Troylus and Cryseyde_, book i. st. 113, p. 140.) Þe fowel þat hyȝt voltor þat etiþ þe stomak or þe giser of ticius. (_Chaucer’s Boethius_, p. 107.) For if hire (Fortune’s) whiel stynte any thinge to torne Thanne cessed she Fortune anon to be. (_Troylus and Cryseyde_, bk. i. st. 122, p. 142.) If fortune bygan to dwelle stable. she cesed[e] þan to ben fortune. (_Chaucer’s Boethius_, p. 32.) (Compare stanzas 120, 121, p. 142, and stanza 136, p. 146, of ‘Troylus and Cryseyde’ with pp. 31, 33, 35, and p. 34 of Chaucer’s Boethius.) At omnium mortalium stolidissime, si manere incipit, fors esse desistit. (_Boethius_, lib. ii. prose 1.)
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.