恐惧和胆怯的心,颤抖的手,Of cunning* naked, bare of eloquence, *skill Unto the *flow'r of port in womanhead* *one who is the perfection I write, as he that none intelligence of womanly behaviour* Of metres hath, nor flowers of sentence, Save that me list my writing to convey, In that I can, to please her high nobley.* *nobleness The blossoms fresh of Tullius'* garden swoot** *Cicero **sweet Present they not, my matter for to born:* *burnish, polish Poems of Virgil take here no root, Nor craft of Galfrid may not here sojourn; Why *n'am I* cunning? O well may I mourn, *am I not* For lack of science, that I cannot write Unto the princess of my life aright! No terms are dign* unto her excellence, *worthy So is she sprung of noble stirp* and high; *stock A world of honour and of reverence There is in her, this will I testify. Calliope, thou sister wise and sly,* *skilful And thou, Minerva, guide me with thy grace, That language rude my matter not deface! Thy sugar droppes sweet of Helicon Distil in me, thou gentle Muse, I pray; And thee, Melpomene, I call anon Of ignorance the mist to chase away; And give me grace so for to write and say, That she, my lady, of her worthiness, Accept *in gree* this little short treatess,* *with favour* *treatise That is entitled thus, The Court of Love. And ye that be metricians,* me excuse, *skilled versifiers I you beseech, for Venus' sake above; For what I mean in this ye need not muse: And if so be my lady it refuse For lack of ornate speech, I would be woe That I presume to her to write so. But my intent, and all my busy cure,* *care Is for to write this treatise, as I can, Unto my lady, stable, true, and sure, Faithful and kind, since first that she began Me to accept in service as her man; To her be all the pleasure of this book, That, when *her like,* she may it read and look. *it pleases her* When [he] was young, at eighteen year of age, Lusty and light, desirous of pleasance, Approaching* full sad and ripe corage, *gradually attaining Then -- says the poet -- did Love urge him to do him obeisance, and to go "the Court of Love to see, a lite [little] beside the Mount of Citharee." Mercury bade him, on pain of death, to appear; and he went by strange and far countries in search of the Court. Seeing at last a crowd of people, "as bees," making their way thither, the poet asked whither they went; and "one that answer'd like a maid" said that they were bound to the Court of Love, at Citheron, where "the King of Love, and all his noble rout [company], "Dwelleth within a castle royally." So them apace I journey'd forth among, And as he said, so found I there truly; For I beheld the town -- so high and strong, And high pinnacles, large of height and long, With plate of gold bespread on ev'ry side, And precious stones, the stone work for to hide. No sapphire of Ind, no ruby rich of price, There lacked then, nor emerald so green, Balais, Turkeis, nor thing, *to my devise,* *in my judgement* That may the castle make for to sheen;* *be beautiful All was as bright as stars in winter be'n; And Phoebus shone, to make his peace again, For trespass* done to high estates twain, -- *offence When he had found Venus in the arms of Mars, and hastened to tell Vulcan of his wife's infidelity . Now he was shining brightly on the castle, "in sign he looked after Love's grace;" for there is no god in Heaven or in Hell "but he hath been right subject unto Love." Continuing his description of the castle, Philogenet says that he saw never any so large and high; within and without, it was painted "with many a thousand daisies, red as rose," and white also, in signification of whom, he knew not; unless it was the flower of Alcestis , who, under Venus, was queen of the place, as Admetus was king; To whom obey'd the ladies good nineteen , With many a thousand other, bright of face. And young men fele* came forth with lusty pace, *many And aged eke, their homage to dispose; But what they were, I could not well disclose. Yet nere* and nere* forth in I gan me dress, *nearer Into a hall of noble apparail,* *furnishings With arras spread, and cloth of gold, I guess, And other silk *of easier avail;* *less difficult, costly, to attain* Under the *cloth of their estate,* sans fail, *state canopy* The King and Queen there sat, as I beheld; It passed joy of *Elysee the feld.* *The Elysian Fields* There saintes* have their coming and resort, *martyrs for love To see the King so royally beseen,* *adorned In purple clad, and eke the Queen *in sort;* *suitably* And on their heades saw I crownes twain,