But, if by any miracle that glorious, strong fortress of the weakconsider it advisable, pass thence to every man who may desire topurchase you, and live out your little hour among these very credulouspersons; and at your appointed season die and be forgotten. For thusonly may you share your betters' fate, and be at one with those famedcomedies of Greek Menander and all the poignant songs of Sappho. _Etquid Pandoniae_--thus, little book, I charge you poultice yourmore-merited oblivion--_quid Pandoniae restat nisi nomen Athenae_?
Yet even in your brief existence you may chance to meet with those whowill affirm that the stories you narrate are not verily true anderroneously protest too many assertions which are only fables. Tothese you will reply that I, your maker, was in my youth the quiteunworthy servant of the most high and noble lady, Dame Jehane, and inthis period, at and about her house of Havering-Bower, conversed in myown person with Dame Katharine, then happily remarried to a privategentleman of Wales; and so obtained the matter of the ninth story andof the tenth authentically. You will say also that Messire deMontbrison afforded me the main matter of the sixth and seventhstories; and that, moreover, I once journeyed to Caer Idion and talkedfor some two hours with Richard Holland (whom I found a very old andgarrulous and cheery person), and got of him the matter of the eighthtale in this dizain, together with much information as concerns thesixth and the seventh. And you will add that the matter of the fourthand fifth tales was in every detail related to me by my mostillustrious mistress, Madame Isabella of Portugal, who had it from hermother, an equally veracious and immaculate lady, and one that was inyouth Dame Philippa's most dear associate. For the rest you mustadmit, unwillingly, the first three stories in this book to be athought less solidly confirmed; although (as you will say) even inthese I have not ever deviated from what was at odd times narrated tome by the aforementioned persons, and have always endeavored honestlyto piece together that which they told me.
"NICOLAS: A SON LIVRET" _Painting by Howard Pyle_]
Also, my little book, you will encounter more malignant people who willjeer at you, and say that you and I have cheated them of yourpurchase-money. To these you will reply, with Plutarch, _Non mi aurumposco, nec mi pretium_. Secondly you will say that, of necessity, thetailor cuts the coat according to his cloth; and that he cannotundertake to robe an Ephialtes or a towering Orion suitably when theresources of his shop amount at most to three scant yards of cambric.Indeed had I the power to make you better, my little book, I would havedone it. A good conscience is a continual feast, and I summon allheaven to be my witness that had I been Homer you had awed the world,another Iliad. I lament the improbability of your doing this asheartily as any person living; yet Heaven willed it; and it is inconsequence to Heaven these same cavillers should now complain if theyinsist upon considering themselves to be aggrieved.
So to such impious people do you make no answer at all, unless indeedyou should elect to answer them by repetition of this trivial songwhich I now make for you, my little book, at your departure from me.And the song runs in this fashion:
_Depart, depart, my book! and live and die Dependent on the idle fantasy Of men who cannot view you, quite, as I._
_For I am fond, and willingly mistake My book to be the book I meant to make, And cannot judge you, for that phantom's sake._
_Yet pardon me if I have wrought too ill In making you, that never spared the will To shape you perfectly, and lacked the skill._
_Ah, had I but the power, my book, then I Had wrought in you some wizardry so high That no man but had listened...!_
_They pass by, And shrug--as we, who know that unto us It has been granted never to fare thus, And never to be strong and glorious._
_Is it denied me to perpetuate What so much loving labor did create?-- I hear Oblivion tap upon the gate, And acquiesce, not all disconsolate._
_For I have got such recompense Of that high-hearted excellence Which the contented craftsman knows, Alone, that to loved labor goes, And daily doth the work he chose, And counts all else impertinence!_
EXPLICIT DECAS REGINARUM
Chivalry Page 18