Commonplace Book: Lydgate's Troy Book, Prologue

[ricardienne]

(To be filed under: Things that would doubtless be less amazing to me if I were less ignorant about medieval literature.)

For after deth clerkis lityl drede
After desert for to bere witnesse     185
Nor of a tyraunt the trouthe to expresse,
As men disserve withoute excepcioun;
With lak or prys thei graunt hem her guerdoun.
Wherfore me semeth every maner man
Schulde be his live in al that ever he can     190
For vertu only eschewe to don amys,
For after dethe, pleynly as it is,
Clerkis wil write, and excepte noon,
The pleyne trouthe whan a man is goon.

The part just before this is pretty good, too, although it doesn't push my sine ira et studio buttons in quite the same way:

Of the dede the verreie trewe corn    150
So as it fil severid from the chaf,
For in her honde they hilde for a staf
The trouthe only, whyche thei han compyled
Unto this fyn - that we wer nat begyled
Of necligence thorugh foryetilnesse.
The whiche serpent of age by processe
Engendred is fersly us t'assaille,
Of the trouth to make us for to faille;
For nere writers, al wer out of mynde,
Nat story only but of nature and kynde    160
The trewe knowyng schulde have gon to wrak
And from science oure wittes put abak,
Ne hadde oure elderis cerched out and sought
The sothefast pyth, to ympe it in oure thought
Of thinges passed, fordirked of her hewe
But thorugh writyng thei be refresched newe,
Of oure auncetrys left to us byhynde
To make a merour only to oure mynde
To seen eche thing trewly as it was,
More bryght and clere than in any glas.    170
For ner her writyng nowe memorial,
Dethe with his swerde schulde have slayen al
And ydymmed with his sodeyn schoures
The grete prowes of thise conquerouris
And dirked eke the brightnesse of her fame
That schyneth yet by report of her name;
For unto us her bokes represent
Withoute feynynge the weie that thei went
In her daies, whan thei wer alyve.
Ageyn the trouthe whoso evere stryve    180
Or counterplete or make any debate,
The sothe is rad of highe or lowe estate
Withoute favour, whoso list take hede.

Also this:

Ovide also poetycally hath closyd
Falshede with trouthe, that maketh men ennosed    300
To whiche parte that thei schal hem holde;
His mysty speche so hard is to unfolde
That it entriketh rederis that it se.
Virgile also for love of Enee
In Eneydos rehersyth moche thyng
And was in party trewe of his writyng,
Exsepte only that hym lyst som whyle
The tracys folwe of Omeris stile.

"misty speech" that tricks readers through the very labor they have to expend in unfolding it sums up what Tacitus does very nicely, I think. Just in case you were wondering.