Book I

Prologue

(1) If doubt is near neighbour to the heart, that may turn sour on the soul. There is both scorning and adorning when a man’s undaunted mind turns pied like the magpie’s hue. Yet he may still enjoy bliss, for both have a share in him, Heaven and Hell. Inconstancy’s companion holds entirely to the black colour and will, indeed, take on darkness’s hue, while he who is constant in his thoughts will hold to the white.

This flying image is far too fleet for fools. They can’t think it through, for it knows how to dart from side to side before them, just like a startled hare. Tin coated with glass on the other side, and the blind man’s dream – these yield a countenance’s shimmer, but that dull light’s sheen cannot keep company with constancy. It makes for brief joy, in all truth. Who pulls my hair where none ever grew, in my hand’s palm? That man has learned close grips indeed!

If I say ‘ouch!’ because of such fears as these, that reflects my wit, does it not? (2) – if I seek to find loyalty where it knows how to vanish like fire in the well, and the dew before the sun? Nor did I ever know a man so wise that he wouldn’t gladly gain acquaintance with what guidance these tales crave, and what good doctrine they confer. They are never daunted, but they both flee and give chase, retreat and turn back, disgrace and honour. He who can cope with all these turns of the dice has been well blessed with wit, if he does not sit too long nor go astray, and keeps a clear mind in other respects. A mind that keeps company with falsity is destined for Hell’s fire, and is a hailstorm falling upon high honour. Its loyalty has such a short tail that it would not pay back the third horsefly’s bite, if it fled into the forest.

These diverse distinctions do not apply, however, merely to men. To women I set the following goals: if any of them will mark my counsel, she must know which way to guide her fame and her honour, and to whom, accordingly, she is ready to accord love and her virtue, (3) so that her chastity and her loyalty are no source of regret to her.