Sunday, February 7, 2010

suicide dido

***
"Allas! quod she, my swete herte,
have pitee on my sorwes smerte...
O, have ye men such godlyhede
in speche, and never a del of trouthe?
allas, that ever hadde routhe
any woman on any man!
now see i wel, and telle kan,
we wrechched wymmen knne groone,
anoon as we have yow receyved,
certaynly we ben deceyvyd!
for, though your love laste a seson,
wayte upon the conclusyon,
and eke how that ye determynen,
and for the more part diffynen."

(g.chaucer, "the house of fame", l315-316, 330-344)
Aeneas' affair with Queen Dido in Carthage - and from it, false promises. Aeneas' decision to leave Carthage (for this was never the Trojans' ultimate destination), Dido's despair (for she has grown to love Aeneas obsessively); it is here that Chaucer pauses for sermonizing about how women should not be taken in by men's looks or false promises—woe to she who is consumed by a man whose character she does not know well.




hyt is not al gold that glareth
***

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