De planctu naturae

On the chariot, the charioteer, and the retinue of Nature. Although these ornaments of her garments blazed with the full ardor of their brilliance, their splendor nevertheless suffered an eclipse beneath the star of the maiden's own radiance. Now on tablets of clay, by the service of a reed stylus, the maiden joined together various painted images of things; yet the picture, not clinging closely to the material beneath it, quickly faded away and died, leaving behind no trace of the images. And though the girl, by often bringing them to life again, made them live repeatedly, still, in the design of the writing, the images could not persist. The maiden, then, as we have already described, emerging from the border of the heavenly region into the hut of this passible world, was carried in a chariot of glass, drawn by the birds of Juno, disciplined by the yoke of none, but joined to it by their own free will. And a man, rising above the maiden's head, whose face breathed the mystery not of earthliness but rather of divinity, making up for the powerlessness of her feminine sex, guided the chariot's course with a modest order of direction. And when I gathered together, as it were in sheaves, the visible rays of my eyes to gaze upon the beauty of his dignity, they themselves, not daring to face such majestic loveliness, dulled by the lashing of his brightness, fled, all too fearful, back into the company of my eyelids.

At the coming of the aforesaid maiden, you would believe that all the elements were holding a festival, as if renewing their own natures. The firmament, as though with its own candles, lighting the maiden's path, commanded its stars to shine more fully than usual. Whereupon the divine light itself seemed to marvel at their boldness, that they dared to appear before its gaze, as it were, all too insolently. Phoebus too, showing a face more joyful than usual in meeting the maiden, poured out the whole wealth of his light. He also bade his sister, whom he had impoverished of the ornaments of her own splendor, to go out and meet the coming queen, her garment of gladness restored to her. The air, stripping off the tearful face of the clouds, burned with maidenly steps in the goodwill of a clear countenance; the air, which had first been troubled by the madness of the north wind's anger, now settled into rest in the favorable lap of the west wind. The birds, as if by nature's own inspiration, sporting playfully in the pleasing game of their wings, showed the maiden a face of veneration. Juno, who had long ago disdained the touches of Jove, was so intoxicated with joy that, by the frequent prelude of a glance, she incited her husband to the enticements of love. The sea, which before had raged with tumultuous waves, now, keeping holiday at the maiden's coming, promised an unbroken peace of tranquility. For Aeolus locked away the winds of storm in his own prisons, lest they stir up civil wars any longer in the maiden's sight. The fish, swimming along the surface of the waters, so far as the sluggishness of their senses allowed, adorned, with a certain festive gaiety, the coming of their mistress. Thetis too, even while celebrating her marriage with Nereus, resolved to conceive a second Achilles. Indeed, the beauty of the water-maidens would not only have stolen away the reason of men, but would have even forced the gods of heaven to forget their own divinity; emerging from their watery haunts, as though tributaries to the coming queen, they presented little gifts of scented nectar; and these being graciously received by the maiden, with a continual interlacing of embraces and repeated kisses, the maiden made known her love to these other maidens. The earth, long since stripped of its ornaments by the robbery of winter, took up, from the bounty of spring, a breathing tunic of flowers, lest, inglorious in ragged garments, it appear unfittingly before the young girl's sight. Spring, too, like a skilled craftsman in the weaver's art, wove garments for the trees, so as to applaud the maiden's steps, and these trees, in the drooping of their leafy hair, as if bowing their knees in a kind of adoration, made supplication to the young maiden. From these there came forth maidens, enriching the wealth of the material day with the day of their own beauty, and they carried, in cedar caskets, spices made from the choicest kinds of herbs, and, as though paying these as their own tribute to the young girl, they bought her favor with their gifts. The wood-nymphs, filling the royal chariot with flowers, at times made it bleed with roses; at other times whitened it with the pale petals of lilies. Flora generously presented to the maiden the linen garment she had woven for her own husband, so as to deserve his embrace. Proserpina, scorning the bed of her infernal husband, returning to the upper world, refused to be deprived of the presence of her own empress. The animals of the earth too, taught by some nature I know not, indulging more freely in play, learned to recognize the maiden's presence. Thus the whole universe of things, flowing to do the maiden homage, labored, in a wondrous rivalry, to win for itself the maiden's favor.