De planctu naturae

Alan of Lille

De planctu naturae

Alan of Lille (1120–1202)

Alan of Lille's De planctu naturae ("The Complaint of Nature") is a twelfth-century Latin prosimetrum in which personified Nature laments human disorder and the misuse of sexuality and language. Probably composed around the 1160s–1170s, it joins Boethian consolation, Chartrian cosmology, Christian moral critique, and elaborate rhetoric. Its allegory helped shape later medieval representations of Natura, especially Jean de Meun's continuation of the Roman de la Rose and the tradition that reaches Chaucer. Schola presents the Latin text with an English translation.


Chapter I: In lacrymas risus

Chapter II: Cum hanc elegiam

Chapter III: Illic forma rosae

Chapter IV: Haec vestium ornamenta

Chapter V: Floriger horrentem Zephyrus

Chapter VI: Hac igitur amoenantis

Chapter VII: O Dei proles

Chapter VIII: Praefata igitur virgo

Chapter IX: Pax odio, fraudique

Chapter X: Heu, quam praecipiti

Chapter XI: Jam ex hoc

Chapter XII: Ad haec ergo

Chapter XIII: Postquam sacra fames

Chapter XIV: Ecce habes quomodo

Chapter XV: Ne te gulosae

Remedia contra vitia. "Ne te gulosae Scylla voraginis Mergat profunda nocte libidinum Praebe palato frena modestiae, Ventri tributum solve modestius, Imbrem Lyaei semita gutturis Libet modeste Bacchica pocula: Pota parumper, ut quasi poculis Bacchi putetur os dare basia. Frangat Lyaei lympha superbiam, Bacchi furorem flumina temperent: Nuptam Lyaeo se Thetis offerat, Frenet mariti nupta tyrannidem. Plebaea, simplex, rara comestio Carnis superbae murmura conterat. Ut te tyrannus parcius urgeat, Semper in ista carne superbiens, Lentus Cupido sic aget otia, Frenentur in te frena libidinis, Languens stupescat carnis aculeus, Ancilla fiet sic caro spiritus: Largire visus pessula januae, Frenes ocellos, ne nimis improbe Venentur extra luminis impetus, Praedamque menti nuntius offerat. Si quos habendi fervor inebriat, Exire cogant, mente pecuniam, Mentis triumphum sentiat ambitus, Victi premantur colla Cupidinis. Non in crumenis ipsa pecunia Clausis moretur, pigraque dormiat, Nulli vacando, sed magis excubet, Custos honoris divitis usibus: Si tempus adsit, si locus exigat, Surgat sepultae massa pecuniae, Nummos crumenae funditus evomant. Quaevis honori munera militent. Calcare si vis colla superbiae, Flatus tumoris, fulmina spiritus, Pensa caducae pondus originis, Vitae labores mortis et apocham."

Chapter XVI: Cum in hanc

Chapter XVII: Jam tuba terribili

Chapter XVIII: Igitur Hymenaeo mysticae

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