Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/265

Rh

The law of Christ as tale absurd

(This is the wretched caitiff’s word)

And mischievous. Alas! the day,

That mouth of man such words should say!

With Nero perished out the line

Of Cæsar, and, as I opine,

This monster so was void of grace

Or virtue, that ’twere meet his race

Should fall extinct. He nobly reigned

Five years before with crime he stained

His annals, and no prince e’er gave

A fairer promise by his grave

And loyal rule; so good at first

Appeared this felon-king accurst,

That once in audience given at Rome,

When some poor caitiff to that home

Whence none return he should consign,

He cried: ‘O evil fate is mine

That e’er my hand hath learned to write.’

This monster stood upon the height

Of empire more than sixteen years,

Deceiving hopes, fulfilling fears,

And for his whole life thirty-two

Years good and evil lived he through.

But, stirred to felony by pride,

So grievously he turned aside

From virtue, that he lastly fell

From highest grace to lowest hell

Of crime and sin, as thou hast heard,

And Fortune’s freak it was preferred

Him thus on high, that she might show

Her power to raise and overthrow.