Summations, Chapter 51
Context: The Lord that sat stately in rest and in peace, I understood that He is God. The Servant that stood afore the Lord, I understood that it was shewed for Adam: that is to say, one man was shewed, that time, and his falling, to make it thereby understood how God beholdeth All-Man and his falling. For in the sight of God all man is one man, and one man is all man. This man was hurt in his might and made full feeble; and he was stunned in his understanding so that he turned from the beholding of his Lord. But his will was kept whole in God’s sight; — for his will I saw our Lord commend and approve. But himself was letted and blinded from the knowing of this will; and this is to him great sorrow and grievous distress: for neither doth he see clearly his loving Lord, which is to him full meek and mild, nor doth he see truly what himself is in the sight of his loving Lord. And well I wot when these two are wisely and truly seen, we shall get rest and peace here in part, and the fulness of the bliss of Heaven, by His plenteous grace.
And this was a beginning of teaching which I saw in the same time, whereby I might come to know in what manner He beholdeth us in our sin. And then I saw that only Pain blameth and punisheth, and our courteous Lord comforteth and sorroweth; and ever He is to the soul in glad Cheer, loving, and longing to bring us to His bliss.
“No man can know by whom he's truly loved
When high on Fortune's wheel he sits, serene.
His friends surround him, true and false, unproved,
And the same loyalty in all is seen.
When to catastrophe the wheel is moved
The crowd of flatterers passes from the scene;
But he who loves his lord with all his heart
Remains, nor after death does he depart.”
Alcun non può saper da chi sia amato,
Quando felice in su la ruota siede:
Però c'ha i veri e i finti amici a lato,
Che mostran tutti una medesma fede.
Se poi si cangia in tristo il lieto stato,
Volta la turba adulatrice il piede;
E quel che di cor ama riman forte,
Ed ama il suo signor dopo la morte.
Canto XIX, stanza 1 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
Original
Alcun non può saper da chi sia amato | Quando felice in su la ruota siede; | Però c'ha i veri e i finti amici a lato, | Che mostran tutti una medesma fede. | Se poi si cangia in tristo il lieto stato, | Volta la turba adulatrice il piede; | E quel che di cor ama, riman forte, | Et ama il suo Signor dopo la morte.
XIX, 1
Orlando furioso
Variant: Alcun non può saper da chi sia amato,
Quando felice in su la ruota siede:
Però c'ha i veri e i finti amici a lato,
Che mostran tutti una medesma fede.
Se poi si cangia in tristo il lieto stato,
Volta la turba adulatrice il piede;
E quel che di cor ama riman forte,
Ed ama il suo signor dopo la morte.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Ludovico Ariosto 97
Italian poet 1474–1533Related quotes
Phaedrus as translated in the novel, p. 104
The Charioteer (1953)
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A short Schem of the true Religion
“He who flatters a man is his enemy. he who tells him of his faults is his maker.”
“All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.”
Source: On the Road: the Original Scroll
(10th November 1821) Six Songs of Love, Constancy, Romance, Inconstancy, Truth, and Marriage - 'Matrimonial Creed
(24th November 1821) Stanzas see The Improvisatrice (1824) as When Should Lovers Breathe Their Vows?
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822
Source: Home Truths (1859), Ch. II: "Do You Want a Friend?", p. 21