is a good and sufficient
reason for a general to die; it is right that he should care for nothing
so much as glory. If he want that, then take it that he lacks all else.
For nothing about a king is more on men's lips than his repute. I was
credited with the height of understanding and eloquence. But I have been
stripped of both the things wherein I was thought to excel, and am all
the more miserable because I, the conqueror of kings, am seen conquered
by a peasant. Why grant life to him whom thou hast robbed of honour? I
have lost sister, realm, treasure, household gear, and, what is greater
than them all, renown: I am luckless in all chances, and in all thy
good fortune is confessed. Why am I to be kept to live on for all this
ignominy? What freedom can be so happy for me that it can wipe out all
the shame of captivity? What will all the following time bring for me?
It can beget nothing but long remorse in my mind, and will savour only
of past woes. What will prolonging of life avail, if it only brings back
the memory of sorrow? To the stricken nought is pleasanter than death,
and that decease is happy which comes at a man's wish, for it cuts not
short any sweetness of his days, but annihilates his disgust at all
things. Life in prosperity, but death in adversity, is best to seek.
No hope of better things tempts me to long for life. What hap can quite
repair my shattered fortunes? And by now, had ye not rescued me in my
peril, I should have forgotten even these. What though thou shouldst
give me back my realm, restore my sister, and renew my treasure? Thou
canst never repair my renown. Nothing that is patched up can have the
lustre of the unimpaired, and rumour will recount for ages that
Frode was taken captive. Moreover, if ye reckon the calamities I have
inflicted on you, I have deserved to die at your hands; if ye recall the
harms I have done, ye will repent your kindness. Ye will be ashamed of
having aided a foe, if ye consider how savagely he treated you. Why do
ye spare the guilty? Why do ye stay your hand from the throat of your
persecutor? It is fitting that the lot which I had prepared for you
should come home to myself. I own that if I had happened to have you in
my power as ye now have me, I should have paid no heed to compassion.
But if I am innocent before you in act, I am guilty at least in will. I
pray you, let my wrongful intention, which sometimes is counted to stand
for the deed, recoil upon me. If ye r