Looked she? Why doubted they my words of her?"
I said, "Her eyes bear death to such as I:
Yet, vainly warned, I gaze on her and die.

"Thou art not dead, but in a vain dismay,
Dear Soul of ours so lost in thy distress,"
Whispers a spirit voice of tenderness.
"This Lady's beauty darkens all your day,
Vile fear possesses you; see, she is lowly
Pitiful, courteous, though so wise and holy.

"Think thou to call her Mistress evermore:
Save thou delude thyself, then shall there shine
High miracles before thee, so divine
That thou shalt say, O Love, when I adore,
True Lord, behold the handmaid of the Lord,
Be it unto me according to thy Word!"

My song, I do believe there will be few
Who toil to understand thy reasoning;
But if thou pass, perchance, to those who bring
No skill to give thee the attention due,
Then pray I, dear last-born, let them rejoice
To find at least a music in my voice.

CHAPTER I.

Since I, the servant, with preliminary discourse in the preceding
Treatise, have with all due care prepared my bread, the time now
summons, and requires my ship to leave the port: wherefore, having
trimmed the mizen-mast of reason to the wind of my desire, I enter the
ocean with the hope of an easy voyage, and a healthful happy haven to
be reached at the end of my supper. But in order that my food may be
more profitable, before the first dish comes on the table I wish to
show how it ought to be eaten. I say then, as is narrated in the first
chapter, that this exposition must be Literal and Allegorical; and to
make this explicit one should know that it is possible to understand a
book in four different ways, and that it ought to be explained chiefly
in this manner.

The one is termed Literal, and this is that which does not extend
beyond the text itself, such as is the fit narration of that thing
whereof you are discoursing, an appropriate example of which is the
third Song, which discourses of Nobility.

Another is termed Allegorical, and it is that which is concealed under
the veil of fables, and is a Truth concealed under a beautiful
Untruth; as when Ovid says that Orpheus with his lute made the wild
beasts tame, and made the trees and the stones to follow him, which
signifies that the wise man with the instrument of his voice makes
cruel hearts gentle and humble, and makes those follow his will w