Scottish Text Society publications > New series > Kingis quair; together with A ballad of good counsel

XIV
INTRODUCTION.
carried up in the air to the palace of Venus, where he sees
a large chamber filled with lovers of all ages and conditions
(74-93). He also sees Cupid and the goddess Venus herself,
whom he salutes, praying her to grant him a second sight
of his lady (94-104). She promises her help, but tells him
that the success of his suit is uncertain, and that he must
also seek the help of Minerva (105-112). She sends Good
Hope to guide him to that goddess, at the same time
lamenting that mortals have lately become very slack in
their service to herself (113-123). Guided by Good Hope,
he reaches the palace of Minerva, who tells him that his
love will be in vain, unless it is firmly founded upon virtue;
he must be true and patient, and must confess to her the
nature of his love (124-138). He declares the truth of his
passion, whereupon she promises her help, not without
some remarks on the difficult questions of predestination
and free-will (139-150). She then dismisses him, and he
suddenly returns to earth (151). He now sees a plain, a
river full of fishes, and a long row of trees; also an
assemblage of numerous wild and tame animals (152-157).
He quits the plain, searching for the goddess Fortune,
when suddenly his former guide, Good Hope, appears and
shows him a round space walled in, within which is
Fortune, dressed in a long ermine mantle; before her is
a wheel, ever revolving, upon which men are constantly
clambering, some of whom frequently fall off into a pit
below (158-165). Fortune calls him by name, leads him
to her wheel, and bids him climb upon it like the rest
(166-171). She then bids him farewell; he awakes, and
addresses his own spirit in a stanza imitated from Chaucer
(172, 173). The poem is here rather inartistically continued
by his reflections upon the meaning of the dream, and by