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Folly's Lineage, Education and Companions
But to come to the purpose: I have given you my name, but what
epithet shall I add? What but that of the most foolish? For by what
more proper name can so great a goddess as Folly be known to her
disciples? And because it is not alike known to all from what stock
I am sprung, with the Muses' good leave I'll do my endeavor to satisfy
you. But yet neither the first Chaos, Orcus, Saturn, or Japhet, nor
any of those threadbare, musty gods were my father, but Plutus,
Riches; that only he, that is, in spite of Hesiod, Homer, nay and
Jupiter himself, divum pater atque hominum rex, the father of gods and
men, at whose single beck, as heretofore, so at present, all things
sacred and profane are turned topsy-turvy. According to whose pleasure
war, peace, empire, counsels, judgments, assemblies, wedlocks,
bargains, leagues, laws, arts, all things light or serious- I want
breath- in short, all the public and private business of mankind is
governed; without whose help all that herd of gods of the poets'
making, and those few of the better sort of the rest, either would not
be at all, or if they were, they would be but such as live at home and
keep a poor house to themselves. And to whomsoever he's an enemy, 'tis
not Pallas herself that can befriend him; as on the contrary he whom
he favors may lead Jupiter and his thunder in a string. This is my
father and in him I glory. Nor did he produce me from his brain, as
Jupiter that sour and ill-looked Pallas; but of that lovely nymph
called Youth, the most beautiful and galliard of all the rest. Nor was
I, like that limping blacksmith, begot in the sad and irksome bonds of
matrimony. Yet, mistake me not, 'twas not that blind and decrepit
Plutus in Aristophanes that got me, but such as he was in his full
strength and pride of youth; and not that only, but at such a time
when he had been well heated with nectar, of which he had, at one of
the banquets of the gods, taken a dose extraordinary.
And as to the place of my birth, forasmuch as nowadays that is
looked upon as a main point of nobility, it was neither, like
Apollo's, in the floating Delos, nor Venus-like on the rolling sea,
nor in any of blind Homer's as blind caves: but in the Fortunate
Islands, where all things grew without plowing or sowing; where
neither labor, nor old age, nor disease was ever heard of; and in
whose fields neither daffodil, mallows, onions, beans, and such
contemptible things would ever grow, but, on the contrary, rue,
angelica, bugloss, marjoram, trefoils, roses, violets, lilies, and all
the gardens of Adonis invite both your sight and your smelling. And
being thus born, I did not begin the world, as other children are
wont, with crying; but straight perched up and smiled on my mother.
Nor do I envy to the great Jupiter the goat, his nurse, forasmuch as I
was suckled by two jolly nymphs, to wit, Drunkenness, the daughter
of Bacchus, and Ignorance, of Pan.
And as for such my companions and followers as you perceive about
me, if you have a mind to know who they are, you are not like to be
the wiser for me, unless it be in Greek: this here, which you
observe with that proud cast of her eye, is Philautia, Self-love;
she with the smiling countenance, that is ever and anon clapping her
hands, is Kolakia, Flattery; she that looks as if she were half asleep
is Lethe, Oblivion; she that sits leaning on both elbows with her
hands clutched together is Misoponia, Laziness; she with the garland
on her head, and that smells so strong of perfumes, is Hedone,
Pleasure; she with those staring eyes, moving here and there, is
Anoia, Madness; she with the smooth skin and full pampered body is
Tryphe, Wantonness; and, as to the two gods that you see with them,
the one is Komos, Intemperance, the other Negretos hypnos, Dead Sleep.
These, I say, are my household servants, and by their faithful
counsels I have subjected all things to my dominion and erected an
empire over emperors themselves. Thus have you had my lineage,
education, and companions.
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