Walter Scott
I will tear this folly from my heart, though every fibre bleed as I rend it away! ― Walter Scott, Ivanhoe. (Penguin Classics; Reprint edition October 1, 2000) Originally published 1819.
Category: Medieval
Edward Norton
When I was sixteen, I won a great victory. I felt in that moment I would live to be a hundred. Now I know I shall not see thirty. None of us know our end, really, or what hand will guide us there. A king may move a man, a father may claim a son,… Continue reading Edward Norton
Ioan P. Couliano
Melancholy, being a kind of vacatio, separation of soul from body, bestowed the gift of clairvoyance and premonition. In the classifications of the Middle Ages, melancholy was included among the seven forms of vacatio, along with sleep, fainting, and solitude. The state of vacatio is characterized by a labile link between soul and body which… Continue reading Ioan P. Couliano
Dante Alighieri
In that book which is my memory,On the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you,Appear the words, ‘Here begins a new life’. — Dante Alighieri, from Vita Nuova (Oxford University Press, 1999, originally published in 1225)
Dante Alighieri
Sestina of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni I have come, alas, to the great circle of shadow, to the short day and to the whitening hills, when the colour is all lost from the grass, though my desire will not lose its green, so rooted is it in this hardest stone, that speaks and feels… Continue reading Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri
The first three hours of night were almost spent The time that every star shines down on us When Love appeared to me so suddenly That I still shudder at the memory. Joyous Love seemed to me, the while he held My heart within his hands, and in his arms My lady lay asleep wrapped… Continue reading Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri
There is no greater sorrow then to recall our times of joy in wretchedness. ― Dante Alighieri, Inferno (The Divine Comedy). (Modern Library, December 9, 2003) Originally 1320.
Geoffrey Chaucer
And what is better than wisedoom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing. ― Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales between the years 1387 and 1400. As the printing press had yet to be invented, they were passed down in several handwritten manuscripts. The collection was finally put… Continue reading Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
And what is better than wisedoom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing. ― Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales between the years 1387 and 1400. As the printing press had yet to be invented, they were passed down in several handwritten manuscripts. The collection was finally put… Continue reading Geoffrey Chaucer
The Vale of Soul-Making 