The Journey Always Begins in a Forest

 And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led,
   Ioying to heare the birdes sweete harmony,
   Which therein shrouded from the tempest dred,
   Seemd in their song to scorne the cruell sky.
   Much can they prayse the trees so straight and hy,
   The sayling Pine, the Cedar proud and tall,
   The vine-propp Elme, the Poplar neuer dry,
   The builder Oake, sole king of forrests all,
The Aspine good for staues, the Cypresse funerall.

The Laurell, meed of mightie Conquerours
   And Poets sage, the Firre that weepeth still,
   The Willow worne of forlorne Paramours,
   The Eugh obedient to the benders will,
   The Birch for shaftes, the Sallow for the mill,
   The Mirrhe sweete bleeding in the bitter wound,
   The warlike Beech, the Ash for nothing ill,
   The fruitfull Oliue, and the Platane round,
The caruer Holme, the Maple seeldom inward sound.

Led with delight, they thus beguile the way,
   Vntill the blustring storme is ouerblowne;
   When weening to returne, whence they did stray,
   They cannot finde that path, which first was showne,
   But wander too and fro in wayes vnknowne,
   Furthest from end then, when they neerest weene,
   That makes them doubt, their wits be not their owne:
    So many pathes, so many turnings seene,
That which of them to take, in diuerse doubt they been.

The Fairie Queene, I.8-10

   Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
che la diritta via era smarrita.

   Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!

  Halfway through our life's quest,
I found myself in a dark forest,
As the straight path was lost.

   Oh how hard it is to talk of such a thing,
This forest so wild, bitter and strong
the mere thought renews the dreading.

Inferno, I.1-6.

Edmund Spenser, The Fairie Queene, ed. by A.C. Hamilton, 2nd edn (Harlow: Pearson, 2007), pp. 32-33. Dante Alighieri, Commedia, ed. by Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi, 3 vols (Milan: Mondadori, 2008), I, pp. 7-10. My translation.

Stick to Writing about Eels

Francesco Berni (1497/8-1535)

Provai un tratto a scrivere elegante,
in prosa e in versi, e fecine parecchi,
et ebbi voglia anch’io d’esser gigante;
 
ma messer Cinzio mi tirò gli orecchi,
e disse:—Bernia, fa’ pur dell’Anguille,
ché questo è  il proprio umor dove tu pecchi:
arte non è da te cantar d’Achille
 
I tried once to write with elegance, making several attempts at prose and verse, and I even longed to be a giant,

but Mr. Cinzio pulled my ears, and said: ‘Berni: you keep writing about eels, because that is the proper subject  for you to mess about with: it is not your art to sing of Achilles.’

Francesco Berni, Rime, ed. by Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti (Torino: Giulio Einaudi, 1969), pp. 152-53 (LV. Capitolo al cardinale [Ippolito] de’ Medici, 37-43). My translation. Emended prova to read prosa in line 38.

 ‘You are old,’ said the youth, ‘one would hardly suppose
    That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose—
    What made you so awfully clever?’

‘I have answered three questions, and that is enough,’
    Said his father; ‘don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
    Be off, or I’ll kick you down stairs!’

Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (New York: Random House, 1946), p. 55. Illustration by John Tenniel; coloured by Fritz Kredel.

Wine for Medicine

Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio (1504-1573), from Egle, Act I Scene IV:

Sileno:
              A Dio, compagni cari.
Ma io vi prego intanto a raccordarvi
Che ‘l vino è medicina a ogni gran cura
E che impossibil è che chi ben beve
Con ogni grave duol non faccia tregua.
 
Silenus:
                Adieu, my dear friends.
But in the meantime, I beg you to commit yourselves
to the fact that wine is medicine for every great worry
and that it is impossible for those who drink well
not to make peace with every serious sorrow they suffer.

Notes:
Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio, Egle; Lettera sovra il comporre le Satire atte alla scena; Favola Pastorale, ed. by Carla Molinari (Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1985), pp. 27-28. My translation.
 
‘Give strong drink to them that are sad: and wine to them that are grieved in mind’ Proverbs 31:6.

Gerard van Honthorst  (1592–1656), Triumph of Silenus, wikicommons (Louvre)