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per-WF-art - 7/16/94

 

"Things Your Persona Might Have Known IV: The Wheel of Fortune" by Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester.

 

NOTE: See also the files: persona-msg, per-literacy-art, per-latin-art,

time-art, p-marriage-art.

 

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NOTICE -

 

This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set

of files, called Stefan’s Florilegium.

 

These files are available on the Internet at:

http://www.florilegium.org

 

Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author.

 

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be

reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first

or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

 

                             Thank you,

                                   Mark S. Harris

                                   AKA:  Stefan li Rous

                                        stefan at florilegium.org

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Things Your Persona Might Have Known IV: The Wheel of Fortune

Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester

 

O Fortuna,                  O Fortune

velut Luna                  like the Moon

statu variabilis           changeable in state

semper crescis             always waxing

aut decrescis;              or waning;

vita detestabilis          detestable life

nunc obdurat        at one moment hard

et tunc curat               and at the next cares for

ludo mentis aciem          the witty games of the mind

egestatem                   poverty

potestatem                  power

dissolvit ut glaciem      it dissolves like ice..

(Carmina Burana ) (not the Techno version!)

 

Those of you who were observant have probably already guessed the

topic of this month's article. The idea of Fortune and her wheel was

one of the most pervasive ideas throughout the Middle Ages.  I thought

I'd give a little background on this idea and show you a few places

where it pops up.

 

The idea of Fortune's wheel is quite old and seems to have originated

with the classical philosophers. Cicero seems to have particularly

liked the metaphor.  But its influence in the Middle Ages can be

traced mostly to the Consolation of Philosophy  of the late Roman

philosopher Boethius.  This book has been called "the influential book

in the Middle Ages other than the Bible".  Boethius' writings,

contained here and in a few other works, were for years the only

source known to medieval people for the ideas of the Greek

philosophers.  Even after the influx of Latin translations of

Aristotle (often via Arabic translations of the Greek) in the twelfth

century, Boethius' works continued to be influential, particularly for

the elite laypeople who wanted to learn of philosophy.

 

When Boethius wrote the Consolation  , he was in prison accused of

treason.  This had followed a stellar career at the court of Theoderic

the Great, which had won him great renown as statesman, orator, and

scholar. He had made a brilliant marriage, and his sons had been made

consuls, the greatest honor a Roman could hope to attain.  But the

advisors of the aging king had used Theoderic's uneasiness over the

future of his kingdom to accuse a number of their enemies of working

to subvert his rule. Boethius was one of these.  Suddenly his

brilliant career is in tatters, and so he sits in prison raging

against Fortune.

 

He is comforted by the spirit of Philosophy, who tells him that the

greatest gifts are not due to Fortune, but to other forces, such as

the laws of God and nature. Fortune's gifts are fleeting and may be

withdrawn at any time, because that is her nature.  Holding an office

will not make an man better, for instance, because "...honour is not

accorded to virtue because of the office held, but to the office

because of the virtue of the holder".  Those who pin their hopes on

Fortune should always realize the risk they take.  In describing

Fortune, Boethius (speaking through Philosophy) provides us with a

very visual description of the turning of the wheel:

 

"Inconstancy is my very essence; it is the game I never cease to play as

I turn my wheel in its ever changing circle, filled with joy

as I bring the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top.  Yes, rise

up on my wheel if you like, but don't count it an injury when by the

same token you begin to fall, as the rules of the game will require."

 

Depictions of the Wheel in literature in the Middle Ages abound, from

the Romance of the Rose  to Chaucer, to name just a couple. Dante's

Inferno has this to say:

 

No mortal power may stay her spinning wheel.

The nations rise and fall by her decree.

None may foresee where she will set her heel:

 

she passes, and things pass. Man's mortal reason

cannot encompass her.  She rules her sphere

as the other gods rule theirs.  Season by season

 

her changes change her changes endlessly,

and those whose turn has come press on her so,

she must be swift by hard necessity.

(Inferno  VII 82-90)

 

The famous 13th century text of the Carmina Burana  quoted above is

just another example of this phenomenon.

 

Illustrations of Fortune's Wheel in various texts are also common.

Earlier conceptions of the wheel seem to depict a globe on which

Fortune stands, turning it with her feet.  However, in about the

twelfth century this evolves into a depiction of Fortune standing

beside a mechanical wheel which she controls with a lever.  On the

wheel are depicted (usually) four figures:  one at the top, one at the

bottom, one rising, and one falling.  These figures often wear the

guise of kings.  The metaphor became so popular during the latter

twelfth and thirteenth centuries that it made it into the iconography

of the cathedral, culminating in the great rose wheel windows of many

cathedrals, which were essentially based on the idea of Fortune's

wheel. The image was a favorite of Henry III of England (who

apparently spent too  much time dwelling on higher things), to name

just one noble who was mindful of the idea.

 

The Wheel served to remind people, particularly nobles who were seen

as being the most susceptible to the sin of ambition and the wiles of

Fortune, of the temporality of earthly things.  Far better for one to

aspire to higher things--God and his divinely-inspired philosophy, as

Boethius eventually concludes in the Consolation ;  for these things

are untouched by Fortune's waxing and waning.  Boethius was later

executed on grounds of treason;  his wheel had indeed come full

circle.  But the medieval readers of Boethius saw victory, not defeat,

in his life and his final rejection of the wiles of Fortune.

 

I think the metaphor can be useful to us in a number of ways.  Not

only does it help us get into a medieval mindset, but it can help

remind us that the important things in life come from within, that

hard work has its own merits. An award, an office, a title--these are

not the things that make for greatness, though a worthy person holding

one of these can enhance its glory. Riding the Wheel of Fortune can

still be dangerous.

----

Copyright 1994 by Susan Carroll-Clark, 53 Thorncliffe Park Dr. #611,

Toronto, Ontario M4H 1L1 CANADA.  Permission granted for

republication in SCA-related publications, provided author is credited

and receives a copy.

 

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in

the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also

appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being

reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

 

<the end>



Formatting copyright © Mark S. Harris (THLord Stefan li Rous).
All other copyrights are property of the original article and message authors.

Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org