and failing in most things, becomes a source of complete laughter to those of his own age. Another, holding his hands to himself and throwing his whole body upon that little creature, desiring in this way to catch it—how is it not pleasant and ridiculous? Do you see the one excelling in body? For at last, and with great difficulty, catching one of those that some call "winged," he behaves as if possessed by joy. Lifting the hem of the last tunic so as to wrap the captured prey within it, and about to depart in order to seek another, he does not perceive that he is baring those parts of his body which should be covered. But that other one is more clever, [the one who is] younger in age. For having fastened two of the creatures with a very thin thread, he lets them fly, holding the string itself at a distance with his fingertips; he hinders their flight, so that they cannot succeed as usual, and he laughs, and rejoices, and dances, thinking this play to be something serious. In short, the art of the weaving provides a feast for the eyes, becoming a delight for the spectators. The cause of all these things is spring, the dissolution of gloom, or, if you prefer, the producer of cheerfulness.
IN THE PERSON OF TAMERLANE
What words the leader of the Persians and Scythians might have used to the tyrant of the Turks, who was uttering great and arrogant [speeches] and was intolerable in his threats while his affairs were still prosperous, but who had changed to the opposite [disposition] after the victory.
As it seems, he who desires from afar and from the beginning to wage war is by nature warlike, and being moved by a natural impulse, he cannot contain himself from attempting to cause affliction at any and every time. Likewise you, too, at every time when you were intending to carry out your plans, setting yourself to this—that you might oppose my purposes with whatever arrogance and insolence you could (for you could not do so with deeds)—now that that brow of yours has fallen, which was previously lifted high and grave, and your vain pride having been reduced to nothing, you nevertheless continue to be hostile to us in another way. For you weep in defeat (since, as events show, you did not recognize that this life is full of many turnings, nor did you expect that your good fortune would change, although it is a common occurrence, and it happens not without reason, nor is it so ordered that it could never happen), you belittle my noble achievement, and you bite [me] no less now than before, in that you have immediately cast aside your resolve. And yet I certainly thought I would possess a bright and lasting glory, as if I had overcome a famous man, one who had achieved great things by virtue. But you refute this opinion of mine, showing it not to be true, pouring shame upon yourself and revealing yourself to be an easily overcome man, in that you do not bear your misfortune like a man. Therefore, victory has been allotted to you by chance, not by virtue; and now you oppose me and do harm to my achievements,
turning my glory into the opposite. For if I have not overcome a noble man, how could I appear noble in this? Let gold, therefore, go to ruin, let all booty go to ruin, and your great wealth gathered from every quarter, since the glory that I desired is absent. This it was that brought me, worn with age, from the very ends of the earth against you. And now I see my labors have been in vain. A
IN THE FORM OF A PSALM
Concerning the Agarene Thunderbolt: at the time when God looked upon his own people, and through his enemies destroyed that beast of every kind. The Lord Most High was in the beginning, our God, for ages of ages, in heaven and upon all the earth, before the powers were brought forth; and the same will remain. Now the beast-like have understood. For they saw his wonders, wrought upon them, and their weapons weakened; and the thunderbolt itself, inflamed by its own vanity; which, while goodness delayed and providence dispensed, mocked God. God restrained his wrath, but he [the thunderbolt] was arrogant; while he blasphemed, He was long-suffering; and the impious man lifted his head on high. B He dreamed of the earth, and would not grant that the Master of heaven rules it. But while he boasted in his power, and in his multitude trusted to rise up against the flock of God, the confluence of evils arrived; and he paid for his initial injustices all at once. Let all the earth know this, and let not the earth-born man be exalted in himself. For all things yield to the nod of God; and though He suffers long, He suddenly repays. But let him who hopes in Him not fear evils. For He saves those who endure, if He receives from them the sacrifice of confession, and rewards them in return, for He is a sea of goodness. C Let His people give glory, and may those who trust in Him be filled with good hopes.A fragment of an epistle of Manuel Palaiologos to Manuel Chrysoloras, written by the Emperor while he was staying at the court of King Henry IV of the English, begging for aid for the failing empire.
Most of all, the ruler at whose court we are now staying, the King of Great Britain—the second world, as one might say—a man needing many good things and abounding in every kind of virtue, who is wondered at by those who do not know him through his reputation, but to those who have seen him he proves his reputation clearly to be by no means divine, insofar as it cannot show the man to be as great as experience portrays him; this man is most shining in appearance, most shining in his mind, D astounding all with his strength, yet making them friends with his wisdom, and extending his own hand as a helper of every kind to those in need of assistance, and now, having used his nature as a harbor for us after a double storm—both that of the season and that of fate—he has applied himself and his own ways to us. Being very pleasant in his dealings, gladdening us in all things, and honoring us greatly, and loving us not least, and having used excesses in all that he has done, he seems to almost blush, thinking himself to be falling far short of what is fitting; so magnanimous is the man...