# Poems (Southey)/Volume 2/The Vision of the Maid of Orleans/Book 1

THE VISION
of
THE MAID OF ORLEANS.
THE FIRST BOOK.
* ↑ May says of Serapis, Erudit at placide humanam per somnia mentem, Nocturnâque quiete docet; nulloque labore Hic tantum parta est pretiosa scientia, nullo Excutitur studio verum. Mortalia corda Tunc Deus iste docet, cum sunt minus apta doceri, Cum nullum obsequium præstant, meritisque fatentur Nil sese debere suis; tunc recta scientes Cum nil scire valent. Non illo tempore sensus Humanos forsan dignatur numen inire, Cum propriis possunt per se discursibus uti, Ne forte humanâ ratio divina coiret. Sup Lucani.
* ↑ I have met with a singular tale to illustrate this spiritual theory of dreams.Guntram, King of the Franks, was liberal to the poor, and he himself experienced the wonderful effects of divine liberality. For one day as he was hunting in a forest he was separated from his companions and arrived at a little stream of water with only one comrade of tried and approved fidelity. Here he found himself opprest by drowsiness, and reclining his head upon the servant’s lap went to sleep. The servant witnessed a wonderful thing, for he saw a little beast (bestiolam) creep out of the mouth of his sleeping master, and go immediately to the streamlet, which it vainly attempted to cross. The servant drew his sword and laid it across the water, over which the little beast easily past and crept into a hole of a mountain on the opposite side; from whence it made its appearance again in an hour, and returned by the same means into the King's mouth. The King then awakened, and told his companion that he had dreamt that he was arrived upon the bank of an immense river, which he had crossed by a bridge of iron, and from thence came to a mountain in which a great quantity of gold was concealed. When the King had concluded, the servant related what he had beheld, and they both went to examine the mountain, where upon digging they discovered an immense weight of gold.I stumbled upon this tale in a book entitled Sphinx Theologico-Philosophica. Authore Johanne Heidfeldio, Ecclesiaste Ebersbachiano. 1621.The same story is in Matthew of Westminster; it is added that Guntram applied the treasures thus found to pious uses.For the truth of this theory there is the evidence of a Monkish miracle. When Thurcillus was about to follow St. Julian and visit the world of souls, his guide said to him, "let thy body rest in the bed for thy spirit only is about to depart with me; and lest the body should appear dead, I will send into it a vital breath."The body however by a strange sympathy was affected like the spirit; for when the foul and fetid smoke that arose from tithes witheld, had nearly suffocated Thurcillus, and made him cough twice, those who were near his body said that it coughed twice about the same time. Matthew Paris
* ↑ The Bastille. The expression is in one of Fuller's works, an Author from whose quaintness and ingenuity I have always found amusement, and sometimes assistance
* ↑ These lines strongly resemble a passage in the Pharonnida of William Chamberlayne, a Poet who has told an interesting story in uncouth rhymes, and mingled sublimity of thought and beauty of expression, with the quaintest conceits, and most awkward inversions. On a rock more high Than Nature’s common surface, she beholds The Mansion house of Fate, which thus unfolds Its sacred mysteries. A trine within A quadrate placed, both these encompast in A perfect circle was its form; but what Its matter was, for us to wonder at, Is undiscovered left. A Tower there stands At every angle, where Time’s fatal hands The impartial Parcæ dwell; i’ the first she sees Clotho the kindest of the Destinies, From immaterial essences to cull The seeds of life, and of them frame the wool For Lachesis to spin; about her flie Myriads of souls, that yet want flesh to lie Warm’d with their functions in, whose strength bestows That power by which man ripe for misery grows. Her next of objects was that glorious tower Where that swift-fingered Nymph that spares no hour From mortals’ service, draws the various threads Of life in several lengths; to weary beds Of age extending some, whilst others in Their infancy are broke: some blackt in sin, Others, the favorites of Heaven, from whence Their origin, candid with innocence; Some purpled in afflictions, others dyed In sanguine pleasures: some in glittering pride Spun to adorn the earth, whilst others wear Rags of deformity, but knots of care No thread was wholly free from. Next to this Fair glorious tower, was placed that black abyss Of dreadful Atropos, the baleful seat Of death and horrour, in each room repleat With lazy damps, loud groans, and the sad sight Of pale grim Ghosts, those terrours of the night. To this, the last stage that the winding clew Of Life can lead mortality unto, Fear was the dreadful Porter, which let in All guests sent thither by destructive sin. It is possible that I may have written from the recollection of this passage. The conceit is the same, and I willingly attribute it to Chamberlayne, a Poet to whom I am indebted for many hours of delight, and whom I one day hope to rescue from undeserved oblivion.