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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431354" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Convent Gardener Of Lamporechio</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">WHEN Cupid with his dart, would hearts assail,<br>The rampart most secure is not the VEIL;<br>A husband better will the FAIR protect,<br>Than walls or lattices, I much suspect.<br>Those parents, who in nunneries have got<br>Their daughters (whether willingly or not),<br>Most clearly in a glaring error prove,<br>To fancy God will round their actions move;<br>'Tis an abuse of what we hold divine;<br>The Devil with them surely must combine.<br>Besides, 'twere folly to suppose that vice<br>Ne'er entered convent walls, and nuns were ice.<br>A very diff'rent sentiment I hold:<br>Girls, who in publick move, however bold,<br>Have greater terrors lest they get a stain;<br>For, honour lost, they never fame regain.<br>Few enemies their modesty attack;<br>The others have but one their minds to rack.<br>TEMPTATION, daughter of the drowsy dame,<br>That hates to move, and IDLENESS we name,<br>Is ever practising each wily art,<br>To spread her snares around the throbbing heart;<br>And fond DESIRE, the child of lorn CONSTRAINT,<br>Is anxious to the soul soft scenes to paint.<br>If I've a worthy daughter made a nun,<br>Is that a reason she's a saint?--Mere fun!<br>Avaunt such folly!--three in four you'll find,<br>Of those who wear the veil--have changed their mind;<br>Their fingers bite, and often do much worse:<br>Those convent vows, full soon, become a curse;<br>Such things at least have sometimes reached my ear<br>(For doubtless I must speak from others here);<br>Of his Boccace a merry tale has told,<br>Which into rhyme I've put, as you'll behold.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">WITHIN a nunnery, in days of yore,<br>A good old man supplied the garden-store;<br>The nuns, in general, were smart and gay,<br>And kept their tongues in motion through the day.<br>Religious duties they regarded less,<br>Than for the palour to be nice in dress<br>Arranging ev'ry article to please,<br>That each might captivate and charm at ease;<br>The changes constantly they rang around,<br>And made the convent-walls with din resound.<br>Eight sisters and an abbess held the place,<br>And strange to say--there DISCORD you might trace.<br>All nine had youth, and many beauty too:<br>Young friars round the place were oft in view,<br>Who reckoned ev'ry step they took so well,<br>That always in the proper road they fell.<br>Th' aged gard'ner, of whom ere now we spoke,<br>Was oft bewildered, they would so provoke;<br>Capricious, whimsical, from day to day,<br>Each would command and try to have her way;<br>And as they ne'er agreed among themselves,<br>He suffered more than if with fifty elves;<br>When one was pleased, another soon complained:<br>At length to quit the nuns he was constrained.<br>He left them, poor and wretched as he came;<br>No cross, pile, money:--e'en his coat the same.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A YOUTH of Lamporechio, gay and bold,<br>One day this gard'ner met as I am told;<br>And after conversation 'bout the place,<br>Said, he should like nun's service to embrace,<br>And that he wished sincerely to be hired:<br>He'd gratis do whatever was required.<br>'Twas clear indeed his object was not pelf;<br>He thought however he might reward himself;<br>And as the sisters were not over wise,<br>A nun he now and then might make his prize;<br>Proceed from one to more with like address,<br>Till with the whole he'd had complete success.<br>Said Nuto (such we find the gard'ner's name),<br>Believe me, friend, you will be much to blame;<br>Some other service seek, I recommend;<br>These convent-dames will ne'er their whimseys end.<br>I'd rather live without or soup or bread,<br>Than work for them, however nicely fed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">STRANGE creatures are these nuns, upon my word;<br>Their ways ridiculous and e'en absurd;<br>Who, with the sisterhood, has never been,<br>Has clearly yet, not perfect torment seen,<br>Such service, prithee, never try to gain;<br>To do what they require I know is vain;<br>One will have soft, and t'other asks for hard:<br>Thou'lt be a fool such ninnies to regard;<br>No work thou'lt do, whatever be the want:<br>THIS cabbages,--THAT carrots tells thee plant:<br>Said t'other, fain I'd bring it to the test;<br>I'm but a simpleton, it is confessed;<br>Yet still a month in place, and thou wilt see;<br>How well I with the convent-dames agree.<br>The reason is, my life is in its prime,<br>While thou art sunk in years and worn by time,<br>I'm proper for their work, and only ask,<br>To be admitted to the drudging task.<br>Well, said the former, if resolved to try,<br>To their factotum instantly apply;<br>Come; let's away. Lead on, the other cried;<br>I've got a thought, which I'll to you confide:--<br>I'll seem an idiot, and quite dumb appear.--<br>In that, said Nuto, only persevere,<br>And then perhaps the confessor thou'lt find,<br>With their factotum carelessly inclined;<br>No fears nor dark suspicions of a mute:<br>Thou'lt ev'ry way, my friend, their wishes suit.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE place, as was expected, soon he got;<br>And half the grounds to trench, at once his lot:<br>He acted well the nincompoop and fool,<br>Yet still was steady to the garden tool;<br>The nuns continually would flock around,<br>And much amusement in his anticks found.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">ONE day, as sleeping lay our sprightly wight,<br>Or feigning sleep, no matter which is right,<br>(Boccace pretends the latter was the fact)<br>Two nuns (perhaps not two the most exact,)<br>Observing him extended on the sward,<br>While summer's heat from air so much debarred;<br>That few would venture from the convent-roof,<br>Lest, 'gainst the sun, their cheeks should not be proof:<br>Said one, approaching him, let's take this fool,<br>And place him in the garden-house to cool.<br>The lad was handsome, with engaging mien:<br>The nun admired the features she had seen,<br>And Cupid raised a wish to be at ease,<br>Where she, without restraint, herself might please.<br>What would you, cried the other, with him do?<br>You'll see, rejoined the first, if we pursue;<br>Just what might be expected from the place;<br>Christ! said the second (with a cross of grace),<br>You would not surely do what is forbid?<br>Suppose increase? it never could be hid;<br>Besides, should we be seen, 'twill be the cause,<br>Of dire disgrace to break such sacred laws.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">WE shall not be observed, the first replied;<br>These ills thy fancy forms: haste, let's decide,<br>And seize the moment while 'tis in our reach,<br>Without regard to what old dotards teach,<br>Or what may happen at a future hour;<br>Here's no one near: 'tis fully in our pow'r;<br>The time and place so thoroughly agree,<br>'Twill be impossible our freaks to see;<br>But 'twill be right that one should watch with care;<br>While t'other with the lad seeks joys to share,<br>And irksome gloom endeavours to dispel:<br>He's dumb, you know, and tales can never tell.<br>The other answered, since 'tis your desire,<br>I'll acquiesce and do what you require;<br>You'll take him first: I see it is your aim;<br>And since it will oblige, I'll wave my claim;<br>Go, pleasure seek, and satisfy each wish:<br>You're always anxious for a fav'rite dish;<br>'Tis only to oblige that I comply.<br>That, said the other, clearly I descry;<br>I'm well persuaded, thou art always kind;<br>But still I think thou would'st not be inclined;<br>In such a scene to take the leading part,<br>Thy bashfulness would counteract thy heart.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some time the squeamish sister watched the spot;<br>At length the other, who'd her wishes got,<br>The station took; the lab'rer tried to please<br>The second as the first, but less at ease;<br>So many favours fell not to her share,<br>And only treble comfort proved her fare.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE garden-path, and summer-house as well,<br>Were well remembered by each wanton belle;<br>No need of guides; and soon our spark contrived;<br>With sister Agnes also to be hived<br>A press-house at the convent end he chose,<br>in which he showed her how soft pleasure flows;<br>Nor Claudia nor Angelica would miss<br>The dormitory that, and cellar this;<br>In short the garret and the vaulted cave<br>Knew fully how the sisters could behave;<br>Not one but what he first or last regaled<br>E'en with the rigid abbess he prevailed,<br>To take a dance, and as the dame required<br>Her treble share of what was most admired,<br>The other nuns were oft obliged to fast,<br>While with the convent-head his time was passed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To no restoratives our Wight would run;<br>Though these do little, where much work is done:<br>So oft the lad was pressed for cheering play,<br>That with the abbess, when engaged one day,<br>He said, where'er I go, 'tis common talk,<br>With only sev'n an able bird should walk,<br>Yet constantly I've got no less than nine:--<br>The abbess cried,--A miracle divine!<br>Here nuns, pray haste, and quickly come around;<br>We've fasted with success:--his tongue is found.<br>The eight encircled him with great surprise;<br>No longer dumb.--they viewed with eager eyes:<br>A consultation instantly was had,<br>When 'twas agreed to honour well the lad,<br>And try to make him secrecy observe;<br>But if dismissed, from silence he might swerve.<br>The active youth, well fed, well paid, thus blessed,<br>Did all he could,--and others did the rest.<br>He for the nuns procured a little lot,<br>That afterward two little friars got,<br>And in the sequel fathers soon became;<br>The sisters mothers too, in spite of shame;<br>But never name more justly was applied:<br>In vain their mysteries they strove to hide.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=La+Fontaine">La Fontaine</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431354" data-title="The Convent Gardener Of Lamporechio de La Fontaine" data-description="WHEN Cupid with his dart, would hearts assail,
The rampart most secure is not the VEIL;
A husband better will the FAIR protect,
Than walls or lattices, I much suspect.
Those parents, who in nunneries have got
Their daughters (whether willingly or ..."></div>
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